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CD Reviews
- Michael P. Gladstone for All About Jazz
- Donald Elfman for All About Jazz
- Don Williamson for Jazz Review
- Kenneth Egbert for Jazz Now
- Dick Metcalf a.k.a. Rotcod Zzaj for Improvijazzation Nation
- Richard Bourcier for Jazz Review
- George W. Carroll for Jazz Review
- Scott Yanow for All Music Guide
- Roberto De Virtis for Altrisuoni
 Italian language
- Tom Gibbs for Audiophile Audition
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Michael P. Gladstone for All About Jazz
Review Published: February 11, 2005
This is my second experience in hearing jazz singer Katie Bull. Her debut album, Conversations With The Jokers, fully established her as both a mainstream interpreter of the Great American Songbook and a downtown New York City cutting-edge vocalist exploring the more abstract styles of Jay Clayton or Sheila Jordan. The twelve tracks of this new album (the final track is hidden) present a singer who is poised at the threshold of dissonance and deconstruction of established melodies. It leaves the impression that Katie Bull is a tuneful and lyrical singer with the ability to convey the lyrics and melody of familiar songs quite well. She also enjoys the freedom jazz provides in reworking melody and time in an improvisational sense that, depending upon the listener's sensibilities, will be welcomed or shunned.
The musicians on hand consist of Katie Bull's regular trio of bassist Joe Fonda and pianist Michael Jefry Stevens, augmented by pianist Frank Kimbrough and bassist Martin Wind on several tracks. In addition, the percussion and drums are handled by the ubiquitous Matt Wilson. The more free-form titles are delivered by the Stevens-Fonda group.
These dozen songs are equally divided between standards and originals; the hidden track, a three-minute adventure in free jazz vocals, pushes the album ever so slightly into the latter category. At her best, Bull presents the oft-recorded "My Favorite Things" with an introductory 90-second offering of her preferential favorite items (e.g. "cherry tomato that explodes in my mouth... whole flocks of whales as they sing their way south") before seamlessly beginning the Rodgers & Hammerstein lyrics. On the other hand, the 1960s showtune "On A Clear Day" is given a very slow reading with lots of the melisma that Sheila Jordan might employ, which seems to stretch out the three minute length of the song. "Surrey With The Fringe On Top" tries to emulate the 1960s Betty Carter version which almost captured the sense of the surrey wheels turning in the meter of the music. On her originals, Bull writes of personal issues like the danger inherent in romantic relationships (the title tune) and family life ("Deer Run"), as well as the theatre of the absurd ("Connection Rag"), and in the case of "Leftover Blues," the contents of her barely stocked refrigerator. On the latter, a more expanded tune, Kimbrough gets in a very tasty blues solo.
Those seeking some adventure in their jazz vocal listening would do well to pay heed, but if your preference is for the more formulaic singing that might feature some adventurous scatting, Bull's approach may be a bit too much.
Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 All About Jazz and Michael P. Gladstone.
CD Reviews
All reviews written by Michael P. Gladstone:
- Joe Fonda / Katie Bull Duo: Cup Of Joe, No Bull
- Katie Bull: Love Spook
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Donald Elfman for all•about•jazz
Review Published: May 11, 2005
There seem to be more singers today than ever before, but along with that development come a few who are turning around the notion of just what a singer does and can do. Katie Bull is called a multimedia artist, and that notion informs her every note here. She knows the repertoire and she knows the vocabulary but she also has the sense of drama and choreography that speak to the expansion of the whole field of singing.
The album opens with the title cut, and as that implies, it's a dark, unsettling piece that offers a different picture of what love can mean. Joe Fonda's bass provides the insistent underpinning for this disturbing yet rich portrait, but the painting also makes full use of the brilliant storytelling drums of Matt Wilson and the evocative piano of Frank Kimbrough, who knows about space and timing.
Equally revealing is what Bull does with a tune we know. Her vamp intro to the Sound of Music ditty "My Favorite Things" includes some things that it seems Misters Rodgers and Hammerstein might never have considered as favorite. Or maybe they would have but could not have expressed them with the passion and conviction that Katie Bull does. Coltrane had changed this tune for all time-we thought-but Bull has changed it again.
Bull titles another original "Strange" and indeed it is-with its mysterious wordless intro and then simple repeated lyrics-but this is strange in the best meaning of the word, with a sense of wonder and new differences to be celebrated. And that's what Bull and her bandmates do in all of these performances-celebrate new beginnings so that even old material never seems overly familiar.
Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 AllAboutJazz.com and Donald Elfman.
CD Reviews
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Don Williamson for JazzReview
Katie Bull has already released one CD, last year's Conversations With The Jokers. However, her rules-breaking attitude toward much of the material on Love Spook creates the impression that this is a debut album.
Katie Bull isn't one to repeat herself. Instead, she considers each song without preconceptions and with a sense of whimsy and wonder.
The same type of whimsy and wonder, childlike in innocence and refreshing in creativity, can be found on all of Matt Wilson's CDs as well. When you compound all of that fun-making by including Bull and Wilson on the same CD, anything can happen. Interestingly, Wilson is described on the cover of the CD as playing "percussion," which, even though less restrictive than the title of "drummer," doesn't begin to cover the range of sounds that Wilson applies to the occasion.
On "Connection Rag," which describes sonic and emotional disconnect through fractured meter and discordant piano chopping, we find Bull singing "Another day of no connection to you…/Whoops gotta run./Ships passing in the night…/I still love you, where did you go?" And we hear Wilson's quacking duck calls and his ringing bicycle bells and his twirling New Year's Eve noisemakers, and he pretty much lets the initially predictable rhythm lapse into unpredictability. A Bull original, "Connection Rag" is consistent with the sentiment that Bull intends to convey, despite the misleading irony of its title. But it doesn't typify the songs of Love Spook any more than does the standard "I Only Have Eyes."
On track after track, Bull adopts an attitude toward each song after considering its lyrics and their meaning, and she allows its spirit guide her interpretation. In fact, as the CD progresses, it becomes evident that Bull's range is much wider than at first it seems. She broadens her vocal intervals wildly and surprisingly on "Deer Run" when it occurs to her to suggest swooping climbs and vertiginous descents even though she sings in a fairly narrow range until then. Cookie-cutter approaches are for less imaginative singers.
The idea for recording Love Spook originated in a New York City loft gig with Wilson, pianist Frank Kimbrough and bassist Martin Wind. The results were so successful, the empathy so gratifying, that Wilson suggested they record some of Bull's music from that night. Now they have…and more. Bull has intermingled standards with songs stemming from her own wacky perspective. Even the standards don't remain sacrosanct, though.
The closest Bull comes to a straightforward performance of standards is her beautiful exposition of "On A Clear Day," which she sings without adornment or humor or improvisation, marveling instead in the song's intervals and visual lyrics. Still, Bull not only sustains the notes, but she burnishes them with a purity of tone attaining variations of volume and timbre even as the pitch remains fixed. But then there's "My Favorite Things," the title of which Bull takes literally as she briefly catalogs some of her favorite things in a modally based introduction before she settles down into naming the favorite things that Rodgers and Hammerstein imagined for the von Trapp family. Beginning with full awareness of the jazz references that the song conjures, especially McCoy Tyner's work with John Coltrane, Kimbrough asserts his own personality into his solo in the song's midst, brighter and harmonically altered for fulfillment of the singer's updated adaptation. Note how Bull leans forcefully into the notes, though, the respectful accompaniment highlighting her attack on words like "DAooooorbells" or her toying with the word "bad" as she at least eight ways to present it during the four-bar repeat. Bull switches back-up musicians for her version of another Rodgers and Hammerstein song, "Surrey With The Fringe On Top," and she daringly slows the surrey down to a virtual crawl for fully rounded attention to each note, each syllable. Eventually, it becomes clear (oddly, for a song humorously describing sunny optimism and pride in industrial progress) that Bull considers the song as blues material when she wraps it up with slippery intermediate tones between the conventional pitches we expect to hear.
But Bull's own compositions were the justification for producing Love Spook. They provide the most revealing glimpses into her sense of fun and her acuity of observation as she connects even the most mundane items with universal themes. "Leftover Blues" is indeed a modified blues that describes the leftovers in Bull's refrigerator, either real or imagined. Nonetheless, as enlivened by the light swing of Bull's trio, the song moves beyond the mundane into a statement about emotional abandonment and about getting up and starting all over again. Or on "Love Spook," Bull climbs ascending minor ninth intervals with fearless openness, restraining none of her involvement in the music at hand, not until the song's last notes wordlessly express leavened emotion.
Bull's singing often is compared to Sheila Jordan's or Jay Clayton's-and she herself is flattered by the comparisons and by those singers' praise. However, Bull is like them primarily due to the fact that she is unlike any other singer. With deep reserves of talent, a wide range, incessant surprises when she sings, a vibrant imagination, a natural feel for rhythm, lyrical perceptiveness, unconventional formation of notes and an ever-present sense of fun, Katie Bull immerses herself fully in the songs she sings. She represents a true discovery for anyone who hasn't heard her yet.
Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 JazzReview and Don Williamson.
CD Reviews
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Kenneth Egbert for Jazz Now, July 2005 edition
Standards are called standards, I believe, not just because everybody does them, even Rod Stewart ( though to be deathly honest, if I got off on Jimmy Durante's take of "September Song," how can I put Rod the Mod down? I definitely belong to the wrong generation!), but because they tell us something we want to hear. Mind you, whether or not we want to hear it has nothing to do with whether or not it's true. See the pleasantly dunderheaded lyrics to Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane's "On a Clear Day You can See Forever." Don't think I need to say any more.
Katie Bull has a witty, throaty alto (an occasional reference to the divine Ella F. insinuates, but usually in the best taste) and evident talent in composition (see the title bit's "Your dress is so tight/I won't dissect you"; Lorenz Hart, call your office). Humor is another strong suit: see her fleet seconds-long improv during "I Only Have Eyes For You" in which she connects deliciously "avenue" and "you" as if they were the same word. Standards and originals alternate here, and although I like her "I'll Be Seeing You" I believe June Tabor (on her 1999 release A QUIET EYE) 'gets' the tune's kernel a bit more accurately (that of knowing full well - again - that chances are one won't be seeing that much-loved other, ever). Ms. Bull's leaving the door open is, however, a bit more to my taste at this particular time. I'd like to believe if I can! And she makes that work. The original "Leftover Blues" wisely mentions in passing to somebody who might be better off leaving, "Go ahead and eat my Chinese leftovers/ they're always better the next day"; clearly that person to whom she sings has made her feel a bit like leftovers as well. "Watch What Happens," the old Michel Legrand bossa, has exactly the right slip'n'slide, a precisely cascading piano attack (courtesy of the ever-amazing Michael Jefry Stevens; feel free to get any CD he's on with my personal recommendation). Oh, yeah, "On a Clear Day" resides here as well, but Bull and attendant trio Stevens, drummer Matt Wilson and bassist Joe Fonda (somebody get those 3 a Rockefeller grant so they can play together for a solid year!) give it the "After the Rain" treatment (you know, the Coltrane tone poem) and it just doesn't do it for me. Why? I suppose something is being underlined in this take that I don't agree with. The ethereality of such walled-into-the-1960s bric-a-brac as "...how it will astound you/ that the glow of your being outshines every star..." Oh, boy, where do I start? Again. Well, that isn't Ms. Bull and Company's fault. Another Katie composition, "Strange," to a broken minuet says the simplest thing in the most direct way: "I'm feeling very new/ Ah! It's you"). Classic. "My Favorite Things" is the best of the covers here, I think, in that it is a bouncy tempo, nary a care in the world, and Ms. B. shows off how she, like Eve Beglarian, can move her voice between a melody's notes in a very singular fashion. There is probably some fancy word for that method like 'apoggiattura' (don't write and tell me I misspelled that; I know); well, I get a kick out of it. No reference intended. Parenthetically, Ms. Bull's other pianist on this CD, Frank Kimbrough, is no piker either; a light touch, a good sense for the detail and no grace notes unless the composer forgot to put them in. Other bassist Martin Wind, mainstay of the NYU music department, plucks as funky a blues as you can ask for,especially on "Leftover."
Hard to know what to leave out of this review but I'll close with notes on 2 more of Ms. Bull's originals; "Deer Run" has a marvelous bridge ("I'm OK/ I can do this by myself" sung with a quietly intense bravura) and a whooping finish, while "Ashokan Road" ventures into Sting metaphysics (you know, "Fields of Gold," "Fragile," et al) but ends on a neutral note ("I have no answers... one bird flies/ and they all have flown"); simple and heartfelt.
So if your recent purchases of Norah Jones or Nellie McKay CDs have left you wondering what else's out there that you should still hear... start at this one. Nice work, Ms. B and company.
Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 Jazz Now and Kenneth Egbert.
q.v. Kenneth Egbert's review of Katie Bull's duo recording with Joe Fonda: Cup of Joe, No Bull.
CD Reviews
All reviews written by Kenneth Egbert:
- Joe Fonda / Katie Bull Duo: Cup Of Joe, No Bull
- Katie Bull: Love Spook
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Dick Metcalf a.k.a. Rotcod Zzaj for Improvijazzation Nation Issue # 70
We love female vocalists, but the jazz & bluesy approach on Ms. Bull's album was something we dug more than any other jazz vocalist we've listened to this year (& many other years, as well). That may be due (in great part) to the fantastic cast of characters she has around her (Joe Fonda on bass, Frank Kimbrough's piano, Michael Jefry Stevens' keyboards, Matt Wilson's percussion & Martin Wind's bass), but after the third listen, you'll begin to realize the high talent and, well, "spooky" qualities that Katie is able to milk out of a song. My favorite cut is one called "Strange", which opens with truly "different" percussion and a slow scat that seems (to me, anyway) to really define her vocal uniqueness and skill. The best word I can think of to describe her style here on this song is "captivating". The title track is a fine piece, too, slow & slinky, with a real "down-home" feel. It IS jazz, though, make no mistake... there is none of the slick musical spam that's so prevalent on many vocal albums... original through & through! If yer' lookin' to dip into th' blues side o' th' thang, be sure & check out "Leftover Blues", too. Don't expect "casual" jazz on this CD, you'll need to reserve an hour to sit down & really absorb "Love Spook". Total cool that gets a MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED from us!
Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 Zzaj Productions and Dick Metcalf.
CD Reviews
All reviews written by Dick Metcalf:
- Katie Bull: Love Spook
- Joe Fonda & Gilbert Isbin: Blisters
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Richard Bourcier for Jazz Review
Vocalist Katie Bull released Love Spook in March of this year and has another coming out at the end of July. While my JazzReview colleague, Don Williamson has already covered this recording for our site, I just can't resist echoing his praise and adding a little of my own.
Katie Bull employs two distinct trios on this CD. The common denominator is percussionist Matt Wilson and, of course, the singer herself. While one group utilizes the avant-garde pianist Michael Jefry Stevens, the other features the more mainstream Frank Kimbrough. Two remarkable bassists are featured. Joe Fonda is paired with Stevens and Martin Wind with Kimbrough. These two combinations and the unique Katie Bull vocals make Love Spook a CD that can't be ignored.
We are treated to two sides of Bull's abundant talents. She delivers several of her own compositions. The title song reminded me of the late European singer Nico who, in her period of popularity, delved into her own personal spooks. Another original, Deer Run features the singer in a similar vein and giving Stevens and percussionist Matt Wilson a real workout. Of Bull's compositions, I particularly enjoyed the highly introspective Ashokan Road and the hip Leftover Blues.
The singer is even more remarkable when she handles a pop standard. This singer will want to re-invent the Great American Songbook. Most jazz versions of the 1943 Oklahoma hit Surrey With The Fringe On Top are delivered as barn-burners at a frantic tempo. With Katie Bull, that ain't necessarily so! She treats the old standard as something close to a ballad. She does delightfully different things with Harry Warren's 1934 gem I Only Have Eyes For You. It's as though she had never heard any of the hundreds of recorded versions from past decades. This is the freshest rendition I've ever heard. Just perfect!
Katie Bull is a confident, adventurous and fearless interpreter of song. Two thousand years ago, Virgil was quoted Do not commit your poems to pages alone. Sing them, I pray you. That still applies!
Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 Jazz Review and Richard Bourcier.
CD Reviews
All reviews written by Richard Bourcier:
- Joe Fonda / Katie Bull Duo: Cup Of Joe, No Bull
- Katie Bull: Love Spook
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George W. Carroll for Jazz Review
Jazz vocalist Katie Bull just never lets you down with her insightful CD projects. She & the groups she puts together seem supreme in their ability to effect change in our feelings that range from positive tension, relaxation, expectancy, & fulfillment. These all well up & subside as we listen to the fine treatment & vocalese Katie & group offers our sensibilities with such eternal covers as 'On A Clear Day,' & 'Watch What Happens, etc.' This only happens when the intimate interaction of folks & forces are not in opposition to each other. This group in total is capable of supplying those energies that translate these forces into a pleasurable musical journey for us, the listener.
Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 Jazz Review and George W. Carroll.
CD Reviews
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Scott Yanow for All Music Guide
Katie Bull has an unusual and adventurous singing style. Sometimes she sounds quite bluish, at other times, as during "On A Clear Day," she emphasizes icy long tones. She is a bit touching on "I'll Be Seeing You" (a duet with pianist Frank Kimbrough) without being predictable and scats well on a 6/4 version of "Watch What Happens." The singer holds her own with her talented sidemen, a pair of piano trios, both with drummer Matt Wilson, that splits the program evenly. In addition to her singing, Katie Bull contributed six of the dozen songs including the humorous "No Connection Rag," the perfectly odd "Strange," the sensuous if bizarre "Love Spook" and the "Leftover Blues." The CD concludes with a "hidden" 13th selection that is a free improvisation. Katie Bull's thoughtful music grows in interest with each listen and this set is a major improvement over her earlier CD.
Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 All Media Guide, LLC and Scott Yanow.
Source: Z95-3
CD Reviews
All reviews written by Scott Yanow:
- Katie Bull: Love Spook
- Fonda/Stevens Quintet: Parallel Lines
- Conference Call: Spirals • The Berlin Concert
- Anthony Braxton: Charlie Parker Project
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Roberto De Virtis for Altrisuoni
Good news dal circuito indipendente. Se le major discografiche annaspano nella crisi, il settore delle indies è in ottima salute. Love Spook, il disco della cantante Katie Bull di cui parliamo, segue a distanza ravvicinata il convincente Conversations with the Jokers, pubblicato nel 2003, ed è un album a dir poco bello e ben riuscito, equilibrato e dinamico. Dopo averla sentita cantare Matt Wilson, batterista già membro attivo del Jazz Composers Collective newyorkese, non si è voluto lasciar scappare l'opportunità di registrare con lei un disco di standards e brani originali scritti dalla Bull stessa. Wilson è il perno attorno al quale ruotano i due trii che accompagnano la cantante: da una parte il contrabbassista Martin Wind ed il pianista Frank Kimbrough, sostituiti rispettivamente da Joe Fonda e Michael Jefry Stevens . Katie Bull, che non nasconde la propria ammirazione per le decane del canto con cui ha studiato e lavorato, Jay Clayton e Sheila Jordan, e ci offre una rilettura non convenzionale di classici come "My favorite things" (forse la migliore tra le interpretazioni più recenti), "I only have eyes", "I'll be seing you", una pacatissima "Surrey with the fringe on top" (sempre Rogers & Hammerstein), affidandole talvolta a tonalità volutamente fuori scala, altre volte alla scansione ritmica irregolare delle frasi, trovando in questo conforto dai partner (Wilson e Kimbrough sono tutto fuorché "ordinari" turnisti). Uno spirito libero, insomma, che pur nel rispetto della tradizione non si piega ad essa ma sceglie la strada della piccola ma significativa innovazione. Per niente spregevole anche la "penna" della Bull: tutti i pezzi meriterebbero una citazione ma le nostre preferenze vanno soprattutto al brano che dà il titolo al disco e ad "Ashokan road". Tra spunti ironici (come in "Connection rag") ed improvvisativi pregevoli la cantante si muove con eleganza e sicurezza, esprimendo un canto appassionato e di grande lo spessore. Inafferrabile, forse, ma sempre presente.
Reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2006 Altrisuoni and Roberto De Virtis
CD Reviews
All reviews written by Roberto De Virtis:
- Katie Bull: Love Spook
- Nu Band: The Nu Band Live
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April/May 2005 by Tom Gibbs for Audiophile Audition
The course of independent label offerings are hard to chart; while most performers on indies are given the kind of artistic liberty that may be elusive to major-label artists, that same freedom often results in works with limited commercial viability. I'd venture to guess that less than half of the independent label discs that come my way for review purposes offer anything that really grabs my attention - the truly stand-out artists are few and far-between. I'm often left wondering whether with proper direction from a seasoned producer, whether they might have made artistic choices that would have greatly enhanced the presentation of the material, or would have focused more on their particular strengths. Or perhaps would have swayed their vocal talents in other directions.
That's the unfortunate case with this particular disc - and it's not a matter of any preconceptions on my part that independent labels offer an inferior product. The sound quality and the instrumental support on this disc is first rate - I just don't happen to feel that the material here really showcases Ms. Bull's strengths as a vocalist. The inclusion of a number of originals by her is also admirable, but there's little here that sparked much emotion or garnered much of my interest. The oft-traversed territory she's chosen to work will engender some very tough sledding for her in the future - perhaps it will hold better results for her. Try before you buy it.
Copyright © 2005 Audiophile Audition and Tom Gibbs
CD Reviews
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