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July 29, 2003
Daredevil
Hang Glider writes from New York:Most people who know me wouldn't call me a risk-taker, yet I'm intensely drawn to taking chances in my on-stage life as a jazz musician. That's why I tend to become restless during performances that mainly consist of things like safe melodies, predictable harmony, meters you can count without really trying, and The Blues. On the other hand, too much complexity--a solid hour of free improvisation by an avant-garde jazz quartet, say--can bore me to tears just as quickly. So I was delighted to run across something at the Cornelia Street Café that struck a 10 on my interest meter. That something was Kate McGarry.
If I had to compare McGarry to a snack-food item, she'd be a handful of chocolate-covered mini-pretzels--a perfect blend of cool, salty style with a decadently rich, sweet sound, satisfying your initial craving while leaving you hungry for more. Her material is just as flavorful, ranging from hard-swinging jazz standards to sensual bossa novas in 7/8 time, from a sexy, modern arrangement of a tune by the Kinks to a gorgeously pure Irish folksong. (You can hear some of these songs on her newly reissued debut CD, Show Me.) Best of all, she has the rare ability to improvise with a sophisticated ear, spinning out attractive, tastefully phrased melodic lines that snake effortlessly (and accurately) through every chord change.
McGarry's biggest leap of faith may have been her quasi-apologetic announcement to the audience that most of what we'd be hearing was unrehearsed. (She got tied up in a traffic blockade resulting from last week's shooting at City Hall, and missed her own dress rehearsal.) I almost wished she'd kept this fact a secret, though it did add to the thrill of watching the music spontaneously unravel and resolve. After hearing one exciting performance after another, a wise audience member leaned over to me and whispered, "This is why she shouldn't make disclaimers like that!" But it also suggested that while she can sing from the heart with reckless abandon, she also cares deeply about the art she's making. Maybe that's what it means to be a true daredevil.
Posted July 29, 2003 12:02 PM
