CD Review: Kat Parra - Songbook of the Américas.

(Review by Debra M ).

San Francisco-based Kat Parra brings together a range of jazz and Latin influences in her fifth album Songbook of the Americas.  It’s all there in the opening Four, played as a mambo, with tight fluid horn lines and original lyrics, including a break into a Spanish ‘coros’. Betty Carter’s characteristically witty phrasing in Please Do Something goes down well as a ‘Cha-Cha’, the arrangement potentially ideal material for Strictly Come Dancing.  

Parra nails her bebop credentials in Wouldn’t It Be Sweet, an outstanding delivery of original lyrics, vocalese & scatting on Charlie Parker’s Au Privave. The rest of the album is composed of predominantly Latin songs, and Parra’s slightly hard-edged tone is well suited to the emotional delivery of Spanish lyrics. The variety of the material is enhanced by subtly dynamic arrangements & contributions from the guest vocalists. A highlight is the ensemble’s version of well-known bolero Besame Mucho, which is refreshed by a slow and atmospheric interpretation featuring Masaru Koga on shakuhachi (a Japanese end-blown flute),  with the acoustic bass & percussion combining particularly effectively.  However, the final track, Mambo Italiano, with lyrics so cheesy they include mozzarella (it’s true!), may be a mambo too far. Fortunately, the track is redeemed by some great horn lines, a fine trombone solo by Wayne Wallace, and the impression that the band clearly had such a good time playing it, along with the rest of the album.   

Debra.

Kat Parra – vocals; Murray Lowe – piano; Marc van Wageningen – electric bass; Aaron Germain – acoustic bass; Sascha Jacobsen – acoustic bass; Colin Douglas – drums; Daniel Foltz – drums; Michael Spiro – percussion; Masaru Koga – alto & soprano sax, shakuhachi, flute, coros; John Worley – trumpet; Wayne Wallace – trombone; Lila Sklar – violin; Seth Asarnow – bandoneon.