Archive for the ‘Press Clips’ Category

San Francisco Examiner

“A musically most imaginative tour de force”

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Sunday Star Ledger

“A jazz singer with the ability to connect with a generation raised on rock”

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The Houston Press

“Gray has a sort of Sarah Vaughn sits-around-with-Sade-at-Ella Fitgerald’s-house-voice that has tremendous stength and range”

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JazzTimes

Bugle Boy and Jazzschool CD Review (May 2008 issue)
By Christopher Loudon

Presumably it’s based on the belief that the listening public expects all albums to shine with flawless, studio-precision clarity, but I’ve never understood or embraced the habit of “sweetening” live albums by smoothing over every imperfection, every wrongly bent note, every lyrical hiccup. So it was refreshing to read that with both these albums, recorded two weeks and a few hundred miles apart in 2007, vocalist Kellye Gray insisted not only on capturing the sessions precisely as played during a single performance but also on embracing the imperfections as part of the live experience.

In combination, these two platters serve up two hours of Gray, alongside a shifting assortment of bandmates, at her raw, uninhibited, deconstructionist best. For those unfamiliar with the Austin-born Gray from her previous discs—Standards in Gray, the superlative Tomato Kiss and the side-by-side live sets Pink Songs and Blue Songs—think of a layer cake with a dense Carmen McRae center, iced with swoops, dollops and occasionally wide swatches of Nancy Wilson and Billie Holiday, then dotted with Etta James bluesiness and Tina Turner wail. Gray’s is an impressive, indeed frighteningly vast talent, one equally capable of exploring the vivid scope of Wayne Shorter (“Speak No Evil” opens the Jazzschool disc and “Footprints” is the penultimate track on Bugle Boy), the reflective (and markedly different) despondence of “You’ve Changed,” “Willow Weep for Me” and “Days of Wine and Roses,” and the sagacious anticipation of “Everything Must Change” (the only song included in both sessions).

Then there is the recrafting of Bacharach and David’s satiny “The Look of Love” as eight minutes of explosive passion before she takes “Take Five” to vocal heights previously reached only by McRae. Don’t cheat yourself: Buy both albums, then scoop up as much of Gray’s back catalog as you can find.

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LA Jazz Scene

Shelly Berg Trio with Kellye Gray at Steamers

L.A. Jazz Scene
Cathy Jenson

The collaboration between Berg and Gray has produced some sizzling charts that allow them to strut their substantial stuff. In a “Jitterbug Waltz” like no other, Gray milked it for everything its got and yet another drop slid down her throat. Her mellow groan scat was beyond language. Not a man to sit idle, Berg wrote “Hot It Up” while in the Crescent City for the International Association of Jazz Educators convention. Just like adding hot coffee to you cup warms it up, the combo turned up the heat at Leitham gave us a furious finger-pickin’ good time while oh-so-dramatic Ms. Gray either tired to save his smoldering fingers or fanned the flames with her music to spark him on. Then she stated her position, that in Dixieland there is nothing like a standard, and proved the point with “Honeysuckle Rose” with some serious cross-pollination goin’ on.

Lucky listeners the day Shelly Berg and Kellye Gray renewed their professional relationship, built in Texas seven years ago. Nearly everyone knows Burt Bacharach’s “What’s It All About Alfie?” These collaborators wrote such a tangibly reverent arrangement that it was like you had never heard the tune before. There was an uncharacteristic silence after the final note as the audience held it’s applause, not wanting to break the spell of the flames.

They went out with a four alarm fire of hard core jazz, lusty legacy of scats forever burned into memory. Slam. Bam. Thank you, Ma’am!

Last month was Gray’s first engagement at Steamers, but her previous outings made her aficionados sit up and take notice. And bristle with anticipation of the possibilities for “I knew her when” stories.

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Epinions.com

The Greatest Singer You’ve Probably Never Heard

Epinions.com
Mike Holmes (Mar 9, 2001)

Pros: Tremendous singing and musicianship on standards done in a non-standard way
Cons: Not one
The Bottom Line: Kellye Gray is one of the finest singers I’ve ever heard on record or in person. She can blast away or quietly capture your heart.
Recommended: Yes

A few years ago I was in Austin, Texas looking for a place to hear some good jazz. I overheard some folks talking about a place called Top of the Mark where a lady named Kellye Gray was singing. They said she was an amazing singer. Fast forward a couple of hours and I was sitting at the bar of the Top of the Mark when this very nice looking young woman came up to the bar and ordered a drink. I talked to her a moment or two. Small talk. She was nice. And then…she strolled up to the stage and started singing and I nearly fell off my barstool. Not because I had been casually talking to her seconds before but because she is an incredible singer.

“Standards” is her first album. She has some fine cats with her: Dave Catney, piano; Sebastian Whittaker, drums; Tom Anastasio, bass; Dwight Sills, guitar, and Warren Sneed, saxes. But it is Kelley’s voices that are truly amazing. I say “voices” because besides a great straight ahead human voice, she does the most amazing imitation of a trumpet that I have ever heard. I heard it in Austin and could not close my mouth. On Miles Davis’ “All Blues” on Standards she sings the trumpet so well that I have had listeners to my radio show call in and argue with me that I could not possibly be correct. The sound they heard had to be a trumpet. I just smile and wish they could see Kellye do her stuff. “All Blues” gets an extended 11 minute treatment and Kellye shares the time well with her musicians. I’m listening to it right now and again it’s hard for me to believe. Sounds like Miles and Cannonball in unison. As Harry Carrey used to say, “Holy Cow!”

I didn’t mean to skip the first cut, “The Island” which is a smooth invitation to the tropics with fine guitar and piano intro into the sensuous sound of Kellye in her lower register at first. A little Carmen McRae here. She gets stronger and stronger throughout the song before going into a melodic scat, a wordless tribute to lovers on the deserted Island. Cut three is “Morning” and Kellye has the amazing ability to sing deeply and softly at the same time. Another love song, she “remembers” a morning with a loved one and your thoughts meld into hers. Catney has a great piano solo here.

George Gershwin’s “How Long Has This Been Going ON” is next. A standard of standards, Kellye sings this one very straightforward and beautifully. Her voice here reminds me of The Divine One. Kellye has such gorgeous control of her voice and great breath control. Sills plays some fine guitar; Sneed blows some great tenor before Kellye comes back in with a passion that reaches out of the speakers and knocks you to the floor. “Don’t Explain” is the next number. What a remarkable voice. Slow in tempo, the passion again oozes into the air and we hear the style of the author of the song, Billie Holiday. Kellye has a better voice than Billie and can emote just as well.

One of the most beautiful songs ever written is next: “Since I Fell”. And oh my lord does Kellye sing the hell out of this one. Listen to the “YOU” in her phrase “Since I Fell for You” and if you don’t love her voice and style, then you don’t like music. Straight blues with strong feelings that build and build. This is an old song but I don’t believe it has ever been done better. And then? Can you get more beautiful than Jobim’s “How Insensitive?” Recording frequently, I again put this at the very top of all performances. I don’t understand why Kellye is not a major star. The first of the song is all Kellye straight ahead with the beautiful words and melody; Sneed does a nice run on soprano and then Kellye comes back with a power I have have seldom heard from anyone. The last three minutes are truly astonishing. The emotion bursts out with only a few of the words being sung but my God how incredibly they are sung.

The final song starts very softly on piano. Then Kellye sings the title, “Good Morning Heartache” and you just want to melt. I ain’t kiddin’, folks, this gal can sing and then some. Her breath control reminds me of Tommy Dorsey and his student Frank Sinatra on this song.

I have another CD by Kellye but I haven’t heard much about her lately. Of course, I’m in the great Southwest desert and news travels slow to these parts. But if you’re looking for some extraordinary music, find this CD and buy it. It is class personified.

Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends

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The Los Angeles Times

Gray’s Colorful Voice Takes Chances And Wins

LOS ANGELES TIMES
Don Heckman (July 9, 2005)

Singer enlivens the Vic with vocal adventuring, from scat singing to dark-toned balladry.

Kellye Gray: it’s not an especially familiar name. Certainly not as familiar as it should the adventurous singer’s performance Thursday at the Vic in Santa Monica. Listening to the extraordinary musicality that permeated her eclectic opening set, one could only wonder why Gray isn’t recording for a major label.

Or maybe not. Maybe vocal adventuring is not what major labels are looking for in jazz singers these days. Maybe Gray’s combination of stunning scat singing, instrumental simulations and dark-toned balladry doesn’t fit into the Diana Krall or Norah Jones templates of what makes a successful jazz or jazz-tinged vocalist.

If so, that’s a shame. The Austin, Texas-based singer (who lived in Los Angeles for a few years earlier this decade) offered a set clearly demonstrating that jazz singing can stretch the envelope of creativity without sacrificing a direct connection with an audience.

She sang Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “If You Never Come to Me” (“Inutil Paisagem”) with exquisite sensitivity, then shifted gears into a trumpet simulation for Miles Davis’ “All Blues.” A tender but emotionally focused rendering of Sting’s Fragile” followed, after which Gray responded to a request with a spontaneous version of Charlie Parker’s “Billy’s Bounce,” singing the loping, bebop line at a high-speed pace. Later in the set she did Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” followed by yet another searing up-tempo of scat choruses, this time on Parker’s “Confirmation.”

That’s an impressively diverse set of music for any singer to handle, but Gray did much more. She made the tunes her own, using the variable tonal qualities of her voice, her unerringly accurate ear, her brisk sense of swing and a desire to take chances to go for something new rather than accept something easy. Sometimes she tripped. More often she revealed the still available, too rarely discovered, potential for inventive creativity in jazz vocalizing.

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USA Today

Standards In Gray

USA Today (Dec 4, 1990)
James T. Jones IV

She’s simply one of the most exciting jazz singers to debut this year, combining the low, throaty range of Sarah Vaughan with the soulfulness of Anita Baker and the scat flights of Bobby McFerrin (listen to her muted horn imitation on Miles Davis’ All Blues). And her booming theatrical volume recalls Ethel Merman.

Some may dismiss her vocals as overwrought, but these well-worn standards (Good Morning Heartache, Since I Fell For You) benefit from the extra emotional punch. Grays best vamping, as in How Insensitive, when, as she says, “I can create a whole new song”. She gets telepathic support from drummer Sebastian Whitaker and pianist Dave Catney, who nearly steals the spotlight with his inspired playing. Unfortunately, much heralded “young lion” guitarist Dwight Sills, who normally records fusion, seems out of place here, perhaps ill at ease with this high-caliber band.

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CMJ New Music Report

Tomato Kiss
CMJ New Music Report (Issue 519, April 28, 1997)
Tad Hendrickson

A Texan who moved to San Francisco, Kellye Gray emerges with moxy and sophistication as her most prominent attributes, Opening with Charlie Parker’s “Billie’s Bounce”, Gray immediately opens fire, scatting with a speed and precision to match Warren Sneed’s saxophone. This in itself is impressive, but the warm, rounded tone that some compare to a muted trumpet is what makes Gray’s vocal style so intriguing. Through nine standards and one original (she wrote “Who Am I, Who Are You”), Gray sings and scats with the range to plunge emotional depths, adding color and subtlety to mellow ballads like “A House Is Not A Home” and “Small Day Tomorrow”. Yet her versatility does not stop there; she shows tasteful restraint on Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash’s “Speak Low” by no overpowering a fine set of lyrics. Larry Schneider’s “Tomato Kiss” showcases the best of her singing.

On Tomato Kiss, Gray is backed by horn/piano/bass/drum quartets and quintets. Like many great jazz singers, most notably Betty Carter, Gray tactfully lays back enough to let her players shine on their own, which they do throughout. Closing the ceremonies on a festive not, Gray and company embark on a lively samba of “Velas Icadas” that must have been a ball to record. Tomato Kiss is a fine release from this versatile but relatively unknown jazz vocal stylist; let’s hope we continue to see work from her in the years to come.

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