Mirror

Kathleen Band Grace (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 7, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: CDBY
• ASIN: B001IB60ZO
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #537,750 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

After two successful releases, Grace and her band are set to dive into to new territory. Their upcoming release, Mirror, features almost exclusively original material that embraces the language of rock, folk and jazz as a democratic music all its own. The sound critics describe as "indie-jazz" has taken the group of inspired young players from rock festivals to performing art centers across the country. Based in Los Angeles, the Kathleen Grace Band (KGB) was born out of a desire to fuse the musical language of jazz with the storytelling of the American folk tradition. Grace in her capacity as singer, songwriter and producer draws the listener in with vocal harmonies, grooves and textures inspired by her stories of love, power and loss. Each selection from the new project has a modern day fable at its center and lessons learned and unlearned color their meaning. The title track "Mirror" takes inspiration from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of Snow White. In her tale Grace blurs the lines between good and evil as she fuses witch with princess. In her song "Penny" she uses a pauper\'s plea to question contemporary myths of history and control. The song "Elijah" is an homage to her hometown of Tucson, Arizona and the summer storms that filled her imagination as a girl. And the CD\'s hit \"Am I Enough Yet\" celebrates the power found in imperfection. A product of the fertile LA music scene, Grace borrows from several genres in her writing and producing. With Mirror, Grace combines the real-time recording tradition of jazz with the experimentation found in post-production indie folk/rock. The result is music played at the highest level and enhanced by eclectic instrumentation and vocal harmonies.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Spreading Her Wings, December 5, 2008

By 

Jim Newsom (Norfolk, VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Mirror (Audio CD)

Kathleen Grace started her artistic life as a jazz singer in the Tierney Sutton mold. In fact, she studied with Sutton, and the influence was clearly apparent on her first couple of CDs. With Mirror, her third outing, she comes into her own, spreading her wings as a songwriter and further refining her distinctive singing style.

Her range as a composer is surprisingly broad and refreshingly eclectic. You'd swear that "Penny" must've from some Broadway musical like Fiddler on the Roof, though Perry Smith's electric guitar solo in the middle gives the arrangement an edge rarely heard in a theatrical production. "Am I Enough Yet" is a tasty slice of jazzy pop while "The Furies," whose lyric is based on Act IV of Hamlet, recalls Peggy Lee's sexy stroll through "Fever." The title track marries a mysterious, repetitive piano figure of a chorus with a folkish verse and a tiny touch of jazz-rock fusion riff thrown into the transitions for good measure.

Grace oozes sexuality on Randy Newman's bluesy "Let Me Go," begging the question of why anyone would. Her voice becomes angelic on the beautifully conceived "A Place for You" and literally lifts to the heavens on the multi-tracked harmonies haunting "Elijah."

Mirror is too short, really an EP not an LP, but in this time of diminished attention spans, it's not a bad thing to leave listeners begging for more. This exceptional disc expands her already intriguing palette as an enchanting vocalist and a songwriter with fresh ideas.

copyright © 2008 Jim Newsom. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.

Originally published in Treehouse Magazine, 11/17/08