Born and currently resident in Wales, Kathy Davies has worked extensively in the theatre, while maintaining a career as a singer, these two strands sometimes intersecting.
Her theatrical work includes touring North America in productions of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood as well as roles in dramas, comedies and musicals, such as Habeus Corpus, Pal Joey, Private Lives and Calamity Jane. She has also emceed at the Brecon Jazz Festival and the Swansea International Jazz Festival and she is currently presenting her one-woman show, Broadway Meets Hollywood.
For the songs on this, her latest album, Davies has drawn upon the Great American Songbook and also on the sophisticated cabaret-club repertoire. Among the former are Cole Porter’s Let’s Do It and George and Ira Gershwin’s They Can’t Take That Away From Me, while the latter includes Dave Frishberg’s My Attorney Bernie and Blossom Dearie and Mahriah Black Wolf’s I Like You You’re Nice.
With her relaxed and elegant vocal sound, Davies is melodically at ease with the material and her interpretation of the lyrics is respectful of the writers’ intentions, this latter quality apparent in her understanding of the stories being told. She also displays a lithe swing, notably on Duke Ellington and Bob Russell’s Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me.
Throughout this all-too-brief set, Davies is very ably supported by pianist-keyboard player Rob Barron whose backing and occasional solos blend well with the overall mood. This album was produced by Claire Martin and Chris Traves and clearly Davies and Martin are two singers who are very much in tune with one another.
Discography
Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love); My Attorney Bernie; I Like You You’re Nice; When In Rome; The Telephone Song; They Can’t Take That Away From Me; Love Letters; Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me; You Go To My Head (26.26)
Davies (v); Rob Barron (p, elp). London, September 2021.
Soup To Nuts
