Slide Show
It’s dark as usual in the candle lit romanticism of
Up to the stage walks the cool, handsome and stylish crooner
in all black. He is quite a natural in front of an audience. I have only seen
him perform live on one song before, here in
Tonight, of course is no exception. Kurt is adventurous, courageous and a complete master of the lower register. Seamless transitions, a poet laureate, a prolific rapper of the coolest type and quite a charmer to the more soprano members of the audience who raise their voices in elation as Kurt serenades them with Grover’s “Wine Light”.
I keep finding myself wanting to use the word master when describing Kurt because he is sheer vocal perfection as he twist, morphs and kicks some serious ass with the phrasing and clarity he displays on vocalese. Spontaneous creative combustion is what you get when you listen to his dynamic instrument; you can feel his throat resonate with seismic activity. A voice that soars to the peaks and dips to the valleys like “The Man in the Air”. In pitch, in tune and working like the finest oiled machine, Kurt can certainly be considered a symbol of excellence!
He is by no means a, “Pop artist” but his vocal jazz styling has popular appeal. Certainly just what we need to sway those easy listeners over to the pure and honest side of the fence. Kurt’s voice must vibrate on the same wave length as the inner core of our souls. Yearning and calling them to a place where the water is warm, the air is clean and jazz is overflowing!
The trio is on! Laurence Hobgood on piano, Rob Amster on
Bass and Frank Parker on drums are wonderfully strong and equally delicate as
the foundation for an artist who can blow you away one second and caress you
back the next. Kurt pays his respect to greats such as Jon Hendrics, Keith
Jarrett, Coltrane and others in his live performances as well as on a number of
his incredible compact discs. Kurt is the cat who has what it takes. He is
funny, confident, cool, charming, charismatic and perfectly comfortable livin’
and jivin’ and diggin’ the skin he’s in.
He is under new management with Mary Ann Topper and sure to acheive the greatest success. Don’t miss him this
week at Catalinas.
For this and other upcoming performances at
LeRoy Downs
