Baby, it’s Cold Outside! Kat Edmonson and Friends Perform a Holiday Tribute

Flashback to a 1950’s jazz nightclub.  The lights are dim, the air is smoky, and the murmurs are faint.  Amongst the muted shadows and huddling bodies, a spotlight is awakened from the corner, its fiery brightness singeing a glowing sphere onstage.   The distinct click of heels comes tapping up the tread of the stairs, and suddenly a figure is seen coming into the light.  With a quiet confidence and looks that could kill, this songstress takes the mic by the hand, exhibiting an inviting, kittenish voice that has the whole audience glued to her.  Only this isn’t the 1950’s; this is the present day and Kat Edmonson is about to give her fans a myriad of musical festivities they have been waiting for at the One World Theatre.

While Austin’s Kat Edmonson is the city’s present day songbird, she makes you feel as though you are in another time and place when listening to her.  Petite in stature, with a blonde pixie cut and large doe eyes, she looks like a modern day Mia Farrow with the singing chops of other Jazz greats like Cassandra Wilson or Madeleine Peyroux.  Although Edmonson never had any formal training, she was quick to start climbing the ladder of musical notoriety.  While she traveled around the U.S. performing music and even had a stint on American Idol, she returned to her Austin roots and singing at open mics, and soon her sound was well-known with the River City locals.  With the release of her album, “Take to the Sky,” Edmonson proved her jazz prowess nationwide.  Straddling the lines of both contemporary and vintage, she transforms classic jazz songs and tunes of her own into a sound that anyone could enjoy now, while still maintaining the girlish, sultry croon of another era that she is famous for.

On December 11^th, Kat Edmonson performed at the One World Theatre to an auditorium brimming with Austinites and out-of-towners alike.   Dressed in a sparkly white top and standing next to an evergreen tree bedecked in twinkling lights, this show was all about the holidays.  And of course, there was a spin on the performance too.  Throughout the night, Edmonson had a plethora of her musician friends join the stage to accompany her to sing some favorite seasonal tunes.  Asleep at the Wheel’s own Ray Benson commenced the stage first, giving Edmonson a bear hug that lifted her off the floor and performing several duets that were full of many jokes and smiles.  It was fantastic to see the juxtaposition of Benson’s towering being and deep voice against Edmonson’s petite figure and coquettish purr, creating an extraordinary experience that audience members will remember for a long time.

Benson’s performance was followed by many other locals taking the stage, including the vocal talents of Laura Scarborough, Floyd Domino on piano and Elias Haslanger on saxophone.  Each musician brought a unique sound and range to the theatre, creating a fete of differing duets that covered songs like “Baby, it’s Cold Outside” and “Let it Snow.”  Edmonson even managed to sneak in a few tracks from her new album, slated for release in February 2012.  The favorite of the night, though, may have been Kat Edmonson’s interpretation of “Santa Baby.”  Although different in tone than the original 1953 Eartha Kitt rendition, Edmonson’s combination of sass and innocence through her voice brought that quintessential “wink wink” to the classic that had patrons laughing throughout.

Even though I have seen Kat Edmonson in clubs and venues all over Austin, she truly shined while performing at the One World Theatre.  Her stunning voice accompanied by her friends and a myriad of instruments could be heard crystal clear within the intimate, acoustically-sound venue.  While Edmonson continues to gain notoriety nationally and her star progressively rises among larger and larger crowds, it was very special to see her in an auditorium of only 300 seats and experience her music in such an up close and personal way.  Edmonson is one of Austin’s greatest talents, and combined with the One World Theatre, she had everyone feeling the spirit of the season.  Happy Holidays!

Go Daddy-O! The Boys of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

A dark room is filled to the brim with the murmurs and shadows of many figures.  Daddy-O’s with pinstriped suits and felted fedoras sit back with a cool charisma, while their swingin’ sweeties sip their sparkling cocktails and talk amongst each other.  Beneath the dim spotlight on the tables and chairs, the excitement and euphoria of the atmosphere can be sliced with a knife.  With the flip of a switch and the burst of rainbow colored lights, the stage becomes alive.  Dapper musicians dressed in a cloak of black and shiny brass instruments ascend the platform to the roar of the audience.  With toes tappin’, fingers snappin’, limbs jivin’ and bodies swingin’, the boys of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy are going to give these swingers and music lovers the time of their lives.

It’s not often that a stage full of nine musicians can produce a sound that is so tight and vivacious that is seems as though there is only one instrument that is melded together and has the audience up on their feet.  But that’s how the band members of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy roll.  With five men on horns, a drummer, an upright bassist, a keyboardist, and of course, Scotty Morris as the lead singer and guitarist, these movers and shakers had the whole audience at One World Theatre jivin’ to their big band music.

While Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (or BBVD as the cool kids say) has performed at the One World Theatre more than once, they have been playing and developing their sound for years.  Founded in the late 1980’s by lead singer Morris and drummer Kurt Sodergren, they caught on to the public eye with their tracks “You and Me and the Bottle Makes Three (Baby)” and “Go-Daddy-O” in the classic cult favorite, Swingers.  With many hit albums under their belt, the boys have been touring everywhere from California to Atlanta, and even writing songs for movies.

Even though this booming band has been together for over 20 years, their sound was as fresh and dynamic as ever at One World’s venue.  Trumpets, trombones and saxophones moved up and down in unison, their gleaming brass tubes peppering the performance with upbeat pops of sound.  Fedoras and ties swayed back and forth along with the spin of the bass and fingers gliding across the keyboard with a smooth elegance.  The drumming served as the perfect backbone of the whole musical feast, providing the quintessential tap and percussion while letting all others shine too.  And the shouts of “daddy-o” and immaculate harmonies between the group would make anyone in that audience reminisce back to the “good old days” of a mid-century Swing club where men still wore zoot suits and couples knew how to Jitterbug.   There was not one audience member I saw that wasn’t bobbing their head, snapping their fingers or tapping their toes-the joint was jumping!

One of the best parts of the whole night, though, was being able to experience Big Bad Voodoo Daddy inside the One World Theatre.  In such an intimate space with top-notch sound acoustics, every note of the saxophone and string of the bass could be heard and truly experienced.  Instead of feeling like an outsider trying to listen in, the crowd was immersed in the colorful bursts of music that is the heart and soul of Swing.  In another venue, the hard work and passion of the band could have been lost among the atmosphere, but inside this venue even the audience members in the back could feel as though they were front and center.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is not a name that you would forget easily, and neither is their music.  Whether or not you are an avid Swing music fan, these boys have something for everyone, and a sound that makes you want to put on your finest suit and gown and dance the night away.  If you missed their performance this time, be sure to lookout for when they come again to the One World Theatre- these cats always show their audience a jivin’ good time!