After first coming out on Lemur Music in 2001,
Kate McGarry's
Show Me was reissued by Palmetto two years later with different art work. In a sense, the album's new front cover is misleading. Wearing a denim jacket, the jazz vocalist looks like she could be a folk singer or perhaps a traditional Irish-Celtic artist -- with a name like
McGarry, one tends to think of all things Celtic. But
Show Me is neither folk nor Celtic;
McGarry is very much a jazz improviser, and she's a very accessible one. Although the Massachusetts native turned New York resident once studied with
Archie Shepp, there is nothing avant-garde about
Show Me (which was recorded in 2000). This CD has a torch-singer outlook, and
McGarry brings a sweetly delicate, sometimes
Chet Baker-ish vulnerability to standards like "Get Out of Town" and "This Is Always." Her singing is light, but it isn't lightweight -- and for all her subtlety,
McGarry has no problem getting her points across. Like so many jazz artists,
McGarry tends to pick a lot of overdone warhorses that have been recorded countless times over the years. But because her performances are as likable and charming as they are, one is inclined to be forgiving. And to her credit,
McGarry also finds some worthwhile songs that haven't been beaten to death in the jazz world (including Brazilian star
Djavan's "Oceano"). In the future,
McGarry would do well to be more adventurous and far-reaching in her choice of material -- after all, there are plenty of great songs that don't have a Tin Pan Alley connection. But all things considered,
Show Me is a promising and decent, if conventional, effort for the East Coast singer. ~ Alex Henderson