{"id":67,"date":"2014-03-22T20:32:49","date_gmt":"2014-03-22T20:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/katiekingsings.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=67"},"modified":"2014-03-28T15:36:25","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T15:36:25","slug":"reviews","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/katiekingsings.com\/wordpress\/reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
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Katie King Reviews<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n<\/td>\n

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Harvey Siders\/Jazz Times
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\"katieking3\"<\/a>Once upon a time \u2013 don\u2019t ask a singer when; she won\u2019t tell you anyway \u2013 a wee little King named Katie made an impressive \u201cdebut\u201d and the world soon discovered she had a unique voice. This happened in Northern California, where, thanks to her family, Katie heard lots of music at home: mostly symphonic. <\/span><\/p>\n

At age eight, the little princess wisely chose to follow her parents and siblings when they moved to Eugene, Oregon. There, at eleven (she remembers the moment with great clarity); Katie had an epiphany in a record store when she first heard the haunting voice of Billie Holiday. As Katie recalls, \u201cI felt she was preaching to me and I was the only one in the congregation. All my friends were into rock then and they considered me some sort of freak.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

From that moment on, Katie concentrated on a hipper set of \u201cfriends:\u201d jazz singers she worshipped on a first-name basis \u2013 Billie, Ella, Sarah and Carmen. They didn\u2019t know at the time, but they were the mentors who helped shaped Katie King\u2019s career\u2026and still do. To her everlasting credit, Katie is responsible for the instinctive way she became a distillation of those four giants.<\/span>…<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1985, Katie moved to Seattle, where her gradual acceptance into the local jazz scene accelerated her learning experiences personally and professionally. She was blessed by exposure to very different accompanists. \u201cPianists Bob Nixon and Billy Wallace had very different personalities and approaches, but that kind of diversity so valuable to an up-and-coming singer. They taught me so much. Bob spurred me on to learn blues correctly; Billy had a thing about keeping tunes in a particular realm.\u2019 Jeff Johnson showed me how to be in the moment; his passion blows my mind. <\/em><\/span>Talk about passion and soul: I\u2019ll never forget how much Floyd Standifer (trumpet and tenor) taught me about versatility, and playing to a club. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Those are just a few of the great Seattle musicians I\u2019ve worked with, but Seattle is such a great jazz scene, I\u2019m afraid I\u2019ll leave out many important players: pianist-arranger Bob Hammer; guitarist Veneet Davidson, Harry Holbert; instrumental gap fillers such as trumpeter Jay Thomas, saxophonist Rick Mandyck and Brian Kent, bassist Clipper Anderson, Chris Clark and Mike Barnett, Combo Craig ( The most creative Craig Flory, Ron Weinstein and Mike Stone) ; drummers Brian Kirk, Ken French, Reade Whitwell and Steven Bentley. By the way Steve came up with name Sophia for my daughter. My husband and I couldn\u2019t come up with one eight years ago. Watch out for that little ham. She\u2019s always singing and dancing. And there are newcomers like Chris Symer, bass, and D\u2019Vonne Lewis drums<\/em>.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Katie also realizes that the mechanics of her art are equally important. \u201cMaestro David Kyle was my techniques teacher, and another wonderfully intense jazz instructor was Jerome Grey, who taught me phrasing and timing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, Katie is gaining a well-deserved reputation for her teaching skills. Her home in Renton a few miles south of Seattle contains a comfortable, high-ceilinged music room where she not only gives private piano lessons, but also presides over a semi-private group of aspiring local jazz singers. Katie also has classes at Seattle Central Community College, where for nearly a dozen years she has been sharing her on the job experiences with vocal students and emphasizing breathing, rhythm, intonation, how to begin and end a song, finding and remembering the right key for each tune, and above all, how to use your uniqueness as your strongest tool.<\/span><\/p>\n

Considering King\u2019s growing consort and her expanding database of fans and students, Katie is strengthening her bonds and spreading her message throughout the Northwest venues. \u201cI must have sung in 90% of the clubs in this area. Some that stand out include Dmitriou\u2019s Jazz Alley, The Four Seasons, The Fairmont Olympic, The Sheraton, Pampas Club at El Gaucho (where I learned so much from Floyd), the KPLU Jazz Cruise, Bumbershoot, Serafina\u2019s, Tula\u2019s and so many intimate restaurants that I can\u2019t remember them all, and, naturally, all the weddings and private parties<\/em>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Katie’s CDs reveal a cross-section of material, back-up musicians and production values. Katie can be relied on to take the necessary time to choose carefully and not repeat herself in any way, except quality; she has a reputation to maintain.<\/span><\/p>\n

She may surprise her followers and eventually issue an album that on her most desired goal: self accompaniment. If she succeeds it would require navigating the less traveled road taken by Diana Krall, Norah Jones and above all Katie\u2019s idol, Shirley Horn. \u201cEver notice how different they sounded, how personal their singing became, when they played for themselves?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If Katie masters that, she\u2019ll be a complete, self-sufficient: the usual array of colorful scarves and wigs, plus those knowing blue\/green eyes; the smoky, sensuous voice, and of course the abilities to belt a jazz live or tell a story with her insightful command of lyrics. The constant that will most please her followers: a quality known as (if you\u2019ll pardon a dyslexic pun) the King of swing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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\u00a0 Katie King Reviews \u00a0 \u00a0 Harvey Siders\/Jazz Times Once upon a time \u2013 don\u2019t ask a singer when; she won\u2019t tell you anyway \u2013 a wee little King named Katie made an impressive \u201cdebut\u201d and the world soon discovered she had a unique voice. This happened in Northern California, where, thanks to her family, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/page-full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-67","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/katiekingsings.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/katiekingsings.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/katiekingsings.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katiekingsings.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katiekingsings.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/katiekingsings.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221,"href":"https:\/\/katiekingsings.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67\/revisions\/221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/katiekingsings.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}