New Review from Italy for Karen's Eponymous Album

February 25, 2013

From a review that appeared on the Italian site, De Baser:

The great jazz vocalists have shaped the kind of features which should blend in a song: the feel for rhythm of a true musician; the interpretation of the melody; a unique delivery of the lyrics, and; playing off the other musicians and improvising. This is an art of the past, ‘classical’ and very demanding, which few singers achieve today. Consider singers like Anita O’Day, the sacred three Billie/Ella/Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Betty Carter, Mark Murphy and Sheila Jordan. This art is perhaps carried out today only by Kurt Elling.

A few years ago, sifting through foreign music magazines in a shop, I read rave reviews of a new album by a self-produced singer from California in the jazz journal Downbeat (four and 1/2 stars). Apparently this was a ‘new’ singer who performed standards, both known and obscure, and who often relied on just her voice and a bass to deliver detailed and unique performances! The few times I’ve heard singers with the courage to do this with great results, it was Sheila Jordan, Nancy King, and early Tierney Sutton, whose voices and interpretations are absolutely extraordinary.

However, a few weeks later I managed to get the cd. The enthusiasm was entirely due, no less. Karen Marguth has a light voice, decidedly agile, mobile, and accurate. She has the rare, great capacity for true champions of instrumental jazz singing to surprise and fascinate. With a strong improvisational verve, she can scat and deliver tongue twisters at breakneck speed, playing with the sounds of words and managing rapid chord changes without neglecting a subtle, playful joke or falling into triviality. Her skill at vocalese is reminiscent of Annie Ross.   Her virtuosity is clear in any weather, from the fastest tunes with the whole band or alone with a bass, to slower ballads, to songs from vaudeville. Her touching version of “Everything Happens To Me” for voice and mandolin is truly worthy of historical interpreters of the past.

Karen plays with a group of guitar, bass, mandolin, and drums, called Espacio, which creates around her voice a sound that is rhythmically driving but airy and light, almost Gypsy jazz to my ears.  This record is a gem. It is so not only because Ms. Marguth IS that kind of incredible, gifted performer; but the more so because her whole group here is tight and strong, plain and rough in the best sense, with its own peculiar sound. I wish her good luck on her new album, hoping that the unpredictable beauty and originality of this impeccable self-produced CD does not go astray.