Review: Katie Thiroux
by Stanley Naftaly
Last Sunday afternoon the Santa Barbara Jazz Society held its monthly concert at SOhO and hit the jackpot. The Katie Thiroux quartet brought down the house with two sets of fine straight ahead jazz.
Thiroux is a terrific bass player and a real jazz vocalist. Her voice is warm, her intonation and time are true and her phrasing is right-on. Everyone in the quartet is a master musician at the top of his or her game. Roger Neumann on tenor sax is melodic and powerful; Graham Dechter on guitar looks too young to swing as hard as he does, and Matt Witek is a precise and sensitive drummer.
The first set started with a blues: Don’t Be the Outside, with Katie supplying the vocal. It Could Happen to You was highlighted by superb guitar work and ensemble playing. Oh What a Beautiful Morning was a bass solo dedicated to Ray Brown and was followed by a story about a pair of his shoes, and a piece called Ray’s Kicks which featured a tight drum solo.
A Beautiful Friendship was written and played by Roger Neumann with a vocal by Katie. The tune has become a jazz standard and was recorded by Ella Fitzgerald. Once again, everyone in the group showed themselves to be an excellent soloist.
The set closed with an original by Katie called Can’t We Just Pretend? And a swinging version of Shiny Stockings in which she demonstrated her love for Anita O’Day.
The second set included I’m Old Fashioned, There’s a Small Hotel, Ellington’s I Got it Bad and That Ain’t Good, The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else and Oscar Pettiford’s gem Tricketism with more remarkable guitar by Graham Dechter,
It was a thoroughly delightful afternoon of live jazz