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Dan Ouelette, CD Review

Jazz vocalist Kitty Margolis' second album is a carefully conceived and well-executed collection of songs that not only showcase her captivating and stylistically versatile voice but also demonstrate her impeccable taste in securing top-notch accompanists. To join her superb trio (pianist Dick Hindman, drummer Gaylord Burch, and bassist Seward McCain) Margolis has invited tenor sax king Joe Henderson, blues guitarist Joe Louis Walker, and cooljazz guitarist Joyce Cooling-wise choices, as each guest offers Margolis opportunities to explore a wide
range of jazz terrain.

These days anything Henderson touches turns to gold, yet here he's merely one star in an already stellar gig. He contributes his swirling fills and melodic phrasings to five tunes, including the gorgeous Gone With the Wind" where he gracefillly encircles Margolis' vocals and then converses with her when she bops into a stretch of horn-like scats. Likewise, Cooling plays an important supporting role in helping to bring out the romantic facet Margolis' singing in such Brazilian-iniflected numbers as the passionate "Tnsteza de Amar" and the lush title tune written by Ivan Lins. But the big surprise of the package is how expressively Margolis sings the blues and how instrumental Walker is in urging her to dip deeply into that well. He follows her charged intonation with stinging riffs in Percy May field's "Please Send Me Someone to Love" and unleashes muscular licks to complement her sassy phrasing in the robust "Someone Else Is Steppin' In."

Other highlights include the album opener,"Anthroplogy," which Margolis introduces with a bright a cappella bop outburst, the cooking take on Wayne Shorter's "Ancient Footprints" that Margolis supplied with lyrics, and her effortless glide through the swinging "When Lights Are Low." While her forte is uptempo material, Margolis also proves herself a strong balladeer, evidenced in the beautiful piano-vocal duet, "Where Do You Start?"