The previous five posts I’ve made have been about women musicians who fit into the broadly defined category of folk music (if you include old time music, bluegrass and country). Today I’m switching genres to jazz singers. I love the great ladies of jazz such as Ella, Sara, Billy and all the rest. Some might wonder if great female jazz singers are in the past. They are not. One of my favorites is only in her twenties. I discovered Kate Davis when she was still in high school.
Here’s a video of her playing bass and singing It’s Just One of those Things from 2008.
Perhaps you’ve seen Kate doing her take on Meghan Trainor’s All About the Bass. Kate’s version is “It’s all about that bass” referring to her instrument. As I write this, the version below has over 11 million views on youtube. It isn’t the only version recorded of her doing this hit on youtube either. See a live performance at this link.
More recently (January 2015) jazz vocalist Kurt Elling had to cancel from a Great Performances concert that was to air on PBS because of laryngitis. Kate Davis was invited as a last minute substitution to fill Kurt’s slot in the show. I think it worked out well for Kate.
Kate started playing the violin and didn’t take up bass until high school. She plays piano and ukulele too. Here’s a very nice, though older video of Kate singing a classic accompanied only by her ukulele.
She’s now been to college 1 and is living and performing in New York (and elsewhere). Here are some recent performances.
Just one more. This next one is from the same performance as above and features Kate’s singing.
