Jazz/Pop - Any young jazz singer that feels comfortable tackling The Cure or The Cardigans alongside Cole Porter and George Gershwin is OK in our book. And for 25-year-old Austin, TX artist Kat Edmonson that's just half the story. Described as "memorable and contagious" by NPR, the waif-like singer possesses a voice that matches her appearance with a lighter-than-air coolness that emphasizes interpretive phrasing over passionate power. The effect is startlingly simple and matter-of-fact...and disarmingly appealing.

In fact, as she hits the higher notes in songs like "The Very Thought of You", a song that doesn't unfortunately appear on her striking debut album Take To The Sky, there's a noticeable fragility to her tone that actually makes her voice even more intimate. Edmonson is not the first vocalist to be compared to Billie Holiday, and in some respects the analogy is a moot point, but there is that particularly mellow quality and the ability to just bend and instinctively play with the note like a horn player that does harken back to some of the more notable singers like Holiday or Peggy Lee.

Recorded simply and economically, Edmonson had the smarts to hand the album's mixing over to Al Schmitt, the veteran multi-Grammy winning soundman who engineered Steely Dan's classic Aja and worked with Frank Sinatra and Sam Cooke. Sky's sound is rich but sparse and uncluttered, allowing Edmonson the necessary space to let her notes hang unfettered. Even on tracks that require a fuller sound, like her inspired take on The Cure's "Just Like Heaven", the pace is languid and serene with the subtle rhythms the perfect complement to her whispery, wispy vocals. Recommended.

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