Moving over from a little corner of the Rose Room at The Plaza Hotel, where she has been appearing regularly with her own quartet, to the full stage at the Iridium for her debut with the Nate Mayland Quartet, the delightful, lovely, young jazz singer, Kat Gang, made her debut the other night following a highly-anticipated appearance by cabaret darling, Karen Mason.

With little time for a sound check and singing mostly newly-penned songs that she co-wrote with Mr. Mayland, a skilled and inventive trombonist whom she met while performing with a big band, the seemingly unflappable Ms. Gang continuously flashed her gorgeous smile, yet, curiously, seemed to giggle every time she looked at Mayland for direction or support. Romantic sparks may have been igniting or maybe their impressive musical collaboration might have caused this chemical reaction, but it was palpable and seemed to inform much of their set.

She opened courageously with a totally scatted original, “Brighter Side of Yesterday,” with the incomparable Barry Levitt on piano, Dick Sarpola on bass and Ray Marchica on drums. They are all respected veterans who seemed to really dig the Gang/Mayland duo and the fresh, imaginative songs that they have written together. Their individual solos on songs like “Thrill of the Chase,” “Remember,” and “Up to Speed,” reflected that energy and enthusiasm, and it’s always a pleasure to see musicians really having a good time.

Gang is just as easy to listen to as she is to look at. True to her craft, she creatively takes a melody and a lyric, jazzes it up, adds scat lines where appropriate, while remaining true to the meaning of the lyrics and the emotional vibe of the song. This was certainly the case with two familiar standards she included in the set, Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein’s “All the Things You Are” and her closer, Lerner and Loewe’s “On the Street Where You Live.” Applying her own unique phrasing and sensitivity to the rhythm of the words themselves, she blurred the line between cabaret and jazz singing with totally fresh and appealing results.

One thing I would point out to help her shine like the star she inevitably will be: She needs to find a level of comfort on stage that eliminates the endless yanking down of her dress and the twiddling of her lengthy locks. Over time, it becomes very distracting.

Beyond that, she and the Nate Mayland Quartet, with a repeat performance scheduled at the Iridium, are on their way up and should be watched closely as they rise through the ranks!

Lynn DiMenna
Cabaret Scenes
July 18, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org