Listen and Buy
Raised on dance lessons, I was no stranger to the stage. From an early age it was obvious I was a musical ham and a storyteller (read “drama queen”). From harmonic duets at the piano with sister Linda and folk songs on long road trips in the family station wagon to dance recitals and stage plays, there was never a time when performing was not part of my growing up years. My name in lights on Broadway was the plan but then, life happened.
Fast forward to my late twenties when the tragic death of younger brother Richard caused me to look hard at where I was (selling advertising for a newspaper in the DC area) and where I dreamed of being as a kid (see above). The dance training was ten years gone and I didn’t have the courage for New York just then, but I was doing some singing and dancing in local country bars to favorable reviews. I realized life could be snatched away in an instant, as it had from Rich. At least he was doing everything he loved when he went on to bigger and better things. So I chucked the day job and spent the next three months living on savings and credit. By day I taught myself every female country cover tune I could get my hands on (thanks to a radio DJ who made cassette tapes for me) and by night I sat in with whatever band would let me up on the stage.
Within six months I’d moved to Nashville, the music mecca everyone was pushing me toward. It wasn’t long before I had to admit I didn’t have the chops for country music. As fate would have it, a year after my move I discovered Linda Ronstadt’s Nelson Riddle Orchestra recordings on two LPs at Phonolux on Nolensville Rd. That was my yellow brick road and the rest, as they say, is history.
I’ve spent the last twenty years performing the great American Songbook, in any configuration from small combos to big bands. I’ve performed in venues all over, including a three month stint at a beautiful hotel in Bangkok, a variety of jazz spots in New Orleans and my seven-year weekly engagement at Nashville’s premier jazz venue, F. Scott’s. The fellas (and gal) with whom I played there are featured on my debut CD, Orange Colored View.
A move to Pensacola in 2004 to care for my ailing mother was a slight detour that I thought spelled the end of my career, such as it was, but I was blessed to form friendships with New Orleans jazz clarinetist Tim Laughlin, cornetist Connie Jones (both longtime sidemen for Pete Fountain) and piano man Larry Sieberth, gentlemen with whom I recorded my second CD (A Blossom Fell) not long after Hurricane Katrina, when resident musicians were making their way back home. Tim had been on a State Department tour that was extended in Katrina’s wake, and upon his return asked me to appear with him the The Bombay Club. He was able to round up the musicians for this effort and I was pleased that I could do my part in putting them back to work. Finally released in 2011, it might be called a ragtag assemblage if not for the fact that all are veterans of the New Orleans jazz scene with far-reaching musical pedigrees.
Not bad for someone who learned her craft in front of her bedroom mirror with brush in hand. I always feel a bit behind the eight-ball singing with these learned and seasoned pros, not having any kind of formal musical education myself, but somehow when they start playing I rise to the occasion and can’t help but swing high and low, from uptempo to ballads. I have songs to sing, stories to tell, emotions to share and nothing gives me greater joy than to share them all with you.
This Feb. 25, 2012 at Seville Quarter Pensacola finds Kitt with a stellar lineup of the area’s finer female jazz vocalists in support of the Jazz Society of Pensacola. From 6-9pm you can hear such talent as Holly Shelton, Crystal Joy Albert, Rosie Butler, Kathy Lyon and more. Tickets are available from JSOP or at the door. See you there!
Kitt Lough and New Orleans Jazz at Evenings In Olde Seville
Concertgoers to the June 16th edition of Evenings In Olde Seville Square will be treated to an extra-special event: a two-CD release party for Kitt Lough and her two horn players – New Orleans clarinetist Tim Laughlin and cornetist Connie Jones, both of whom play with the world renowned Pete Fountain.
Kitt is a Gulf Breeze resident and homegrown talent who honed her skills over a twenty year period in the clubs and studios of Nashville, New Orleans, internationally and locally. She brings her dynamic vocal sound to the EIOS concert June 16th, 7-9pm and along with it her brand new CD.
Says Kitt: “We actually recorded it in New Orleans only four months after Katrina. Tim had just gotten back from an extended State Department tour and Connie was slowly getting back on his feet after having lost everything.”
As often happens, a few curves in the road delayed the CD, which she’s just now officially releasing. Mr. Laughlin and Mr. Jones are both prominently featured on “A Blossom Fell”, which has a decidedly organic New Orleans flair.
Said Kitt: “It’s a real departure from ‘Orange Colored View’ (her first CD).” which she says was planned and orchestrated over a period of six months before she ever stepped foot into a studio, using musicians she’d been playing with live for three years. “The new recording had already been postponed because of the hurricane, so when Tim asked me to come sing with him at The Bombay Club in New Orleans that January, I asked if he could round up some guys to record. He brought in these amazing jazz players I’d never met and we threw it together on the fly. Because there had been no pre-production, it sort of naturally unfolded in the studio.”
Complementing her CD is the new release “If Dreams Come True” the latest recording by Tim Laughlin and Connie Jones, both of whom will be accompanying Kitt live on stage.
Rounding out the quintet is guitarist Larry Scala, also of New Orleans, Steve Gilmore (of Phil Woods fame) on acoustic bass and drummer Brent Purcell of Jones & Co. fame.
The concert will feature selections from both CDs, which will be for sale alongside earlier releases from the artists.