Album Notes

REVIEW
" ... the recorded body of work of Judith Kay goes on telling believable stories in her unique way."

After years of being an on-air jazz album reviewer for Philadelphia's WRTI, 90.1 FM, I've become very selective about accepting invitations to write liner notes for new albums. Each year, I am exposed to many hundreds of new albums. Being realistic, my yearly fifty-two week one-hour program can display no more than segments of135 albums. Costs of producing CDs have lowered remarkably over the last fifteen years! That fact has given us more superb albums, more mediocre albums, and more uacceptable albums! From this morass of recordings, a clear body of artistic brilliance emerges. Gifted musicians are always there. They tell believable stories; stories we can love and treasure when we hear them again. There must be form and substance, not just technical flash which can disappear never to return in our memories. Amidst all these possible paths, the recorded body of work of Judith Kay goes on telling believable stories in her unique way.

HER VOICE, HER GUITAR Volume 2 continues to display the best among what we have come to call "quality songs." These are proclamations of new love, love lost and love in trouble. Beyond this she has mastered the technical facility to showcase John Coltrane’s "Moment’s Notice"! Over the years that I've followed Judith's constantly emerging career, more facets of her work sharpen the presentations of this multi-talented artist. Apart from world-class abilities as guitarist and vocalist, her often unnoticed talents as arranger, composer in several genres of music continue to underly the total output of this constantly busy person.

This album opens with Cy Coleman's "It Amazes Me". If you don't fall in love with her immediately, you're dead! Let me also shout my admiration of Judith's sensitive treatment of two other American pieces. First, comes her totally believable delivery of my old friend Bob Dorough's "Small Day Tomorrow". Then, it's Tommy Wolf's, "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most"!

Five of the twelve compositions displayed here are Brazilian, and they are among the very best of the "legends" of this music. Judith is a good example of the special class of American jazz singers who study and perform Brazilian music after considerable time studying the difficult nuances of this gorgeous art form. Her delivery of Brazilian Portuguese is excellent!

Obviously, if you've gotten this far, you've bought this treasure. Enjoy it! You've come to a place of excellent music! And, I can't finish these notes without my congratulations to you, too, David! David McClintock is producer and life's love of this exceptionally talented lady!

Jack Buerkle, Ph.D.
Host - Jazz Encounters Today
Co- Host with Jill Pasternak - CROSSOVER
WRTI-90.1 Philadelphia
An NPR Station