Album Notes

"...a superb jazz singer in her own right."
JazzTimes

"...paints vibrant and emotionally charged pictures."
Joy Todd,NPWG

"...Kathy's vocal is stunning!."
Peter Matz


Scores of young girls see Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music" and say "that will
be me someday." They will sing their hearts out and touch an audience. But very
few make it happen. Kathy Jenkins is one that did. Jenkins is a jazz singer with a
big, sensuous sound that moves and captivates, and how she got to where she is
today is a story full of both seredipity and hard work.

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Jenkins grew up listening to her father's beautiful Irish tenor and her
mother's torch versions of Judy Garland songs. She knew from the age of four that she wanted to
sing, and her earliest "performances" were to construction workers in her neighborhood to coax
them to buy from her lemonade stand!

It took joining the Air Force to find her vocal self. As a vocalist for the Air Force Band Jenkins
started singing Broadway tunes and big band numbers, and she found she couldn't get enough.
The sound of a big band "was a revelation to me" and she honed her vocal style singing hundreds
of concerts throughout the USA and Europe.

After four years in the Air Force Jenkins moved to New York, determined to take her love of big
band jazz singing to the next level. She studied at the American Musical & Dramatic Academy and
performed with big bands such as Lynn Oliver's.

While watching audition tapes of vaious musicians to accompany her on a singing engagement,
Jenkins came across the tape of Nick Levinovsky. Dazzled by his piano playing but even more
impressed with his sensitivity to his fellow musicians, Jenkins hired him on the spot. It was a
fateful meeting. Levinovsky, a noted jazz pianist/composer from Russia, "fell in love the minute
he heard her sing." He hired her to perform with his 8 piece orchestra, wooing her with a shared
love of each other's artistry. They married, and she performed with his jazz ensembles at
international jazz festivals including a memorable Russian tour of Moscow, Saratov and St.
Petersburg.

Jenkins helped Levinovsky form the Nick Levinovsky Big Band, whose debut CD "Listen
Up!" has Jenkins as featured vocalist. Jazz Times noted that Jenkins is "a superb jazz singer in
her own right" and her rendition of "My Favorite Things" received frequent radio play across the
country. Jenkins and Levinovsky collaborated again, this time with Jenkins as solo vocal artist
backed by The Nick Levinovsky Big Band and Trio. The CD "From This Moment On" prompted
composer/arranger Peter Matz to pronounce, " Kathy's vocal is stunning" and Joy Todd to exclaim
that Jenkins has "an exciting way with words...(she) paints vibrant and emotionally charged pictures."

Jenkins' background in cabaret and musical theater gives her an emotional connection to the lyrics,
a quality that is recognized by public and critics alike. Reviewing her CD in All About Jazz, Jack Bowers
noted that Jenkins' "has mastered the subtleties of jazz phrasing" and her "debut as a full-fledged jazz
singer is a smashing success."

With accolades like that, Jenkins is looking to record a second CD as well as persue musical
theater and concert opportunities. She and her husband recently formed NLO, an orchestra /
production / record company that has them involved in every aspect of the music business. But as
busy as NLO is getting, it won't keep Jenkins from doing what she does best -- creating a sound
of music all her own.