Sally Barr and her band, The Sally Cats are releasing their debut CD Wonderful Day this week with the CD release party to be held on February 25th at Center Stage Theater
in Santa Barbara. The album, a collection of timeless favorites, is filled with mesmerizing rifts from the area’s jazz elite. Sally (vocals) is joined by veterans Jon
Nathan (drums/arranger), Jim Connolly (bass), Brad Rabuchin (guitar), Nate Birkey (trumpet) and Tom Buckner (sax/flute). Making a special appearance on the album is
virtuoso violinist Gilles Apap. Filling out the big band is a six-piece string section comprised of some of Santa Barbara & L.A.’s best players – the aural sensations are not to be missed!!!
The Sally Cats (named in a contest they held at gig @ SOhO Restaurant and Bar) first started playing together in 2005, at a Hurricane Katrina benefit for Direct Relief
International. Since then, they have performed in multiple venues in Southern California when their regular lives don’t step in – Sally performs on the violin with the
SB Chamber Orchestra, SB Symphony and Opera SB, Jon Nathan works with the UCSB Jazz Ensembles and freelances with orchestras all over Southern California, Jim Connolly
is the composer and bass player for the Gove County String Quartet (in which Sally also plays ), and also composes for Lit Moon Theater as well as being is a Registered Piano
Technician. Tom Buckner is a major teacher and performer in Santa Barbara, Ventura & Los Angeles counties, Nate Birkey, formerly of Santa Barbara, now lives in NYC,
teaching and performing and touring with his quintet and Brad Rabuchin has played with the likes of Stevie Wonder and Bonnie Raitt, and spent five years touring with the
legendary Ray Charles. Together, the Sally Cats form a unique blend of talents, at once smooth as silk and hotter than the end of July.
For more info visit:
www.voxandfiddle.com
www.youtube.com/user/voxandfiddle
www.myspace.com/sallybarr
The Independent , July 3, 2008
The Jazz Singer By Charles Donelan
Sally Barr and the SB Cats @ SOhO June 30
Sally Barr and her new jazz orchestra gave a fine and highly promising performance at SOhO on Monday night. Barr, a violinist who has long been a mainstay in that capacity on the Santa Barbara classical music scene, showed once again that she has a terrific voice and unerring taste in both material and musicians. The set list read like a lesson in crucial jazz standards, the kind everyone should know. "Ain't Misbehavin'" was followed by "April in Paris", "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To", and an up-tempo version of "Blue Skies." The band, a handpicked assemblage of the absolute top players in town, included Jim Connolly (bass), Jon Nathan (drums/arrangements), Brad Rabuchin (guitar), Tom Buckner (sax/flute/clarinet), and Jim Mooy (trumpet). Everyone got plenty of solo time, and the Nathan, Connolly, and Rabuchin rhythm section did an amazing job of keeping things swinging. Barr's voice cut through the big sound with vibrant color and emotion, her phrasing a model of clarity and sophistication, and every word etched precisely in sound.
Just when Mooy or Buckner broke off another hot solo, Barr started in on the chorus again, and just when it seemed that it couldn't get much better, there was a break and the band became an orchestra. For "Tenderly" and "What is This Thing Called Love?" the main group was joined on stage by a quartet string section that included violinist Lisa Weinstein and Claude Lise Lafranque, along with Kirsten Monke and cellist Claudia Kiser. For some of these numbers, which were all fully orchestrated, Nathan left his
drummer's seat and stood to conduct the strings. Monke took a beautiful cello solo on "Tenderly", and Connolly took one of several splendid bass solos.
"Caravan" brought the collective back off the break sounding like the great house bebop orchestra this town (and venue) deserves. "Green Dolphin Street" followed, along with too many more classics to count. Ending with a particularly ebullient "You Don't Know What Love Is," Barr and company showed that there is much more fire and
passion to come.
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