Search - Katharine Whalen :: Katharine Whalen's Jazz Squad

With the Squirrel Nut Zippers, banjo diva Katharine Whalen specializes in new songs you'd swear you've heard before. Her first solo album, Jazz Squad flips that formula on its head, dressing up old favorites in fancy new duds. Records like this invariably stand or fall on their vibe and feel, so the key question is: Does it swing? Would it sound right after-hours in a bar, after the mice have scattered for home and the jazz cats have come in to play? The answer is an emphatic yes. Though not an overpowering vocalist, Whalen demonstrates impeccable taste and timing. She's playful on the bouncy "Deed I Do," sultry on "There Is No Greater Love," sassy on "Now or Never," and crafty all over, gliding from song to song with an elegance that appears almost effortless. Most of the selections date from between the World Wars, with one new ringer ("Badisma," an instrumental penned by husband and Zippers guitarist Jimbo Mathus). The backup, a fine quintet featuring three other moonlighting Zippers, is executed as flawlessly as the musicology. Jazz Squad certainly doesn't discourage comparisons to Billie Holiday; it also conjures up memories of Chet Baker's languid vocals and Blossom Dearie's cabaret croon. Yet Jazz Squad is less musty revivalism than the best kind of nostalgia. Death may start in your record collection, but you'd never know it from this. --David Menconi