Nora McCarthy - Jazz Vocal Artist, Composer, Poet: Home
To:
Nora McCarthy,
the Singer of singers,
I wish all the best in
New Year 2012!
Love & Peace.
From: João da Penha ("Jazz & Bossa Nova")
Brasil 25953-671
Photographs By John Meixner on location at Trumpets Jazz Club Copyright 2011
Download High Resolution Publicity Photos
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“…McCarthy is a fearless singer who deftly refuses to be categorized as she explores personalized means for expressing ideas. She travels infrequently heard avenues for exploring thought and adapts vocal technique to fit the circumstances of her message."
-Bill Donaldson for Jazz Improv NY, 2008
"...A striking woman of unusually elastic voice, McCarthy infuses her music with poetry and theatricality that’s both stark and sensual."
-Carlo Wolff, Cleveland Scene, April, 2010
The return of t
his Cleveland-native singer (and former stalwart of the city's jazz scene) from New York for a performance at Nighttown fit in well with the hometown spirit the festival always exudes. Featuring several songs from her latest release, Circle Completing (2008), McCarthy's vocals often recalled the soft, strained desperation of another Cleveland vocalist, the great Jimmy Scott. The album is, in fact, something of an homage to Scott, ending with the McCarthy original, "Faith in Time (Jimmy's Song)."
But McCarthy skipped that one on this night. Instead, Scott's influence shown through on another original composition, the one she calls her theme song, "Life Is a Song to Sing," and on "April in Paris," her vocals fluttering with an acceptance of loss and regret, yet insisting that the road stay open before her; she the more able of treasuring it for her backlog of experiences. Elsewhere, she swung through Van Heusen's
Come Fly With Me" and the original "Into the Middle of Something" with a relaxed cabaret swagger, and pounded out piano-like scatting on other standards. She was backed by the fine local trio of pianist Dan Maier, bassist Marty Block and drummer Roy King. Block, in particular, added a deep, invigorating second voice that countered McCarthy's vocals with slippery yet punching solos on nearly every number. The singer closed with a barn-burning version of Willie Dixon's "Little Red Rooster" that left the crowd crowing for more and nicely "upset, in every way."
All About Jazz//Tri-C Jazz Festival//By: Matt Marshall for Jazz Inside
ACCUJAZZ RADIO - CHICAGO'S FINEST CLEVELAND JAZZ RADIO RECENT RADIO INTERVIEW WITH DAN POLETTA ON 90.3 WCPN ideastream "WHAT'S NEW WITH NORA?" - CHECK IT OUT! 
http://www.wcpn.org/index.php/WCPN/jazztracks/15279 
