Album Review: Way Down Low by Kat Edmonson

Since her performance on the second season of the Fox hit show American Idol, Kat Edmonson has performed with Willie Nelson, opened for Smokey Robinson, toured with Boz Scaggs and headlined at the Taichung Jazz Festival in Taiwan. Self-released by her former label Convivium Records, Edmonson’s first album Take to the Sky debuted at number 21 on Billboard’s jazz charts and rose into the top 10 for jazz radio. Now, Kat Edmonson has become a darling of contemporary jazz music, working with producers such as Al Schmitt (Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Sam Cooke) and Phil Ramone (Bob Dylan, B.B.

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FUTURE “Pluto” (A-1/Freebandz/Epic) In the last couple of years no Atlanta rapper has been more potent, with more regularity, than Future, who has released a steady slew of strip-club anthems and tough-talk boasts, collected on mixtapes like “1000” and “Dirty Sprite.” But he’s also proved to be unpredictable. He has a natural, and sometimes unusual, instinct for melody that gives these songs additional resonance. Maybe that’s because Future is a cousin of Rico Wade, one of the founders of Organized Noize, the production camp that helped shape the sound of Atlanta hip-hop’s more organic side, as reflected in Outkast and Goodie Mob.

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There's a delicateness to the singing of Kat Edmonson that almost demands the label "chanteuse," breathy and ephemeral, but with an edge gilded by her twang. It's a slightly jarring and unsettled smoothness comparable to that of Lyle Lovett, and their duet here on "Long Way Home" playfully pivots on the phrasing. Yet Edmonson's sophomore outing succeeds on her own unique inflections, bolstered by the singer's emergence as an equally talented songwriter.

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