Ever since she made her recording debut during 1981-83 and particularly since the early 1990s, Rebecca Kilgore has been one of jazz’s top swing singers. Her inviting voice, impeccable articulation, friendly personality, perfect placement of notes for maximum swinging, and complete understanding of the lyrics that she interprets have put her at the top of her field. Unfortunately her serious health problems have resulted in her retirement. Prior to the release of A Little Taste, her last recording was in late 2020.
There is no recording date listed on A Little Taste but, since it is an album of Dave Frishberg’s songs and the pianist-composer passed away on Nov. 17, 2021, one would imagine that this was made in 2022. Rebecca Kilgore worked with Frishberg frequently in Portland where they performed twice a week at the Heathman Hotel for five years. If only a full evening had been filmed!
A Little Taste consists of three songs on which Frishberg wrote both the music and the lyrics, six pieces in which he supplied the words to instrumentals by Johnny Hodges, Johnny Mandel, Alan Broadbent, and Dan Barrett, and two songs (“Telephone Song” and “Ah, So Pure” which is also known as “Martha”) that he enjoyed performing. Frishberg’s lyrics were very much rooted in 1950s New York and were often nostalgic, sometimes humorous, and generally insightful. One could certainly argue that he was the top living lyricist during his final 20 years.
Rebecca Kilgore is joined throughout by pianist Randy Porter, bassist Tom Wakeling, and drummer Todd Strait. Trombonist Dan Barrett (who wrote the excellent liner notes) is on three selections including his “Eastwood Lane,” Tim Jensen (flute and piccolo) and trombonist John Moak are on two songs apiece, the singer’s husband trumpeter Dick Titterington (who supplied the fine arrangements) is on six tunes, and a string quartet is on five of the 11 songs.
Although the performances are not quite as freewheeling or hard-swinging as those on some of Rebecca Kilgore’s albums, the singer sounds very much in her prime, there is plenty of variety in tempos and moods, and Dave Frishberg would have been pleased. Among the highlights are “A Little Taste,” “Little Did I Dream,” “Heart’s Desire,” “Brenda Starr,” and “Ah, So Pure.”
If this is Rebecca Kilgore’s final recording, then she went out on top.
Rebecca Kilgore • A Little Taste
Cherry Pie Music CPM 201
www.cherrypiemusic.com
Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat, Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 900 liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings.
Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag, the New York City Jazz Record and other publications.
