Kat Edmonson Talks Woody Allen, Befriending Gary Clark Jr. Ahead of Jun 1-2 Blue Note Gigs

Some artists are wise beyond their years, and then there’s Kat Edmonson. She began writing songs on the school bus as a young student, and by her late 20s, The New York Times was praising her “steely resolve” and her “equal foothold in jazz, cabaret, and vintage cosmopolitanism pop,” after she released her sophomore album Way Down Low in 2012. A few years later she was performing jazz classics in a cameo for the Woody Allen period piece Café Society, walking in the footsteps of the bygone icons that she grew up watching on the Turner Classic Movies channel.

Despite those recent feats, Edmonson’s love for vintage aesthetics didn’t exactly lead to instant success. Below she tells us about how her jazz inclinations clashed with her peers in Austin, along with dishing on the musicians she came up with like Gary Clark Jr., revealing how her first Beijing gig has already been marred by censorship, and more.    

Last month you released your fourth album, Old Fashioned Gal. What were some of your muses and inspirations for it?
When I was writing it, I was actually watching a lot of old movies from the 1930s and early 1940s simultaneously, because I was sick in bed. So I ended up writing what sounds like a musical from another time.

Is there something about that era that speaks to you in particular?
It’s what I grew up watching. I love how simultaneously grandiose and nuanced it is. There are all these art deco designs and really extravagant things that people were wearing, and it all matched the extremely lush orchestrations. And yet, you’ve still got every singer’s inflection, and you heard every bell. So, on this new album, I aimed to capture those things I love: a really lush sound, as well as an extreme intimacy.

You mentioned growing up watching these kinds of movies. Speaking of your early days: I read that you wrote your first song on the school bus.
Yeah! I remember it being incredibly easy. I was just looking out the window, making up the song, and before I knew it, it was complete with verses and a chorus. It was pretty melodic. It was in the country western style because I grew up in Texas and there was a lot of that around. It’s a song that I would readily pitch to someone today, though I haven’t had the opportunity yet [laughs].

Were you envisioning a professional career with equal clarity? Or was it just a hobby?
I understood that it was quite inevitable for me because I wrote quite naturally. I never really planned for it until I was in college when everyone was trying to determine what they would do, and I suddenly realized that that was my moment to take off and pursue it. So I dropped out of school and just started to write songs.

And from there you spent time working your way up in the Austin music scene, right? What was that like?
It is such a rich scene that it took time for me to find my place in it. Jazz isn’t a popular music form there [laughs]. So I kind of felt that there wasn’t a place for me for a really long time. Until there finally was, because I essentially made one. No one else was releasing albums and putting on the types of shows I was at the level I was doing it. At first, that made everything difficult because there was no clear path. But ultimately that was an asset for me because I was the one who held that place.

I’ve read about how you and chart-topping blues rocker Gary Clark Jr. came up together in Austin. What do you admire most about him as an artist?
He wasn’t as concerned with being a great career person as he was with being a great musician. So when you see a musician going around schmoozing and doing everything they can on social media – not that that’s a bad thing, it’s what one does – but it seemed like Gary was able to bypass all that and just practice, by himself in his room, until certain people saw him and realized he should be playing for a lot more people than he was.

Were you confident you’d find similar success?
Not at all! I guess, if I were more impatient, it would have been worse. But I was naive and I was having a ball, so the time just flew and I had a blast. And when everything was said and done I had spent years playing shows in Austin, a few nights a week, building a name for myself, and building relationships. Then there came a point that I had to leave Austin because I reached a ceiling, and in order to reach another level I had to move to a more international city.

I’ve read that you went to New York from there, and before long you were touring abroad, including a gig in Taiwan. So this Blue Note Beijing show won’t be your first time in Asia.
Yes! And playing Taiwan was amazing. The turnout was fantastic, it was just a sea of people in a beautiful park. And I actually got some time off to explore the area, and to go to this beautiful place called Alishan. It was amazing and I loved it, and I want to go back.

When you tour abroad do you often get to tour around like that?
No, usually scheduling is pretty tight. But I’ll try to do something special wherever I go, even if it’s driving up to a particular statue in the town or something. I also love to eat, so I’ll try to go to an authentic restaurant or something, to help me remember the city by.

So it must be exciting to return to Asia for this Beijing gig?
Yes, but it hasn’t gone entirely smoothly. The Chinese consulate needed a set list approved for the show before my record was released. And because my album hadn’t come out yet and they couldn’t review the music, they insisted that I play all the repertoire from my past records. Which means I’m not going to be able to perform music from my new album, Old Fashioned Gal, at these shows.

Oh, I’m sorry to hear that!
Yeah, it’s a bummer if people are looking forward to that. But I’m just excited to play in China at all. It was a real surprise to get these shows at the last minute, and I have no idea what to expect. And this will be the first time most people there see me perform anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. But yeah, I am slightly bummed.

Some people might come to your shows for new material or for your older hits, and others might come after seeing your cameo appearances in movies like Woody Allen's Café Society. How did it feel to be on those sets, after being a fan of film and music all your life?
For Café Society, I was in this vintage dress, standing on the set of a 1930s nightclub, and I was getting ready to sing repertoire from that time. I’d been spending my entire life alone in my room practicing how to do that. I thought about all the films I watched and all the time that I rehearsed that repertoire from that era when no one asked me to and there was no promise that anything would come of it, it was only a matter of me loving it. And there I finally was, and I couldn’t believe I had arrived.

So it was as amazing as you always thought it would be?
Maybe even more.

Kat Edmonson will perform at Blue Note Beijing on Jun 1 and 2 at 7.30pm. Tickets start at RMB 200. For more information, click here.

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Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
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Photos: NPR, San Jose Summer Jazz Festival, Leo Sigh, Austin Music Source