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Lionel Hampton
"At last the search is over. The next great jazz voice is Kitty Margolis!"

The Los Angeles Times
"[Margolis] dispensed multileveled layers of pleasure. Completely centered, completely in the moment, the sheer sense of joy in performing was a palpable presence in everything she did. A firm believer in the notion that entertainment and artistry can be completely compatible with one another, she proved that premise in one number after another. Underlying and enhancing all her other extraordinary qualities, there was Margolis' sophisticated musicality--an ear for harmony, an improvisational imagination and a buoyant sense of rhythmic swing that place her at the very top level of the jazz vocal art."

JAZZIZ
"Makes you feel good about jazz singing again... bewitching from start to finish. What makes Margolis such distinctly modern vocalist? Her greatest strength is her attitude: a nervy, knowing verve that captures the spirit of the present without drowning out the past."

The I. A. J. E. Journal
"Left Coast Life voted the #1 Vocal Jazz CD of 2001. "Totally in command, Margolis is on the leading edge of the jazz vocal game."

Sydney Morning Herald
"Anyone who thinks jazz can get a little too cerebral would lap up the Kitty Margolis approach. It was obvious she was an accomplished improviser who could negotiate chord changes with the flair of a rally driver driving through a sequence of hairpin bends. Especially distinguishing was her ability to be playful and poignant at the same time... ballads showing off the radiant lower register of Margolis's voice. Marvellously reinventing a haunting song, [Margolis delivered] swirls of breathy melody over a simple ostinato, making for that rarest of creations, a love song with a difference... A sophisticated, funny, and highly musical jazz singer."

Los Angeles New Times
"Margolis is that rare performer who's able to bring her art into the realm of the transpersonal, thereby eliminating ego barriers between her, her band, and the audience. It's this communication, coupled with a palpable exuberance for singing, that makes Margolis special. Like few other singers, she is expanding and contemporizing the vocal jazz vernacular. Spectacular"

The Musichound Guide to Jazz
"Explosively hip... the ultimate listen."

Los Angeles Times
"One of the L.A. area's best live performances of the year 2000... brilliant."

Down Beat Magazine
"Four Stars. Margolis delivers the music with caressive passion, sparkling elegance and breezy lyricism...superb."

The Cleveland Scene
"Margolis' stylings evoke Betty Carter one moment and Marilyn Monroe the next...sexy, sparkling, luminous and enthralling. She sings with joy and spunk. Not only does Margolis write cool tunes - her funky 'You Just Might Get It' marries the Beatnik soulfulness of Mose Allison with the glittering disdain of Carly Simon's 'You're So Vain'- she has superb taste in music and musicians. Her topics are pretentiousness, authenticity and intimacy and she's always credible. (Left Coast Life is) album that always generates heat but never loses its cool"

The Boston Globe
"An impeccable stylist with innovative musical ideas...sultry, edgy, warm, wonderful...a vocalist who succeeds by taking a different approach."

The San Francisco Chronicle
"SF's most vivacious jazz singer has just issued (Left Coast Life) her fourth and best album of dazzling jazz vocals."

The Omaha Reader
"When you infuse this much real jazz into the vocal medium, the whole notion of singing a song explodes. Sensuous and fearless (with a) lethal wit. Margolis is clearly at the top of her game."

Billboard
"Margolis has crafted a disc that reflects the myriad musical and societal influences that have informed her... a fresh, fun sound."

The San Jose Mercury News
"A musician always seeking to extend the jazz tradition to reflect contemporary life, Margolis embraces the pulsing energy and messy passion that flourishes in both good times and bad. Often defined by pyrotechnic scatting (and) improvisational flights, her ballads can be sumptuous, heart-stopping affairs. (Margolis) has carved out an impressive niche that defies the music industry's constrained vision of jazz vocals."

Kansas City Star
"Generating plenty of buzz in the jazz world...the word is out: Kitty Margolis is one of the most exciting singers in jazz."

Jazziz Magazine
"If anyone is the epitome of a jazz vocalist in the '90's, it's Kitty Margolis."

USA Today
"An astute scatter, a hard swinger and a beautiful balladeer."

JazzTimes Magazine
"Rarely does a female jazz vocalist emerge who exhibits the assurance, skill, creativity and expressiveness to cast her into the spotlight with singers such as Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae or Betty Carter. Kitty Margolis, with her rich contralto, perfect pitch, facile phrasing and strong sense of swing, matches these masters."

Swing Journal , Japan
"An amazing talent...'Straight Up With a Twist' is a perfect masterpiece."

San Francisco Examiner
"Kitty Margolis has the magic touch. Her jazz singing is hitting on all cylinders. The best vocal jazz disc in years."

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Margolis swings hard and often with a strong in-your-face voice that's terrifically malleable and wide-ranging very exciting."

Jazz Review
"Her voice is one of a kind, very seductive, very much in sync with the emotions of the lyric and its music, and a voice that vibrates with shared emotional responses. Left Coast Life (is) a perfect blend of jazz vocals and jazz music."

Down Beat
Voted Winner "Talent Deserving Wider Recognition" in the 1999 International Critics' Poll (Also voted "TDWR" in 1998, 1997, 1995 and 1994)

The East Bay Express
"On Left Coast Life Margolis celebrates idealism and irony, humor and poignancy, bringing a 21st century sensibility to her eclectic repertoire. The album highlights Margolis' ability to delve into the core of a lyric with breathtaking emotional intelligence and wit, and the music bridges the straight-ahead jazz tradition with the hippest innovations of the San Francisco 'new jazz' scene."

The IAJE Journal and Jazz USA
Voted Left Coast Life one of the Top 10 Jazz CDs of 2001.

Jazz Times
"A visionary approach to melody and rhythm...mindbending...intoxicating... funky."

Global Music Network
"San Francisco's best vocalist... a consumate musician."

Los Angeles Times
"Margolis brings imagination and a wide open sense of wonder to everything she sings...a first rate artist.

Chicago Tribune
"She is the real thing in jazz...stylish, swinging, in love with the risk of improvisation...genuinely individual."

San Francisco Bay Guardian
"Redefines what we think a jazz vocal album can be...Margolis' voice is the crucial, intoxicating ingredient."

Atlanta Journal Constitution
"The singer's impressively broad range and taste mark her as a genre bender. But she's also won approval from peers not likely to be swayed by sheer razzle dazzle...hot young trumpeter Roy Hargrove touts Margolis as one of his favorites."

Cadence
"Margolis is a terrific singer, an awesome technician, a profoundly original conceptualizer, a musical force to be reckoned with."

Big O Magazine, Singapore
"Besides being an outstanding vocalist, she is a fine lyricist and arranger. (Evolution is) ...a thoroughly inspiring release."

The Stockton Record
"Her voice carries a clear blast of the contemporary...Margolis is today's jazz voice."

The Monterey Herald
"Kitty Margolis has the kind of sound that inspires legends. Brimming with enthusiasm and daring she takes to melodies like a sculptor to clay, molding them with skill and soul...a deeply rhythmic and expressive performer. "

The Express
"(With) her sexy, throaty voice, her dead-on sense of swing and rare sense of humor, the in place to be is wherever Margolis happens to be performing."

The Village Voice
Critics' Poll - "Evolution is one of 1994's Best Jazz Recordings"

Latin Beat
"This sultry voiced jazz diva paints a soundscape with a voice and style that are cool and tender. She doesn't belt out tunes, instead with her hornlike phrasing and articulation, confidently brushes over musical masterpieces in colorful and bold vocal strokes."

Leonard Feather, L.A. Times
"She cooks in bop, is lyrical on ballads and is superbly gutsy on blues. Margolis possesses impeccable taste and selectivity."

Stan Getz
"Kitty is a very talented singer steeped in the jazz tradition. I really enjoy listening to her."

Sheila Jordan
"After hearing Kitty's wonderful work, I'm sure that the art of jazz singing is safe and sound."

Etta Jones
"Kitty Margolis is a fine vocalist in every sense of the word. And can she swing? You bet she can!"

Bobby Hutcherson
"I love Kitty's taste. I love her bullseye intonation. I love her joyous connection with the audience. This is very mature singing."

Amazon.com
"While vocalist Kitty Margolis is often compared to jazz greats like Sarah Vaughn and Ella Fitzgerald, a more apt and contemporary comparison would be to Cassandra Wilson. Not that the two singers have much in common stylistically--Margolis's vocal delivery is much more energetic than the sultry and laid-back Wilson--but the two share in common a willingness to broaden their palette beyond the traditional reaches of the jazz singer. Such willingness to follow her own muse is what makes Left Coast Life, such an enjoyable and refreshing jazz vocal album."

The Times
"Fresh, adventurous and exciting...her voice-radiant, beguiling and pliant--(Margolis) colors each song on her new album in bold, bright strokes bursting with power and emotion."

The San Francisco Bay Guardian
"Margolis can evoke the amber warmth of Sarah Vaughn or the carefree lilt of Ella Fitzgerald, but her "evolution" has brought her to her own distinctive plateau among modern vocalists."

Jazziz
"...fiery warmth, steely attack, high-voltage scat...not just a fine young vocalist, but an important new jazz voice."

The Gavin Report
"Serious scat that will remind you of a female Leon Thomas."

Jazz Now
"Kitty's warm vibrato, playful demeanor and risk taking edge separates her from the less mature and less inspired."

Billboard
"...a classic jazz singer who mixes her moods-from gutsy to seductive - with compelling musicality."

Dallas Observer
"Kitty Margolis has got the goods-- voice, passion and guts...as long as she's willing to keep taking chances, I'll gladly listen."

Modern Drummer
"One of the most stylish, assured vocalists on the scene today."

The Gavin Report
"In the great tradition of bebop scat singers, Kitty Margolis displays an uncanny ability to be the leading voice while fitting in effortlessly with her supporting cast as an additional instrument. Evolution, currently enjoying a run up the Gavin jazz chart, is the key word when describing Margolis' development as a jazz vocalist."

The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Extraordinary scatting abilities, Margolis covers the heart of the jazz tradition...a singer to watch."

Omaha World Herald
"A singer with consummate improvising and interpretation skills."

The Express
"(With) her sexy, throaty voice, her dead-on sense of swing and rare sense of humor, the in place to be is wherever Margolis happens to be performing."

The Portland Skanner
"Straight Up With a Twist is one of the best vocal releases of the past 5 or 6 years."

Jazz Forum, Poland
"One of the top jazz singers of the 1990's"

CD Review
"Four Stars. A carefully conceived and well executed collection of songs that not only showcases Kitty's captivating and stylistically versatile voice, but also demonstrates her impeccable taste...stellar."

San Jose Mercury News
"Try to catch her now, before she hits it really big. Then you can say you saw her back in the old days."