Don't miss an opportunity to hear this wonderful singer perform both jazz standards and more contemporary vocal explorations. Here's a female singer who doesn't fall back on all of the tried and true approaches, is willing to take chances and explore all the edges of a song in her vocalizations in public performance and has the self-assuredness of style to make it work for her audience.

If you're a fan, I'm sure your copy of Kate's latest album, "Devil May Care" is in your well-played series. If you don't know her work and pick up a copy, you'll want to see Kate in live performance the next time she's here from Vancouver on one of her too infrequent visits to Ottawa .

Jim Roy

CRITICAL PRAISE FOR HER EARLIER CD: HOW MY HEART SINGS

At a time when substance in singing jazz standards has almost completely been outweighed by cocktail style, the winsome Kate Hammett-Vaughan whose daringly intuitive delivery reflects both the pragmatic economy of Sheila Jordan and the soulful assuredness of Abbey Lincoln - is redressing the balance.

There's a slight suggestion of Hammett-Vaughan's sense of adventure in the offbeat song selection for How My Heart Sings, which features Duke Ellington's I'm Gonna Go Fishin', but what sets her apart from your average lounge chanteuse is her willingness to mix it up with her bandmates. Swooping, sliding and scatting with verve, Hammett-Vaughan takes risks, and that makes for exciting music and thrilling performances.

TIM PERLICH, NOW MAGAZINE, TORONTO, OCTOBER 1999

Kate Hammett-Vaughn at Ottawa's Bayou Jazz & Blues Club on 30 january 2003

BIOGRAPHY

Since moving to Vancouver from her native Nova Scotia in 1979, Kate Hammett-Vaughan has established a reputation as one of Canada's pre-eminent jazz vocalists.

Acclaimed for her interpretation of the jazz standard repertoire as well as her contemporary vocal explorations with groups such as Garbo's Hat and the NOW Orchestra, she has recorded for the Nine Winds, Word of Mouth, Les Disques Victo, CBC Variety, Maya and Maximum Jazz labels, and has appeared extensively on CBC radio and television.

Kate has been seen on television screens nationwide as the host of the CBC "Jazz Cafe" series. She has been featured on the cover of Vancouver's Georgia Straight, Vancouver's major entertainment magazine, and in many other West Coast publications including Vancouver Magazine, Step, Earshot Jazz, and California Jazz Now, and in CODA, Canada's leading journal of jazz and improvised music.

PRESS QUOTES

A wonderfully breezy singer who slips free of a song's formal constraints at no risk to its familiar sentiments an important Canadian jazz voice.

Diana Krall isn't the only important Canadian jazz singer on tour this month. Vancouver's Kate Hammett-Vaughan (is touring) with her quintet in support of her new CD How My Heart Sings.

Mark Miller, Globe and Mail (Toronto)

Strictly for black coffee drinkers. Expect the uncommon when she delivers a tune Style is the keynote with Hammett-Vaughan.

TV Week Magazine (Vancouver)

Hammett-Vaughan speaks jazz so fluently it must be her native tongue (she has) a subtle vocabulary which is virtuosic in its eloquence.

Stephen Pedersen, Chronicle Herald (Halifax)

Hammett-Vaughan has a highly personal style that introduces the glinting tangents of a Sheila Jordan to the multi-tonal audacity of a Betty Carter. a micro-stylist who remembers a song’s macro impact.

Earshot Jazz (Seattle)

Her voice produced everything from a breath to a scream, and every sound was smooth, unwavering, soaked in spice wine, and beautiful.

The Gleaner (Vancouver)

She's an improviser willing to meet the challenges of the voice as instrument.

Joseph Murphy, California Jazz Now

She's a torch of the subterranean homesick, a poem written in lipstick on the subway wall. Steam heat.

The Georgia Straight (Vancouver)

The finest jazz standards singer in Canada.

Lawrence Svirchev, CODA Magazine

Kate's Official Web Site