Kat Edmonson

Kat Edmonson (born August 3, 1983) is an American vintage-pop vocalist, songwriter, and actress. She has recorded three albums to date, two of which debuted and peaked at #1 on the U.S. Billboard Heatseekers chart. Her most recent studio album, “The Big Picture” was released on September 30, 2014 by Sony Masterworks, for whom she is in the process of recording another record, due to come out in 2017.

While typically associated with the jazz genre, Kat Edmonson’s compositions incorporate traditional pop, chamber pop, early Rock ‘n’ roll, blues, bossa nova, country pop and folk, as well as more traditional jazz and swing styling. Edmonson coined the term "vintage pop" to describe the type of music she makes and defines it as being reminiscent of "popular music from bygone eras".

Early life

Edmonson was born and raised in Houston, TX as an only child of a single mother, who shared with Kat her affinity for the Great American Songbook, as well as traditional music from the 1940s and ‘50s. Edmonson wrote her first song at age nine while riding on the school bus. In 2002, after a year at The College of Charleston in South Carolina, Edmonson moved to Austin, Texas to pursue a professional music career.

Career

In 2002 Edmonson auditioned for the second season of American Idol where she was one of the Top 48 contestants invited to Hollywood. She returned to Austin from Los Angeles and spent several years as a regular in the Austin club scene. In March of 2009, Edmonson’s self-released, debut album Take To the Sky reached Top 20 on the Billboard Jazz chart, garnering national attention from radio and press. Take To the Sky opened the door to performance opportunities headlining the Taichung Jazz Festival in Taiwan as well as Tanglewood and the New York City Jazz Festival. Upon playing the New York City Jazz Festival, Edmonson relocated to Brooklyn, New York where she still resides.

In 2010, Edmonson was invited by Lyle Lovett to open for his U.S. Summer tour. In December of 2010 Lovett invited Kat to perform “Baby, It’s Cold Outside" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Lovett and Edmonson’s cover was released on Lovett’s 2012 album, ‘’Release Me’’. Their collaborations continued with Edmonson's composition "Long Way Home" on Way Down Low, Edmonson's second studio album.

Way Down Low, consisting of predominantly original work, came out in 2012 following a successful Kickstarter campaign. Way Down Low received warm critical reception from the New York Times and NPR reaching #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and the iTunes singer-songwriter and jazz charts. In 2012, Edmonson appeared on NPR's Tiny Desk concert series, Austin City Limits and in 2013, A Prairie Home Companion. She returned to A Prairie Home Companion again in November 2014, reprising the character Cat Mandu that Garrison Keilor wrote for her for the show’s regular skit, “Guy Noir, Private Eye.”

In the spring of 2013, Edmonson embarked on her first U.S. tour with eleven concerts as a headliner. The following summer she played several festivals in Europe, including the Montreux Jazz Festival. As the opening act for Jamie Cullum, Edmonson toured the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Spain, and France and the UK in the fall of 2013. She has also toured with Michael Kiwanuka, Chris Isaak, and Gary Clark, Jr.

Edmonson's third album The Big Picture was released on September 30, 2014, through Sony Masterworks. Like her second album, it reached #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Edmonson's song "Lucky" is featured twice in the movie Admission (Tina Fey and Paul Rudd) also appearing as the end-credit song and in the Coca-Cola Footprints ad for the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

In 2015, Edmonson appeared on one of the final episodes of The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS with the band Asleep at the Wheel. She performed the standard, “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” in promotion of Asleep at the Wheel’s collaborative Bob Wills tribute album, Still The King.

Edmonson has appeared in two films: Angels Sing (2013) and Café Society (2016). In Angels Sing, Edmonson appears as herself and sings “Christmas Time is Here” with Lyle Lovett. In Café Society, directed by Woody Allen, Edmonson plays the Les Tropiques Night Club Singer, performing the classics "Mountain Greenery" and "Jeepers Creepers".

Edmonson has been featured in multiple publications, including the Huffington Post. In 2013, Kat wrote a blog post to her home state of Texas entitled "Kat Edmonson Loves Austin, Texas". She also wrote "Campari and Conversation", highlighting a rare moment of "idle chat" and cocktails with fellow musician Pete Smith.

Kat Edmonson
(Aarhus Jazz Festival in Denmark 2013)
Photo Hreinn Gudlaugsson

• Take To The Sky, Convivium, 2009
• Way Down Low, Spinnerette Records, 2012
• The Big Picture, Sony Masterworks, 2014

• Angels Sing, 2013 (guest appearance)
• Café Society, 2016

• "Songwriters Hall of Fame" Abe Olman Scholarship Award for Excellence in Songwriting, 2013