THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 24, 1995 TAG: 9508240013
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARVIN LEON LAKE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Long : 119 lines
``BE CAREFUL what you ask for.''
Kevin Mahogany's on the line from New York - Room 1507 of the Gramercy Park Hotel, to be exact. Shortly, he'll make it over to Sweet Basil, the very in Seventh Avenue jazz club.
Mahogany's got a weeklong gig there - his very first - and he can't help but marvel at how far he has come and how his life has changed since his struggling days in his native Kansas City.
``I've been home only six weeks this year. Luckily, my wife's pretty cool,'' says Mahogany, 35 and married just a year and a month.
He has gone from holding a day job - moving from the mail room to personnel with the Internal Revenue Service - and singing in Kansas City nightspots to being one of the hottest new jazz vocalists.
Recently, he placed sixth in Downbeat magazine's annual critics poll, behind the likes of Joe Williams, Mel Torme, Bobby McFerrin, Tony Bennett and Jimmy Scott. In the Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition category, be beat out everyone.
Mahogany - he's been dubbed ``the first authentic link in years in the chain of America's cultural flow, which is jazz music'' - is pretty much where he always wanted to be. Where it seemed for the longest time he'd never be.
A big man with a big, rich baritone voice, Mahogany has made it on the basis of just two albums. ``Double Rainbow,'' his debut release, came out in late 1993 on Enja, the internationally distributed German jazz label. Recorded during a six-hour session, the album featured 13 old and new tunes, including Miles Davis' ``All Blues'' and Thelonious Monk's ``Pannonica.'' That LP was followed by last year's ``Songs and Moments,'' an eclectic mix of tunes - from ``Take the A Train'' to Milton Nascimento's title track.
To a large extent, Mahogany owes his change of fortunes to a fateful trip he took to New York City in 1993. Short on cash but determined to land a record deal, he met with several people, including vibe player Gust Tsilis, with whom he'd been friendly since they'd gigged together at the Bop Shop, a Chicago jazz club. Tsilis, an Enja representative, had encouraged Mahogany to send some demo tapes. But the singer decided to present his case in person.
``I caught Enja at a time when everyone considered male vocalists comatose or dead. In fact, Enja wasn't even looking for a male vocalist,'' Mahogany says. ``They were looking for a female vocalist.''
Mahogany struck a three-album deal with Enja. If the Tsilis-produced ``Double Rainbow'' hit, there was option for making two more recordings.
Mahogany's third release, ``You Got What It Takes,'' is due out Sept. 22. It'll include ``Stockhom Sweetin','' an early Quincy Jones tune; ``Please Send Me Someone to Love''; Billie Holiday's ``God Bless the Child''; and ``Route 66.''
On the title tune, Mahogany duets with another bright new star on the jazz scene, Jeanie Bryson, the daughter of the late jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.
Why Jeanie Bryson?
``I really like the way her voice fits,'' Mahogany says. ``It's a nice contrast. Hers is a little smoother, and mine is a little raw.''
His obligations to Enja fulfilled, Mahogany has just signed with a new label. But he won't say which one. He's waiting to announce that during an upcoming television segment on his career.
Some critics have bemoaned what they see as a scarcity of male jazz singers, but Mahogany says he's heard plenty since he's been getting around. ``Most just don't have record deals,'' he observed. ``They haven't reached this level yet. A lot of them tend to go the rhythm-and-blues and pop route, because that's where the money is.
``I know a few of them right now looking for a record deal.''
Mahogany's been there.
He got an early start in jazz, playing baritone saxophone at age 12 with the 18-piece Kansas City New Breed Orchestra. He would later study piano, woodwind instruments and percussion before exploring his hidden passion for singing during his senior year in high school. Later, at Baker University in Baldwin City, Kan., Mahogany studied music, English, and drama. He also formed a jazz choir, while continuing to earn money as a musician. After graduate studies at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, Mahogany returned home.
``I kind of got led astray a few times - thinking I should be doing something other than what I wanted to do,'' Mahogany recalls.
Thus his flirtation with rhythm and blues and his stints with a couple of nondescript soul groups, doing 1960s Motown sounds.
But he kept asking himself: ``What do I really want to do? What do I really want to be?'' And the answer for the man who worshiped Jon Hendricks and Al Jarreau (``I wore out his `Look to the Rainbow' '') was a jazz singer.
What makes a jazz singer a jazz singer? In Mahogany's case, it's ``scatting more than anything else he does that gives him authenticity as a jazz singer,'' wrote Jon Hendricks in the liner notes to ``Double Rainbow.''
Perhaps. Mahogany isn't sure.
``I don't know why they call me a jazz singer,'' he says. ``I guess it's because I bring it all together. A lot of people consider you a jazz singer if you can improvise. People who sing standards are jazz singers.''
Mahogany has two requirements for selecting tunes. ``First, I look for a strong lyrics,'' he says. ``I look for the instrumental sound. I'm always looking for a good grove, whether its swing or a ballad. Those two things mean more to me than whether I can scat over the change.''
Today, Mahogany prefers to be considered ``a very good singer. Period. I just happen to be doing jazz right now, and I enjoy jazz. But there are a lot of things I want to pick up and do.''
He's thinking about doing some r&b tunes in a jazz vein. ``But it has to be solid r&b tunes,'' he says. Then there's a ``definite possibility'' he might play saxophone on a future album. Maybe even include an instrumental cut. That would blow some folks' minds, he says.
Right now he's got to rest his chops. He wants to be good for that Sweet Basil crowd. And he says it again: ``Be careful what you wish for.''
But there's no tone of regret. In fact, Mahogany is chuckling. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by Associated Booking Corp.
Left: Baritone Kevin Mahogany will highlight the Town Point Jazz
Festival this weekend.
Graphic
Town Point Jazz Festival
Where
When
How Much
Call: 441-2345
by CNB