Biography
Jazz vocalist Cathi Walkup navigates a mixed landscape as an independent artist entering the twenty-first century, one that both surpasses and falls short of the paths taken by the earlier figures who shaped her approach. Whereas Anita O'Day, Ella Fitzgerald, and Irene Kral benefited from frequent engagements alongside the prominent big bands of their era, Walkup gains access to a resource those singers could not have imagined: the Internet. She capitalizes on digital tools to share samples of her singing and compositions, replicating the promotional reach that touring big bands once achieved nationwide. Because the web operates without geographic limits, listeners in the Netherlands and South Africa who reach her San Francisco-based site can explore her work with an ease unavailable to earlier jazz enthusiasts. Her voice also travels via radio broadcasts in Poland and Germany, while live appearances take her to stages across California and Hawaii, with additional East Coast bookings under consideration. In this way she merges the refined craft of jazz tradition with contemporary technological resources. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she moved to San Francisco in 1976. Her initial ensemble experience arrived in 1980 when she joined Mixed Bags; several years later, during the early 1990s, she formed her own swing and jazz outfit, Cathi Walkup's Swing Thing. She studied music theory under Jim Grantham and voice with Hugh McClure. Her debut release, Cathi Walkup Live at the Plush Room, appeared solely on cassette. The first compact disc, Night Owl, followed in 1996. Through her own imprint, Flying Weasel Enterprises, she has released four albums in total, two of them compilations.
Albums
