Chris McNulty, an Australian native now based in New York City, sings jazz with warmth and taste along with a light approach and understated swing. This Australian performer generally avoids abstraction or complexity pursued merely for their own sake, keeping her output on the accessible side instead. Influences often cited include Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, while McNulty’s phrasing also carries faint echoes of Cool School figures such as June Christy, Chris Connor, and Anita O’Day. Jo Stafford counts as another artist whose impact, whether direct or indirect, registers to a modest degree. Unlike Stafford, a pop singer shaped by jazz elements, McNulty belongs squarely in the jazz category. That does not mean she ignores popular culture; she actually explored popular music before turning to jazz.
Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, McNulty began singing rock, R&B, and pop. In the early 1970s her tastes encompassed soul singers such as Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and Donny Hathaway, the progressive rock band Yes, and the jazz-inflected traditional pop of Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Around 1976 she immersed herself in hardcore jazz, encountering Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday among others, after which jazz singing became her central focus. By 1978 she was co-leading a jazz ensemble with Australian pianist and composer Paul Grabowsky, later the leader of the Australian Art Orchestra. McNulty remained steadily active on the Australian jazz scene through the early and middle 1980s, then moved to New York in 1988. After three years in the United States, her first American release, Waltz for Debbie, appeared on the Discovery label in 1991. That album marked the first full-length project issued under McNulty’s own name; earlier in Australia she had appeared on various recordings by local artists without producing any solo full-length albums.
Subsequent recordings include A Time for Love, issued by the Amosaya label in 1996, I Remember You, released by Moptop Records in 2002, and Dance Delicioso, which came out on the Elefant Dreams label in 2005.
