Hetty Kate

Hetty Kate is a jazz vocalist who makes people feel at home - whether she's performing in a Paris jazz club, on a festival stage in Japan, or in a concert hall with a full symphony orchestra.

Born in Hampshire, England, and raised in Melbourne, Australia, she came up through the jazz scene the old-fashioned way: mentored by seasoned players, absorbing the tradition night after night. Melbourne's jazz community gave her something formal education rarely does - a swing feel that comes from playing it, not studying it. She spent five years touring with Australian jazz legend James Morrison, who described her as having "a stage presence only matched by the clarity of her voice." She's played herself in a French television drama, played Ava Gardner in an original Australian musical, and performed as a featured soloist with symphony orchestras across Australia and beyond. US critic Will Friedwald calls her "one of the best swing-style vocalists on the current scene."

On The Road

But Hetty has never been someone who stays in one place. Since moving to Paris in 2017, she's toured across twenty-eight countries - from Chile to Norway, India to Israel - and released eleven albums that move across a lot of ground: Western Swing, Lindy Hop, Lounge Exotica, Modern Jazz. Her trio album Under Paris Skies reached number two on the Japanese Jazz Charts. What stays constant is her approach - a deep respect for the melody and the lyric, and a trust in the song to carry the story. She's often praised for what she doesn't do. One US critic wrote that you might think of her as "an intuitive jeweller who knows how to present even the smallest stone so that it gleams memorably."

Jazz in Four Seasons

All of which has been leading somewhere. Her current project, Jazz in Four Seasons, is a four-album series - each volume recorded in a different city, in a different season, with local musicians, letting the place and the time of year shape the music. Volume 1, Spring, was recorded in Prague with Czech musicians, with special guests weaving cimbalom, violin and flute as traditional textures with a jazz rhythm section. It's out now, and the next three seasons are on the way.

In the Room

But whatever she's recording, it always comes back to the room. Hetty's performances are known for creating a sense of shared joy that lingers long after the music ends.

If you haven't seen her live, that's the place to start.