Katie Bull is a jazz vocalist and multi-media writer/performer living in New York City since birth. LOVE SPOOK is Bull1s second CD to date. Her premiere CD Conversations with the Jokers (with Michael Jefry Stevens, Lou Grassi, Joe Fonda) was released in March 2003 and received excellent critical notices. Conversations was on 12 Top Ten CMJ Radio charts culminating in an invitation to sing at Jazzweek1s kick-off to the Rochester International Jazz Festival, at the Montage.

She has appeared with numerous musicians including pianists Michael Jefry Stevens, Frank Kimbrough, and Joshua Wolf; percussionists Lou Grassi, Matt Wilson, Harvey Sorgen, George Schuller, and Jon Wikan; and bass players Joe Fonda, Martin Wind, and Cameron Brown.

She has sung with her divine mentors?jazz vocalist/composer Jay Clayton, and Jay Clayton1s Voices & and jazz singer Sheila Jordan. Most recently Katie performed with Judi Silvano in her accapella jazz movement ensemble 3Voices Together. Other musicians Katie has worked with include pianist and composer Kirk Nurock in his Natural Sound; and composer Julius Eastman.

Her next CD, The Bull-Fonda Duo: Cup of Joe, No Bull was released in March '05 to stunning critical response and features Joe Fonda on bass; recorded and engineered by David Baker. Her albums are independently produced on the Corn Hill Indie label, distributed by North Country Distributors, and can be purchased on cdbaby.com, and in selected stores.

Background:
Katie was born in New York City, and raised in the West Village on McDougal Street, and Westbeth. Her jazz piano playing-dancer father used to let her tag along to gigs and various jam sessions, as well as run around on the edges of the dance floors where he was teaching modern dance at NYU. He also snuck her in to hear extraordinary singers and musicians in various village venues including the Village Vanguard and Folk City, long before she was of legal age! She remembers Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Bill Evans, and Elvin Jones, to name just a few.

Soon, she and her dad moved to Brockport, a small town in upstate New York (way upstate, near Canada). It was there, at the jam sessions in the
"parlor" of their home on Adams street that she met numerous extraordinary visiting jazz musicians and composers including percussionist Lou Grassi, to whom she is indebted for his encouragement and support of her career (Lou can be heard on Katie's premiere CD Conversations With the Jokers). As a suburb of Rochester, Brockport was within easy proximity of the Eastman School, where Katie often went to hear great jazz concerts of amazing jazz musicians; a formative moment was watching Keith Jarret improvise on that huge stage in that huge auditorium, and realizing how intimate he was beingwith the piano and the audience.

She then returned to Tribeca, NYC - Manhattan, (before it was "Tribeca") and lived in a raw loft space with her father and stepmother. She got a regular gig at Walkers at the age of 15, singing standards once a week. At this time she was introduced to jazz singer/composer Jay Clayton, and singer Sheila Jordan, both of whom took her under their nurturing wings. She sat in a bit around town, at such venues as The Tin Palace, Sweet Basils, and Phoebes. The most memorable sitting-in moment was the night Joe Williams sat in at Sheila's gig, and then Sheila let Katie sit in too; Katie sang My Funny Valentine, and Harvie Swartz , on bass, pulled out his bow at the end of the tune -- his sensitivity sent electricity up Katie's spine. It was a moment Katie now recognizes as a defining moment in her life; this is jazz, this is a conversation!

Soon she embarked on her own, attending SUNY Purchase, entering as a music major, exiting from the theater conservatory. It was at SUNY Purchase that Katie met mentor Chuck Jones who's revolutionary work in vocal production for the speaking voice changed her life.

Since graduation Katie has been living in Manhattan. Her focus has been in the hybrid-arts movement, also known as the inter-arts movement. She has written and directed numerous experimental productions with her company the Bull Family Orchestra, and this work has allowed her to integrate her background in music, dance, writing, and directing. She has been vocal coaching the speaking voice, and singing in various downtown experimental theaters. She joins the jazz world now, a newcomer - - coming home.