Hetty Kate

With impeccable timing, a raised eyebrow, and a natural, clarion tone, Paris-based jazz vocalist and bandleader Hetty Kate brings twenty years of deep repertoire knowledge to her lyric-led interpretations of the American Songbook. Her latest project, Jazz in Four Seasons, is a four-album series in which each volume is recorded in a different city with local musicians chosen to reflect both the season and the place. Volume 1, Spring, was recorded in Prague with five Czech musicians and features fresh interpretations of works by Strayhorn, Ellington, Dameron, and Brubeck. It is the eleventh album from an artist whose career spans continents, concert halls, and jazz clubs alike.

In 2012, Australian jazz luminary James Morrison invited Hetty to join his touring band, and she performed with him for five years. She was featured in Morrison's symphonic production The A to Z of Jazz, which toured internationally with major orchestras, and the live Melbourne Symphony Orchestra recording received an Australian Jazz Bell Award for Best Traditional Album in 2016. Her trio album Under Paris Skies reached #2 on the Japanese Jazz Charts in 2020, confirming a reputation that had been quietly building well beyond Australia's borders.

Born in Hampshire, England, Hetty arrived in Melbourne as a teenager. Classical training gave her a solid foundation, but it was Melbourne's jazz scene that set her career in motion. She was mentored by seasoned players, absorbing the tradition the way it once travelled: player to player, night after night. That grounding in swing still shapes her phrasing and her connection to the music. With a repertoire of over five hundred songs from the American Songbook and beyond, her concerts move easily between classics and curiosities from the jazz canon.

Now based in Paris and touring internationally, Hetty has built a reputation for performances that create a sense of shared joy that lingers long after the music ends. US critic Michael Steinman put it well: "You might think of her as an intuitive jeweller who knows how to present even the smallest stone so that it gleams memorably." Her approach to performance is rooted in generosity - to the music, to her musicians, and to the audience.