92Y Jazz Presents Paula West and the George Mesterhazy Quartet, 11/19

Paula West has been hailed as one of the hardest-swinging jazz vocalists working today, a singer whose rich, dusky voice has captured the hearts of critics and audiences alike. On Saturday, November 19 she comes to 92nd Street Y with the George Mesterhazy Quartet for the first concert of the 92Y Jazz 2011-2012 season.

Known for a distinctive repertoire that includes such diverse material as Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" and standards like "Fly Me to the Moon," West adds her own depth and drama to whichever song she chooses. "In the end," she explains, "it's just getting the story across. To me, the words are the most important thing." As the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times critic Margo Jefferson writes in her liner notes to West's 2001 album Come What May "Ms. West never forces anything. She is rhythmically fluid and she knows just where to alter a melody, but there are none of the embellishments that show off the voice, bury the song and leave the heart untouched."

West has performed at The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, Feinstein's at the Regency, The Jazz Standard, Birdland, Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Lincoln Center, The Blue Note, and The Iridium, as well as at the White House in a salute to American writers. She has also sung at major jazz festivals and shared the bill with such luminaries as Rosemary Clooney, Jimmy Scott, Oscar Brown Jr., Freddy Cole, Mose Allison, Mavis Staples, and Dave Frishberg. In 2009 she performed at 92Y as part of the Lyrics & Lyricists centennial tribute to Johnny Mercer. West has won three New York Nightlife Awards for Outstanding Female Jazz Vocalist and has released the critically acclaimed CD's Temptation, Restless, and Come What May. Her new CD, Live at the Jazz Standard, is due out this winter.

The George Mesterhazy Quartet is Ed Cherry, guitar; Paul Beaudry, bass; Jerome Jennings, drums; and George Mesterhazy, piano.