Hetty Kate

Hello! Thanks for stopping by. My name's Hetty Kate, and I'm an Australian jazz singer based in Paris. I've been working on a rather ambitious and beautiful new project, and I hope that you will help me to begin. Please read on, and I'll tell you all about it.

Who am I?

I know some friends might be reading this, but if we haven't met, I'm a jazz singer; it's my full-time job and has been for many years (it wasn't the best job to have in a pandemic, but let's move on). I love it, and I feel honoured to be able to entertain people, make them laugh, and share these musical treasures I love to sing. I've sung in over 25 countries, appeared on film, TV, and radio, and recorded in Australia and the USA. I've sung as a featured vocalist with eight symphonic orchestras and played at festivals from New Zealand to New York. I was mentored by the best of the Melbourne jazz scene and had the immense good fortune to be Australian Jazz Luminary James Morrison's vocalist for 5–6 years (and learned so much)! I also spent a few great years singing for the Lindy Hop scene around the world and have performed for dancers across the US, Asia, Europe, and Australia.

You can watch me sing here and here.

During my 17-year career, I've released 10 albums, and all bar one have been independent releases. Just me, my artistic notions, some talented, generous musicians, and no label sponsorship or other funding avenues. I won't belabour the point, but I have to say that's getting tougher and tougher to do! Still, having the freedom to create from the heart without following a 'tried and true' step-by-step process is important to me. I like to be able to make my own musical decisions; I like to be able to share them with you; it's art; it's personal; it's important. 

Planting the seed

So one thing I do is travel. The fire to move was lit in my belly at the age of 8 when my parents took me from the rolling green fields of Hampshire to a hot, shimmering beachside town in Melbourne. That fire has never gone out. Some say I 'love to leave'—and I can't deny it—but I also love to arrive. It's hackneyed, isn't it? "I like to travel"—pfft, who doesn't? Travelling will inspire you, but it will also crumple you up; it'll spit you out and make you feel very small, then huge and unwieldy, but by golly, you'll learn some things. So in a fit of Brexit in 2017, I moved from the fertile, friendly, and creative jazz scene in Melbourne to 'start again' in Paris. That's a whole story requiring tea, biscuits, and a professional counsellor. No time for that; let's forge onward.

In the last seven years in Europe (aside from the two we spent locked up, which, like Voldemort, we will not speak of), I've taken every opportunity I can to visit many places. And thusly, I've made music with all sorts of jazz musicians in all sorts of settings. Something that has fascinated me is both the similarities and the enormous differences in how musicians approach this music in various countries. So much comes from within: how we are taught, how our culture communicates, and the sounds of our traditional music. We're playing American music, with a structure and tradition that allows us to communicate musically anywhere in the world, but I guess we all have a regional 'accent' when we do it. 

What am I making?

This project, a tetralogy, will be a four-album series that will traverse through different seasons, locations, and cultures. It's ambitious and delicious. How I aspire to be.

I plan to produce four albums in four different countries in collaboration with musicians from each of those countries. Each of the four albums will represent a season, and together they will tell a story both of my travels and of the journey these beautiful jazz songs have taken across the world. I get to bring you with me and introduce you to some interesting places and some fabulous musicians through the music that I love.

This is a challenging project that will span a few years, but it’s also enriching, human, and a little different. As I mentioned before, I travel a lot and have sung with jazz musicians from Taiwan to Norway and from Bali to Granada. The music, the history of the music, and the structure are the same; it's jazz music, of course! But the way it's approached and shaped is unique to who we are as individuals and where we come from. They say about improvising jazz musicians, 'people play how they are', and oh boy, I think that's true.

How will I begin?

I'm starting this very soon, next month in June, over my birthday weekend, in the Czech Republic, and I am beginning where it should rightly begin, with spring. I will be in the recording studio with four fantastic musicians: Libor Smoldas (guitar), Tomaś Baros (bass), Jiří Levíček (piano), and Tomaš Hobzek (drums). We have a beautiful selection of jazz and folk compositions from the late 1890s to the 1970s with arrangements by Ken Schroder, James Sherlock, Libor Smoldas, and more, and I hope, with your help, I can bring in a special guest or two. 

How can you help?

I need your help to get this idea rolling. To push off from the shore as we sail out into the musical ocean. I have created some rewards, and I do think of this as a pre-sale to the album. It will be released in spring 2025.

It's been a wonderful 17 years of music, all the ups and downs, and I couldn't have done any of it without the support of beautiful audiences around the world, and I appreciate it so much.

I know that for some people, helping with this campaign may be out of reach, but even writing something positive and sharing it with your network would be of great assistance. I hope you’ll consider lending your support, and I hope you get a lot of enjoyment from the music and locations to come. You always have my heartfelt thanks!

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This is going to be a long term project, one I hope I can work on for the next 2–3 years. There will be four albums in total, but this crowdfunding campaign is for the first one, to help me begin this journey.

I will be going to Prague in the Czech Republic in June and recording with a fantastic band of top Czech jazz musicians for three days, and these funds will allow me to do so! Overall, I expect this album to cost around 10,000 euros, plus, with a press agent and hard copy manufacturing fees, the cost is around 15,000 euros. I do all I can as an independent jazz musician to keep costs to a minimum.

I remember recording with my very first band in a garage for a few hundred dollars, all around one microphone!
If you want to see that band, you can do so here! A long time ago now, a lot has changed. Back then, we were Spotify-free.

These costs are in euros as I am making this recording in Europe, but this campaign is in Australian dollars. 

Musician + Arrangement Costs : 3200 Euro

Studio + Recording Engineer + Piano Tuning: 1200 Euro

Photographer / Videographer : 450 Euro
Arrangements and Production : 450 Euro
Pozible Platform Fees : 265 Euro
Total = 5565 Euro /  9070 AUD

I've used Pozible for my last two crowdfunding campaigns, one in 2013 and one in 2019, so I wanted to use them again this time. Pozible is a secure platform (for those of you who are international, it’s exactly the same as Kickstarter) and does not take any money from you unless the campaign reaches the goal.

Stretch Goal

If we are lucky enough to surpass the goal, the extra funds will go towards bringing in a special guest (a surprise!) and also the mixing and mastering of the album. This would be absolutely amazing. Oh, and also, Pozible takes a small percentage out of your pledge amount for their own administration fees as well, so I have included that in the total amount.
Feel free to email me if you have any questions! Thank you again for reading this far and for your interest.