Curt's Jazz Cafe

My wife and I were fans of the television series “Living Single” back in the 90’s. We always felt that “Friends”, which premiered a year later, was a poor copy of “Living Single” but that’s a story for another post.

I first heard actor T.C. Carson (aka Kyle from “Living Single”) sing a little jazz during an appearance on Arsenio Hall’s original show around 20 years ago. He was no dilettante. He demonstrated a solid sense of jazz timing and a good way with a lyric. On top of that, Carson appeared to be truly enjoying himself, continuing to jam as the band came back from commercial breaks.

A short time after that, I heard him dabbling in jazz singing on a couple of “Living Single” episodes; most memorably singing “My Funny Valentine” to his on again/off again paramour on the show, Maxine Shaw (Erika Alexander). I remember remarking to my wife that I hoped that Mr. Carson would take it further and record a jazz album one day.

The show came to an end in 1998 and save for a few supporting roles, some game voice work (notably Kratos in the “God of War” series) and an R&B album (Truth) that had its moments, we unfortunately have not heard a lot from Mr. Carson in the last decade. Sometime within the last few years, T.C. Carson appeared on a show called LA JAZZ and recorded an impressive jazz set on which he sounds like a baritone Al Jarreau.

Now I hear that T.C. Carson is doing a live show/recording in Los Angeles on November 16. Though I won’t be in LA that night, I have a feeling that L.A. Jazz fans may be in for a treat. I look forward to hearing the resulting album.

This entry was posted on November 7, 2013 at 1:43 pm and is filed under The Jazz Continues..., Under The Radar, Video Vault with tags Jazz Singers, tc carson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.