Kat Edmonson is a jazz vocalist, songwriter, and arranger whose performance career has also taken her into film and theater. A recipient of a Songwriters Hall of Fame award, she has written and recorded original music while also bringing her own arrangements to classic material. The New York Times describes Edmonson as having “an equal foothold in jazz, cabaret and vintage cosmopolitanism pop.”
Edmonson’s seventh studio album, Have Your Merry Christmas With Me, arrives November 6, 2026. Conceived and arranged by Edmonson, the record unfolds like the soundtrack to a classic holiday romantic comedy. Original compositions mingle with reimagined standards rooted in jazz and spanning sensual bossa nova, swinging jazz and gospel, traditional pop, and the atmosphere of old Hollywood. Among its songs is “It’s Snowing,” Edmonson’s soulful reinvention of Allen Toussaint’s “It’s Raining,” famously recorded by Irma Thomas. The album also features two Edmonson originals: the title song, “Have Your Merry Christmas With Me,” and the hushed “Hush! There’s a Falling Snow.”
Songwriting has been central to Edmonson’s work from the beginning. In 2013, the Songwriters Hall of Fame honored her with the Abe Olman Award for Excellence in Songwriting. The New York Times has called her “intuitive about melody and handy with a turn of phrase,” while JAZZIZ observed that “…her lasting contribution might very well be her songs.” NPR describes Edmonson as “a savvy student of ’60s film soundtracks, jazz-pop stylists and Brill Building songcraft,” adding that her command of those musical languages is “so fresh and fluent that the referencing never feels cumbersome.” Her original song “Lucky” was featured in Coca-Cola’s “Footprints” campaign for the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Her 2020 album Dreamers Do combined songs from mid-century films and Disney classics with standards and original compositions in a nocturnal song cycle exploring dreams, longing, fear, and hope. The record debuted at #1 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz Albums chart; UNCUT called it a “bewitching songcycle from a masterful vocalist.” Her sixth studio album, Holiday Swingin’! A Kat Edmonson Christmas Vol. 1 (2021), reworked a collection of mid-century holiday favorites and was included in The New York Times’ “13 Albums That Revisit (and Redefine!) Holiday Classics.” JAZZIZ described it as “impeccably hip.”
Edmonson’s live performances move between original songs and familiar classics, interwoven with stories, philosophical musings, and references to film. Performing with longtime collaborators, she often departs from the set list and incorporates improvisation into the show. NPR has written, “Hearing Edmonson makes it virtually impossible to do anything but stop and listen.”
She has appeared on Austin City Limits, NPR’s Tiny Desk, A Prairie Home Companion, The Tonight Show, and The Late Show, and has performed at venues and festivals throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, including Carnegie Hall, the Montreux Jazz Festival, and the Blue Note in Japan. She has toured with artists including Lyle Lovett, Chris Isaak, Gary Clark Jr., Michael Kiwanuka, Nick Lowe and Shawn Colvin.
In 2016, Edmonson appeared as a 1930s jazz singer in Woody Allen’s Café Society, performing ‘Mountain Greenery’ on the film’s soundtrack. The experience led her to pursue formal acting training at New York’s William Esper Studio, where she studied for two years. In 2022, she made her theatrical debut in Taylor Mac and Matt Ray’s jazz opera The Hang. The New York Times, which named the production a Critic’s Pick, highlighted Edmonson’s “extraordinary artistry,” while Vulture praised her “weightless, soaring scat arias.”
Throughout her recording career, Edmonson has maintained a commitment to sound and musicianship, working with acclaimed producers and engineers including Phil Ramone, Al Schmitt, Ed Cherney, Frank Filipetti, and Fernando Lodeiro. Schmitt, the 24-time GRAMMY® Award winner, described her as “a tremendous talent … with a style and charm that reaches fans in the worlds of blues, rock, pop, and beyond.”
A Texas native, Edmonson spent years performing on Austin’s club circuit before releasing her debut album, Take to the Sky, in 2009. Since then, she has released seven studio albums and numerous singles, toured internationally, and earned multiple No. 1 albums on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart. In recent years, she has also begun expanding her work as an actor, bringing another dimension of her background in performance and storytelling to the screen and stage.