Jazz Articles about Lea Delaria

About Lea Delaria

Album Review

Christmas can do strange things to musicians: there are plenty of artistic car crashes littering the road to Santa's Grotto. But sometimes an artist gets it right, by luck or by design, and a Yuletide project endures for many years. Vocalist, comedian and Broadway performer Lea DeLaria is, happily, in the latter camp with Be A Santa, an album full of festive standards that swings like a sleigh bell on a Christmas tree and entertains in stylish fashion.

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Album Review

Lea Delaria: Double Standards

Read "Double Standards" reviewed by Marcia Hillman

by Marcia Hillman
September 17, 2005

Double Standards is Lea DeLaria's jazz approach to a selection of rock classics. She has chosen eleven diverse songs vocally to slip and slide around. The first track, Patti Smith's “Dancing Barefoot, features some lively moments during which she trades scatting solos with tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake. Blondie's “Call Me is translated with a blues feel and allows DeLaria to show off another facet of her vocal ability. Also notable is her plaintive rendition of Neil Young's “Philadelphia and a ...

Album Review

Lea DeLaria: Play It Cool

by Mathew Bahl
October 1, 2001

Jazz fans can be forgiven for approaching Play It Cool with some degree of skepticism. After all, Lea DeLaria is known for her work as a comic and for her appearances on the Broadway stage neither of which is a breeding ground for jazz musicians. However, this turns out to be one of those cases where you find yourself recalling the old adage about books and covers. Despite its obvious flaws and limitations, Play It Cool turns out to be ...