Jazz Articles about Leslie Lewis
About Leslie Lewis
Instrument: Voice / vocals
Article Coverage | Calendar | Albums | Photos | Similar ArtistsFunky Ella: I Put a Spell on You

by Jack Bowers
Although singer Leslie Lewis and her husband, pianist Gerard Hagen, have been making beautiful music together for some years and recorded five earlier CDs together, I Put a Spell on You is the first under the group name Funky Ella (which represents a deep bow to another jazz singer of note). The album was recorded in Paris, France, the ensemble's home base, with guitarist Nicolas Peslier, bassist Peter Giron, drummer Mourad Benhammou and percussionist Jean-Philippe Naeder completing the lineup.
read moreLeslie Lewis: Leslie Lewis & Gerard Hagen in New York

by C. Michael Bailey
Vocalist Leslie Lewis' previous recording, Midnight Sun (Self Produced, 2012), revealed a a thoughtful and well-managed talent able to imbue her music with a dark pathos. Not dark in any negative sense of the word, but rich and romantic. Her followup, Leslie Lewis & Gerard Hagen in New York, made with her husband/pianist, distills Lewis' talent to the intimate duet level, concentrating the music to a point where much is revealed. Like Someone In Love" is introduced ...
read moreLeslie Lewis & Gerard Hagen: In New York

by Jack Bowers
In November 2011, less than a year before leaving for their new home in Paris, singer Leslie Lewis and her pianist / husband, Gerard Hagen, paused in New York City long enough to record this delightful album of standards on which Lewis' charming voice is accompanied only by Hagen's compliant piano. The menu is comprised for the most part of well-known standards, the mood more calm and laid-back than Lewis' more outgoing persona in nightspots here and abroad where she ...
read moreLeslie Lewis: Midnight Sun

by C. Michael Bailey
Jazz singing does not so much require an obedient voice as a directed but free-spirited one. There are few vocalists who can pull off the elastic fireworks of a Betty Carter, Lisa Sokolov or Tierney Sutton and fewer still who should even try. East Coast-West Coast vocalist Leslie Lewis has a beautifully perfect alto voice for singing jazz. By tone alone, she can claim a well deserved corner of the jazz vocal map for herself, much in the same way ...
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