Given the parlous state of contemporary jazz singing (Diana Krall? Elvis, how could you?), Lea DeLaria, a butch dyke from St Louis with a dirty mouth and a deliciously wicked sense of humour, is all the more remarkable. Growing up with jazz in her veins, she was previously best known as a comic (she's also been a Broadway star), but singing is clearly her vocation. With wildly classy back-up that proves the high regard she's held in by the jazz fraternity, she recasts Patti Smith's "Dancing Barefoot" (intoxicating), Blondie's "Call Me" (wildly sensuous), Neil Young's "Philadelphia" (understated and heart-rending), Jane's Addiction's "Been Caught Stealing" (a riot) and others in the most supremely intelligent display of interpretive singing in jazz for years. Essential.
Given the parlous state of contemporary jazz singing (Diana Krall? Elvis, how could you?), Lea DeLaria, a butch dyke from St Louis with a dirty mouth and a deliciously wicked sense of humour, is all the more remarkable. Growing up with jazz in her veins, she was previously best known as a comic (she’s also been a Broadway star), but singing is clearly her vocation. With wildly classy back-up that proves the high regard she’s held in by the jazz fraternity, she recasts Patti Smith’s “Dancing Barefoot” (intoxicating), Blondie’s “Call Me” (wildly sensuous), Neil Young’s “Philadelphia” (understated and heart-rending), Jane’s Addiction’s “Been Caught Stealing” (a riot) and others in the most supremely intelligent display of interpretive singing in jazz for years. Essential.
