[Dixielandjazz] Jazz Vocalist Lea DeLaria

[Stephen G Barbone]

She doesn't sing Dixieland, but surely sings OKOM. Worth a listen if  
you are in the New York City area
Cheers,

Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband


October 1, 2008 - NY TIMes - By Stephen Holden


Punch Lines, Torch Songs and Plenty of Scatting

Lea DeLaria’s jazz singing is like her stand-up comedy. Loud, brash,  
rude and impatient, it pushes its way to the microphone, all knees and  
elbows. All smiles too, for Ms. DeLaria is an innately funny jazz  
clown. Her unruffled, cooler-than-cool attitude is a conscious parody  
of 1940s and ’50s hipster poses. For her, cool means hot.

Except for rare moments of calm, the message underlying Ms. DeLaria’s  
every phrase goes something like this: “Come on, people, let’s not  
beat around the bush!”

It goes without saying that sentimentality is not her thing.

On Monday evening at Smoke, Ms. DeLaria and a jazz trio performed two  
sets of songs that focused on material from her new album, “The Live  
Smoke Sessions” (Ghostlight Records), recorded at the club last  
October. The first set had moments that were so funny that I found  
myself grinning.

“Miss Otis Regrets,” the prissy Cole Porter song in which a society  
matron’s devoted butler announces archly that his murderous employer,  
who has been lynched, is “unable to lunch today, Madam,” was shouted  
in the tone of someone yelling out the window to a messenger.

“Down With Love” became a panting hundred-yard dash in which Ms.  
DeLaria dismissed love as a subject not worth discussing. Venturing  
into torch song territory, she delivered a slow-burning “You Don’t  
Know What Love Is” that revealed her vocal insecurity as she sustained  
long notes and phrases.

Singing “Love for Sale,” which she named as her favorite number on the  
album, Ms. DeLaria became the toughest madam on the block in a bad  
neighborhood, aggressively strong-arming passers-by to sample her  
supply of “appetizing young love” one flight up.

There is sophisticated jazz method in Ms. DeLaria’s raucous bluster.  
She swings hard, and scats and bends notes in a style that suggests a  
no-frills Betty Carter on steroids. Two other forerunners are Frances  
Faye and Carmen McRae, who both also resisted appealing to the tender  
emotions. Because Ms. DeLaria takes such obvious delight in disturbing  
the peace, you might describe her sound as a joyful noise.

Lea DeLaria will return on Monday to Smoke, 2751 Broadway, at 106th  
Street; (212) 864-6662.