1. Down With Love
2. Why Don't You Do Right?
3. Miss Otis Regrets
4. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
5. Come Rain or Come Shine
6. Love Me or Leave Me
7. Love for Sale
8. Night and Day
9. Puff (Intro)
10. Puff
11. You Don't Know What Love Is
12. Jumpin' With Symphony Sid
Lea DeLaria - Vocals
Gil Goldstein - Piano
Mary Ann McSweeney - Bass
Josh Giunta - Drums
Seamus Blake - Tenor sax (tracks 2, 4)
Ian Shaw- Vocals (tracks 10, 12)
Last year I enthused about
the CD The Very Best of Lea DeLaria,
which consisted of studio recordings. I think
this is Lea DeLaria's first "live" jazz album
and it's a disappointment. In an interview,
Lea said "I don't like to play it safe". The
choice of material might be described as safe,
since most of it comes from the very familiar
Great American Songbook, including plenty
of songs by such composers as Cole Porter
and Harold Arlen. But Lea's singing is far
from safe or secure: she often cannot stay
in tune, as well as getting some song lyrics
wrong.
Lea's voice is certainly
a forceful instrument but not particularly
beautiful. She says in her liner notes: "I
am not now nor have I ever been a pretty girl
with a pretty voice". In fact she can sound
hectoring and over-emphatic. The audience
at the Smoke jazz club in Manhattan seemed
to love her, but she comes across as a cabaret
entertainer rather than a serious jazz vocalist
- mainly because she pays too little attention
to important details like intonation and lyrics.
She belts out many of the songs with little
subtlety. The very slow version of Come
Rain or Come Shine might strike the listener
as sensitive and even impressive (as she displays
a wide vocal range, descending to a very deep
part of her voice) but she seems uncertain
of the words. Her version of Cole Porter's
Love for Sale gets several lyrics wrong.
When she tries scat-singing,
as she does on several tracks, she sings carelessly
and races ahead of her accompanists. In fact
the accompanying trio tends to redeem her
faults, since they play superbly. Gil Goldstein
supplies some excellent piano solos (notably
on Night and Day), and drummer Josh
Giunta provides an exciting introduction to
Miss Otis Regrets, accompanying Lea
without additional help for the first measure.
Seamus Blake's tenor sax adds class to the
two tracks he appears on, although Ian Shaw's
vocals are a mannered pain rather than a pleasure.
This is only the third out-and-out
jazz album that Lea DeLaria has recorded but
she is, after all, involved in various other
fields, like acting and stand-up comedy. Don't
give up the other jobs, Lea.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Warner
514429869-2
