Lisa Lindsley, Oakland, CA
Lisa Lindsley is a sultry blondsongstress – like a tall drink of water on a hot summer day, cool and refreshing. When the music starts, you are taken away from your troubles to a spot of sweet sexy sounds. Jazz standards with a twist is what we like to call it. Her voice transports you to a place of romance, or she can surprise you with a witty rendition of a Bob Dorough song, her timing is impeccable.
Lisa is starting to shine with her own style, her career as a jazz singer is beginning to take off, and as always, she is singing jazz with a flair of comedy and a pinch of sultry.
She frequently performs with Walter Bankovitch on piano, who has appeared with Stan Getz, John Lee Hooker, Bobby Shew, Rebecca Parris, and Bobby Hutcherson.
Clinton Day on bass, who has performed with Mic Gillette, Cornelius Bumpus, Clare Fischer, Bobby McFerrin and Richie Cole.
And Joey Niehuis on drums, who plays for bands around the Bay Area like, The Root Band, The Terry Hiatt Band, Jazz Guitar Trio, String of Pearls and Cold Sweat.
BACKGROUND:
A long, long time ago....A funny blond child was born in Ogden, Utah. Okay, maybe not that far away, but still kinda funny, and definetly blond. Lisa Lindsley always had music in her life. Growing up she would listen to Gershwin, Rodgers and Hart and Cole Porter.
“I remember watching my father place the old vinyl records on the record player, the wonderful sounds would pour out and fill my head with sounds of a crooner or a chanteuse, which would carry me away to fantasize about someday sounding like Ella, like Anita O’Day or like Eartha Kit with her comic renditions of songs like Santa Baby or I Want to Be Evil. Oh, and I adore the whimsical lyrics of Cole Porter, nobody writes like he did.“
Lisa attended Cal Arts and worked in professional theater until the early 90’s, she gave up the life of the theatre, got married and moved to the Bay Area, where she spent the next 16 years raising and home schooling her three daughters.
She realized there was a huge creative gap in her life that was not being filled, “The need to get in touch with my creative spot again was really eating away at me. I had just spent the last 14 years hanging with kids, which I love, but I finally needed to do something for me.”
Back to theatre she went until one night after performing in The Full Monty at Masquers Playhouse in Point Richmond, the bar owner down the street asked her to come down and sing a set of jazz standards with their piano player.
“He asked to see my charts, and I said ‘What the heck is a chart?’ I but didn't know the lingo of jazz, even though I had listened to it my whole life. Then I had an epiphany and realized what I had been missing: singing. As a joke I call myself, The Blond Songstress, because I love the comedy of life and artful, witty lyrics.”
She was hooked, and realized that yet another door had opened for her. She studied with the amazing Roger Letson at Contra Costa College, where she absorbed everything she could about jazz. Letson, a conductor, musician and teacher, is the 6 time winner of the prestigious Downbeat Magazine award with his group, Vocal Flight.
Finding the best teachers is important, and that is why Lisa has reached out to Julia Dollison, Maye Cavallero and Laurie Antonioli. One of Lisa’s favorite muses has been pianist, George Mesterhazy, who toured and played with Shirley Horn the last few years of her life. He has written tender arrangements for Lisa, such as Cole Porter’s, Everytime We say Goodbye and St
