Barbara Lea

Another Barbara this time singing !!......If you like your vocals soft and silky then have a listen to this Songbird !!

Barbara Lea (April 10, 1929 – December 26, 2011) was an American jazz singer.

Lea was born and raised in Detroit. She decided at an early age to become a singer, participating in contests and singing with dance bands. She worked at the Storyville club when singer Lee Wiley performed there in the early 1950s. Her debut solo album, Woman in Love, was released in 1955.

Lea appeared in the JVC, Kool, and Newport Jazz Festivals several times, but her increasing devotion to the songs as written led to concerts of the works of Rodgers and Hart, Arthur Schwartz, Cy Coleman, Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, and the Gershwins, as well as cabaret appearances devoted to Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, and Yip Harburg.

(Info Edited From Wikipedia)....

An excellent singer who was associated with swing and Dixieland, Barbara Lea never broke through with the general public, but she recorded quite a few worthy albums. She sang with Detroit dance orchestras while in school, performed with the college jazz band (the Crimson Stompers) at Harvard, and worked on the East Coast in the 1950s. She recorded for Riverside (1955) and Prestige (1956-1957), using such sidemen as trumpeter Johnny Windhurst and pianists Billy Taylor and Dick Hyman. In the 1960s, Lea worked as a stage actress and taught. In the 1970s, she sang with Dick Sudhalter and Ed Polcer and recorded in the 1980s for Audiophile, including a tribute to her idol and influence, Lee Wiley. She continued to perform and record into the 21st century, and died of Alzheimer's disease in December 2011 at age 82.

( Artist Biography by Scott Yanow....From All Music )

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