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Lea DeLaria

The Very Best of

Warner Music 8122744872

Issued in the 'Leopard Lounge' series, this selection is taken from the two albums Lea DeLaria has made for Warners, Play It Cool and Double Standards, plus three previously unreleased tracks, one ('It Don't Mean a ThingŠ') featuring Vortex regulars such as Julian Siegel and Tom Arthurs, another ('Some Other Time') a duet with guitarist Howard Alden, the third a spoken-word hymn to the dry martini.

DeLaria was brought up in a jazz-literate household, so both her time and scat singing are utterly natural-sounding; she is also a skilled stand-up, so her delivery of lyrics is clear and considered; her show tunes are mined for every last ounce of meaning, her ballads are suitably intimate, her pop/rock standards (Blondie's 'Call Me', Neil Young's 'Philadelphia', Jim Morrison's 'People are Strange') intelligently addressed, discreetly but powerfully jazzed-up in arrangements that utilise the talents of top-class performers ranging from keyboardist Gil Goldstein and bassist Christian McBride to tenorman Seamus Blake and drummer Bill Stewart.

Anyone who's witnessed a live DeLaria performance will already be a convert to her salty, in-your-face art; on record, she's also entirely convincing, bringing a breath (or often, a gale) of fresh air into an area of the music too frequently handled with kid gloves.