New Release:
"Umbrellas In Mint"
(Verdant World Records VWR003)
Street Date April 2, 2013
Lisa Kirchner : Vocals
Xavier Davis: Piano
Sherman Irby: Saxophone
Bill Schimmel: Accordion
Ron Jackson: Guitar
Vicente Archer: Bass
Willie Jones III: Drums
Lisa Kirchner is noted as a singer of remarkable versatility, innately musical, with a beautiful sound. Kirchner has covered classic songs across genre in three languages, and is expressive and authentic in each. With Umbrellas In Mint, her sixth album, this elegant singer presents twelve songs to which she has written both music and lyrics, allowing listeners entrée into an imaginative landscape of melody and poetry, surreal imagery and story-telling, that resonates in jazz genre with influences from The American Songbook, swing, Zydeco, French chansons, roots, Americana, European cabaret, classical lieder and theatre music. Lisa performs lead and background vocals, and her world class musicians, Xavier Davis, Sherman Irby, Bill Schimmel, Ron Jackson, Vicente Archer and Willie Jones III, are featured in generous solos.
Kirchner’s songs, by turns romantic, ironic, or off beat, are understated while filled with imagery that lifts them to an emotional plane with a surreal twist. Kirchner, in her liner notes, touches on each song: “Salty and Blue (I Don’t Believe In Romance) is an ironic lament spiked with limerick that materialized into an old-time radio swing tune. A Billion Stars Ago (In the Shadow of a Crow) was born when a bird crossing my window in a mercurial weather pattern, cast a dark shadow while lunging into a portentous Paris sky. What About You?, begun in Paris when speckled views of the Champ de Mars, like dots from Seurat or gleaming flashes in a Starry Night over Notre Dame, illicited a rush of excited reportage that evolved into lyrics. The Hudson Bay Inn conjures the saw dust bars of the battery once so deserted and is inspired by the songs of Brecht and Weill. Umbrellas in Mint is the tale of a bad boy with a streak of good on the lam. Tim is a tribute to a brilliant actor and dancer who taught a transcendent dance class. Let Us Go Then alludes to memorable works that have resided in my consciousness and fueled the song. It begins with the reference to The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Under the Paris Moon, (Manhattan Under the Paris Moon) is a series of reflections from a well traveled protagonist merging cities on two continents, new beginnings haunted by old endings, in a procession of surreal dislocation. At The Closing of the Fair is for every soul who waits by the awning in untarnished hope for an end to old abandonments. A guy once said, “you know how some people put their coins in jars? Well I put mine in Old Shoes! Southern Starlight (Charleston For You) was the title song to my last release, performed with keyboard synth, and I have since re-recorded it with a full band. The program ends with Quarters and Dimes, an inner monologue that comes streaming on during housework”
Lisa Kirchner is the daughter of eminent Pulitzer Prize winning composer, Leon Kirchner. Her mother, Gertrude Kirchner, was a gifted singer who spoke several languages. Lisa has been crossing boundaries with every release, performing an ambient repertoire of folk, jazz, French and Brazilian songs, Kurt Weill, folk and pop music, jazz renditions of contemporary classical art songs, and both her own music and lyrics, and songs on which she has partnered as lyricist with other composers including Galt MacDermot, James Weidman, and Ron Jackson. Kirchner has also written lyrics to instrumentals by Wynton Marsalis and by film, Broadway and contemporary classical composer Paul Chihara. She wrote and sang her own songs, appearing as a regular, on NBC’s Another World. Lisa’s five previous albums of jazz standards, originals, European and Brazilian classics, and American contemporary classical music and jazz, have garnered critical praise. In addition to producing and performing her own albums, she has, as executive producer, expedited the sound recordings of five albums featuring the works of her father, Leon Kirchner, performed by the distinguished artists who have championed his music. Lisa continues to evolve her own musical craft across the boundaries of genre, preserving an original style that is both classic and edgy.
Lisa has played venues including Foxwoods Resort Casino, Ryles Jazz Club, Iridium, Birdland, and many other clubs on the jazz and cabaret circuit. She has appeared at Gracie Mansion, the White House, at Harvard University and the Harvard Club. She has been featured in numerous theatrical productions on Broadway, in the New York Shakespeare Festival productions of The Threepenny Opera, with Raul Julia, and Phil Bosco, and The Human Comedy, composed by Galt MacDermot. She has appeared in numerous off and off-off Broadway productions at the Public Theatre, the Delacorte Theatre, La Mama Theatre and annex, Westbeth and The American Place Theatre. On television she has appeared in productions on BRAVO Cable and WNET's Great Performances. As a dancer she appeared in Grover Dale's Houdini, starring Christopher Walken, and with the James Waring Dance Company at Judson Memorial Church. Lisa Kirchner was Judy Collins' featured soloist at Carnegie Hall and sang backgrounds for Collins for several years in concert, on television and on recording.
Of her singing and writing, Allen Shawn, theater and classical composer, author and pianist, has said, “Lisa Kirchner sings with an affecting blend of elegance and vulnerability. (She)… casts a nostalgic, intoxicating spell over the listener …Kirchner presents the notes and words in astutely judged readings that are both dignified and infinitely wistful. … her own songs … are original, sometimes almost surreal in construction, and reflect her long love affair with European and American popular song.” Says cellist Fred Sherry, “Lisa Kirchner is a singer/songwriter of refinement and beauty. Her original songs derive from a life of music and experience”.
Holding her own with a compelling stage presence, cultivating her eclectic repertoire, and evolving as a writer, Kirchner has evaded classification while attracting notice from artists and industry in all genres as she crosses musical boundaries with ease. “Absolutely unique” Carl Reiner has noted. Kirchner has demonstrated prolific talent and a love of the same in the players with whom she chooses to collaborate. She has performed live, and has made multiple albums with various members of her group: Xavier Davis on piano, Sherman Irby on sax, Bill Schimmel on accordion, Ron Jackson on guitar, Vicente Archer on bass, and Willie Jones III on drums.“ Judy Collins has noted, “the voice of Lisa Kirchner thrills, soothes and delights”. Umbrellas In Mint, on Verdant World Records, offers 56 minutes of unique material, sultry vocal tones, and buoyant instrumental solos
Artist Website: www.lisakirchner.com
For Interviews and Promos Contact: Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services
