Lea Delaria Performs 'The Live Smoke Sessions' at Smoke

Lea Delaria - the acclaimed singer, actress, comedian and author who iscurrently guest starring on ABC-TV's "One Life To Live" - will celebrate hernew CD, The Live Smoke Sessions, with two nights at the Manhattan jazz club Smoke (2751 Broadway, between 105th and 106th Streets) on Monday, September29 and Monday, October 6 at 8:00 PM and 9:30 PM. Please call (212) 864-6662or visit www.smokejazz.com for tickets.

The CD was released by GHOSTLIGHT RECORDS, a division of Sh-K-Boom Records -partnering with Warner Jazz for worldwide distribution - on September 9. The disc, recorded in concert at Smoke last fall, features special guest performers Gil Goldstein on piano, Seamus Blake on saxophone and BBC "Jazz Singer of the Year" Ian Shaw on vocals.After two innovative CDs reinventing Broadway tunes (2000's Play It Cool) and rock and punk songs (2005's Double Standards), Lea turns her considerable talents to her first recording focused on timeless popstandards.

But these classic songs like "Down With Love," "Night And Day,""Love Me Or Leave Me" and "Come Rain Or Come Shine" have never sounded sofresh and alive.  "I styled this CD on the old school live recordings," Lea comments. "It is my hope that this CD will take you back to 1948 and the Village Vanguard. So please let me invite you to mix a cocktail and enjoy a smoke while you sit back and soak up the swing." The Live Smoke Sessions also includes a jazz reworking of "Puff" from the Michael John LaChiusa musical Little Fish and the Lester Young jazz favorite "Jumpin' With Symphony Sid." As a part of her busy fall schedule, Lea will appear in dual roles on the ABC-TV daytime drama "One Life To Live" starting this month (one character, the psychic Madame Delphina, was labeled "What's Hot" in Soap Opera Digest). She will also celebrate the CD with a show at the 606 Club in London on November 9.

Lea Delaria has distinguished herself in every form of entertainment that she touches: jazz musician, Broadway diva, actor, writer and stand-up comic.It's easy to see why Ben Brantley of The New York Times describes Lea as,"Every inch a star." Her first jazz album, Play It Cool, was released on Warner Jazz in 2000. Hailed by the Times of London as "Best Jazz Album of 2001," it featured the single "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd," which remained at #1 on Jazz radio in the states for two months. Q Magazine commented "Lea Delaria is blessed with one of the most beautiful voices around", while Time Out claimed "the gal can certainly swing", and the Guardian summed her up as "talks like a coffee grinder, and sounds likea cross between Ella Fitzgerald and a Broadway diva." Her second album, Double Standards - which debuted on the Billboard Jazz Chart at #6 -received rave reviews in the UK and US press; the tracks "Call Me" and "Philadelphia" get regular radio play on both sides of the Atlantic.

Lea has appeared in concert at Carnegie Hall, Hollywood Bowl, LincolnCenter, Town Hall, Chicago Symphony, Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Halland Royal Festival Hall, among many others. She has headlined at the New York City JVC Jazz Festival, London Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival and the 50th Anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival Tour, in addition to appearing at the Playboy, Montreal and Long Beach Festivals.The first openly gay comic to appear on national television in the United States (Arsenio Hall, 1993) from this point forward she has toured the worldwith her one-of-a-kind blend of cool jazz and in-your-face comedy, oftenc reating stirs (The United States Congress officially "criticized" Lea in 1993) but always winning accolades (Muff Diva - "Best of the Fest" in Edinburgh, 1993 and DeLightful DeLicious, DeLaria - Best Live Performance, Back Stage Bistro Award, 1999). Lea has recorded two live comedy albums (Bulldyke In A China Shop and Box Lunch) and developed specials for HBO, Showtime, Comedy Central, CBC, and WNBC 4, including work for which she received a 1994 regional Emmy Award ("The World According To Us, Lifetime). She has created strange characters for daytime soaps ("One Life To Live"), Primetime ("Will & Grace,""Friends," and believe it or not, "Matlock") and has appeared on every talkshow from NBC's "Today", "Chef Du Jour" on The Food Network, "The RosieO'Donnell Show," ABC's "Politically Incorrect."

For more information, visit www.GhostlightRecords.com or www.sh-k-boom.com.

Photo Credit Peter James Zielinski