Jeanne Lee
Jeanne Lee ( born January 29, 1939 in New York; † 25 October 2000 in Tijuana, Mexico ) was an American singer ( Jazz, New Music ), choreographer and author. It is recognized to be the most innovative vocal approach in contemporary jazz.
Life and work
The Bard College ( Annandale -on-Hudson, New York) trained pianist, dancer and choreographer (Bachelor) began in 1961, inspired by images of the Peruvian singer Yma Sumac, to explore the possibilities of the human voice systematically. In a duo with pianist Ran Blake Jeanne Lee recorded the album The Newest Sound Around: Scarce, almost "cool" interpretations of standards and their own songs, which offer a combination of beauty and simplicity to today. The duo took in 1962 at the Monterey Jazz Festival and had some in 1963 with a six-month tour of Europe success. Upon her return to the United States, she married the sound - poet David Hazelton, gave birth to their daughter Naima and lived until 1966 in California.
In 1966 she returned to Europe, where they record the Gunter Hampel Group & Jeanne Lee recorded with Gunter Hampel, Willem Breuker, Arjen Gorter and Pierre Courbois. Then Lee went back to the United States, where her husband was dying. In 1969 she came back to Europe, where she took part in the recording of The 8th of July 1969, one of the first encounters between African-American and European free music. Concerts and plates with the various ensembles of Hampel, particularly its Galaxy Dream Band, in addition also with groups of Anthony Braxton, Sunny Murray, Marion Brown, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Enrico Rava and recordings for Carla Bley ( Escalator over the Hill ) followed. In 1974, she released the LP Conspiracy, where her poems more clearly in the center are in the works as Hampel. 1976 and 1977 she was involved in the drafting and numerous performances of John Cage's aleatoric composition Renga with Apartment House 1776.
Lee and forth between Germany and the U.S.; from the second marriage ( with Hampel ) the children come Cavana and Ruomi. She worked with Archie Shepp, Bob Moses, Andrew Cyrille, Ellen Christi, Lisa Sokolov, William Parker, Peter Kowald, Marilyn Mazur and dancers such as Patricia Parker and founded with Jay Clayton, Urszula Dudziak, Lauren Newton and Bobby McFerrin the Vocal Summit ( record 1982 tour 1982). She was also involved in recording and touring with musical projects around the painter AR Penck.
In 1992 their CD Natural Affinities texts by Ntozake Shange and her own poems with, inter alia, Amina Claudine Myers and Dave Holland, 1993 Here and Now with cellist David Eyges. She also worked together with Reggie Workman, Jane Bunnett, Sheila Jordan, Gary Bartz and the Orchestre National de Jazz. Together with pianist Mal Waldron it formed a long-standing duo, which was partially extended for tours to a trio (for example, with Nicolas Simion ).
In New York, she led sound -and -movement workshops with Michelle Berne and Jay Clayton. At the New England Conservatory of Music and the Royal Conservatory The Hague she made young singers (for example, poetic voice and Anette von Eichel ). In 1999, she published the book Jam! The Story of Jazz Music.
Her work, especially her singing with his conscious physical integration have been overcome conventional notions of singing. Their improvisations and their sung poetry sound - so the Jazz Rough Guide - " always easy for stealthily arose and casual. Her voice dances, of course, and weightless. "