JAZZ/CROSSOVER
UMBRELLAS IN MINT
#1 Radio CUH, Top Ten WXCI, WMUA, WERU, WDPS, CHMR, and TCC The Grid
Notable Jazz Vocal Releases of 2013- Umbrellas In Mint-Royal Stokes/Author, jazz historian
“Every song in Lisa Kirchner’s album, Umbrellas in Mint, is worth your attention and time. Ms. Kirchner not only has a beautiful voice, but she is a master poet with a musical gift. I thank her for including in her liner notes all the words to all the songs, and I recommend that you listen and follow along as I did.” - Carl Reiner
"Umbrellas in Mint," Lisa Kirchner's new CD, is the most exciting album Ms. Kirchner has yet to produce. She is in beautiful voice, the shimmering, delicious lines of her vocals are here in abundance, giving the listener shivers of pure pleasure; and the songs! Her writing continues to flourish, as a garden of lyric beauty. What a singer! and what a CD! I am impressed, as I always have been, by Lisa Kirchner's talent and her continuing success as a singer, writer and performer” – Judy Collins
"There are singer-songwriters aplenty, good ones and some not so good. Lisa Kirchner isn’t good. Lisa Kirchner is great. The woman is a poet. Her lyrics demand attention, and the fact that she sets them in a variety of elegant melodies puts her in the same class with the best of the singer/poets. And besides that, she can sing. Her voice has the kind of classic purity that does full justice to her remarkable lyrics.
Let’s talk about those lyrics. When you get a couple of lines like “It’s only a dish of a bird in a stew/A fish of a feather that’s salty and blue,” you know you’re not dealing with an ordinary songwriter. This is a unique voice. Her imagery can be surrealistic. “Summer” is “pleading on her knees.” Her verse can be witty: “the city’s a circle Columbus could eat.” There are “poems that napkins are written on.” She hears “rhymes in quarters and dimes” and tells “stories with peach pits and prunes.” She plays with ironic paradox. A potential love flees “from the rock leaving keys but no lock.” Potential lovers dine “on prizes, toys, and stars.” She is not afraid to pepper her songs with literary allusions: Dylan Thomas’ Adventures in the Skin Trade, the Sad Café, Byron, Montague and Capulet, Monte Cristo. She is willing to build a whole song on some phrases from T. S. Eliot. Add references to the Pantheon, Vichy, and Eskatral, and it is clear she doesn’t find it necessary to write down to her audience.
Kirchner takes time in the liner notes to say something about the genesis of each of the songs. The album opens with “Salty and Blue (I Don’t Believe in Romance),” which she calls an “ironic lament spiked with limerick.” It couches that irony and a dose of that surreal imagery in some contrasting lilting old-style swing and features some nice solo work from pianist Xavier Davis, guitarist Ron Jackson, and saxophonist Sherman Irby. “A Billion Stars Ago (In the Shadow of Crow)” opens with an intro from drummer Willie Jones III and moves around rhythmically—a bit of Latin, a bit of blues. “What About You?” catalogues the beauties of the city. Bill Schimmels’ accordion gives the song a European touch.
She points out that “The Hudson Bay Inn” was inspired by the songs of Brecht and Weill. It has the feel of a lilting story ballad with a melody that is infectious. The title song is an up-tempo jazzy piece with some featured solo work by the rest of the band. The cryptic title refers to the paper umbrellas in cocktails. “Let Us Go Then” plays with the regret for a wasted life in Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” The music echoes the regret of the lyric. “Under the Paris Moon (Manhattan Under the Paris Moon)” has a sound reminiscent of the French chanteuse, while “At the Closing of the Fair” could be pop rock hit, featuring some old-time solos from Irby and the rest of the band.
In “Tim,” a song about a “brilliant actor and dancer who taught a transcendent dance class,” Kirchner says the hour with him was “the measure of heaven.” “The measure of heaven” is not a bad description of the hour you spend with Umbrellas in Mint." - Jack Goodstein/BCMusic Premium
"Every song here was in fact written by the wild-maned Kirchner and, for me, brings back tangs of the underlauded Robert Kraft, among others, as the Carmichaelish What About You? (LOVE that “A ceiling at midnight, where stars shine on cue” line!) demonstrates. A wide palette of world influences invade the entire cycle here, subordinated beautifully to the dominantly Broadway ambiance…Expect generous doses of Rogers & Hart, Brel, Hammerstein, and a bunch of others in the Songbook milieu, but there are also a number of surprisingly Brechtian tinges, as Kirchner’s unafraid of the shadows populating boulevards and hearts. She knows those darksome dimensions are just wellsprings… Umbrellas is an exhilarating escapade, a collection of songs wrought for a stage musical yet to be put beneath the lights…”
- Mark S. Tucker/Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
"Scan the covers of Lisa Kirchner’s six albums to date and the first thing you’ll note is that her flame-colored hair grows increasingly untamed. So, too, has her musicality grown steadily bolder and wilder. Serving up her first platter of all-original material, the dusky-voiced Kirchner reaches a new apex, pairing poetry as densely atmospheric as Mitchell’s or Waits’ with melodies that reflect her longstanding cosmopolitan flair, and melding influences as varied as Brel, Brecht, Weill, Gershwin, Becker and Fagen.
Kirchner opens with “Salty and Blue (I Don’t Believe in Romance),” a sassy dismissal of moon-June songwriting tropes that sets the stage for the wide-ranging imaginativeness to follow. The dark, stormy percolation of “A Billion Stars Ago (In the Shadow of a Crow)” makes way for the chanson delicacy of “What About You?,” a misty-eyed paean to Paris which sighs and steps aside for the globetrotting “The Hudson Bay Inn,” a jaunty jumble of images worthy of Lorraine Feather.
The spirited title track sketches Kirchner’s quest for an equally madcap paramour, while the twirling “Tim” recalls a vividly mottled past relationship. Her border-blurring travels continue through “Under the Paris Moon,” while the closing “Quarters and Dimes” provides a sprightly summation of her narrative panache. All in all, Umbrellasis an exhilarating crazy quilt." - Chris Loudon/Jazz Times
"Drawing from jazz, Broadway, cabaret and Great American Songbook influences, Kirchner presents a dozen outstanding originals. They’re rich in diversity, imagery and emotion. “Under The Paris Moon” and ‘”Southern Starlight” are especially enchanting. “A Billion Stars Ago" (In The Shadow of a Crow)” is intricately designed and intriguingly performed. Kirchner’s elegantly expressive voice caresses her well-crafted lyrics and delicately woven melodies." - Paul Freeman/PopCultureClassics.Com]
If it can be said that anyone has music in her D.N.A., that person would be Lisa Kirchner. The daughter of Pulitzer Prize-winning classical composer Leon Kirchner and coloratura soprano Gertrude Schoenberg, Lisa was raised in a home that appreciated Bach as much as Jimi Hendrix, Duke Ellington as much as Mozart. With the release of Umbrellas in Mint, she also puts her songwriting skills to the forefront. An album of all original material, Umbrellas in Mint is full of story-songs that might be taken from a progressive Broadway show, the melodies strong and the lyrics full of emotion. Ms. Kirchner sings in a way that draws the listener in, making us hang on her phrasing to see where the story – or the musical composition – will go next. While so many jazz singers are content to recycle the Great American Song Book, she is staking out new ground.
Lisa has wisely surrounded herself with a solid jazz band. Pianist Xavier Davis has recorded with the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Christian McBride, Stefon Harris and Jimmy Greene, and most recently toured with Jeremy Pelt. His touch is in tune with Ms. Kirchner’s vocal approach, and he leads the band without overplaying or stepping on some of the subtleties provided by sax player Sherman Irby, guitarist Ron Jackson, bassist Vincente Archer, accordianist Bill Schimmel and drummer Willie Jones III...." -Jeffrey Siegel/Straight No Chaser
"Singer, Stylist, Composer, Storyteller: Lisa Kirchner at her very best UMBRELLAS IN MINT In this her sixth album, jazz stylist Lisa Kirchner pushes the boundaries of her inestimable talents as a singer and arranger… She has written both the music and the lyrics for this highly imaginative exploration into poetry and stage plays and invites us on a journey called UMBRELLAS IN MINT – a story like no other and one that likely other singers will add to their repertoire… Kirchner is such a brilliant stylist that she is able to take us on a surreal flight of fancy about love and life in Manhattan….This is excellent music, each song different enough to maintain forward momentum, but each is equally fine." -Grady Harp/Amazon.com
CHARLESTON FOR YOU
Top Ten on CHMR, WERU, WRBC, WSCA, WDPS, WERU, WHLI Artist of the Week
"these dozen tracks are assembled from seven different sessions from the late ’90s. Together they shape an intriguing potpourri, featuring a dozen musicians Kirchner frequently collaborated with over the years—bassist Lonnie Plaxico, pianist James Weidman, drummer Adam Cruz and guitarist Ron Jackson among them—in various configurations. The playlist meanders all over the map, with four Kirchner originals, a trio of pieces co-written by Kirchner with pianist Galt MacDermot, and covers of tunes from such disparate sources as the Gershwins, Janis Ian, Dr. John and French composer Michel Emer. Charleston for You also covers a lot of physical miles. Pre-Katrina New Orleans is visited twice, with Dr. John’s spooky tale of voodoo queen “Marie Laveau” and Kirchner and MacDermot’s easy-flowing “Blue By the River (Port of New Orleans).” Kirchner’s lovely, introspective “Riverside” wistfully travels between Manhattan and San Francisco, while the edgy “Lights of L.A.” paints an urgently sinister portrait of Tinseltown. Emer’s “L’accordéoniste,” performed in French, recalls Piaf-era Paris, and the closing blend of Caetano Veloso’s velvety “Coracão Vagabundo” and Baden Powell and Vinicius de Moraes’ vibrant “Berimbau,” both presented in Portuguese, conjures a quiet Rio evening suddenly enlivened by Carnaval. It’s an awful lot to absorb in one sitting, but well worth the far-flung trip." -Chris Loudon/Jazz Times
"Style, elegance, impeccable musicality, chanteuse extraordinaire - they all apply to the amazing Lisa Kirchner. For this listener this is her strongest album to date - more variation, more variety of accompaniment, more pizzazz, more tenderness. Take an hour out the day to be transformed by this musical stylist! Not only does Lisa Kirchner have a voice of great beauty and a sense of poetry in the way she delivers lyrics, but she also happens to be a rather fine composer - a trait she shares with five of the twelve songs she sings here. Probably a bit of her artistry in performing and composing is in her genetic nature; her father was the late brilliant classical composer Leon Kirchner.This combination of musical styles and sung in English, French and Portuguese is as exciting as any new recording by a female vocalist to be release this year. Lisa Kirchner is on top of her form and this Album simply has it all."
- Grady Harp/Amazon
"Take old school vocal jazz, a touch of caberet and a dash of Broadway and you have a nice receipe for a very entertaining release from Lisa Kirchner entitled Charleston For You. I was immediately taken by some of the talent listed on the release as well including straight ahead drumming phenom Adam Cruz and guitar virutuoso Ron Jackson so for the purist that wants to argue "credibility" then game over. There are several Kirchner originals here that are as solid as they come including "Red Wine and White Lies" along with "Lights of L.A." Some of the more eclectic tunes that help bind this wonderful release together include a nice riff on a Janis Ian tune "Jesse" and of course a standard from George Gershwin "The Man I Love." ...An elegant vocal talent that could as a former co-worker from American Idol would say about certain talent - "She could sing the phone book." Brent Black/Critical Jazz
"Lisa has a fine voice that she projects over a dozen tracks, friendly ballads with varying accompaniment. The music is mostly gentle pop with country elements but she injects different elements to broaden the appeal. Kirchner does a fine job playing guitar and singing on "Jesse". We also enjoyed the rich superimposed harmony on "Riverside", the funky "Lights of L.A." and the bouncy spirit of "L'accordéoniste". She wraps the set with a taste of bossa nova on "Coracão Vagabundo/Berimbau". - Oscar Groomes/O's Place Jazz Magazine
"these dozen tracks are assembled from seven different sessions from the late ’90s. Together they shape an intriguing potpourri, featuring a dozen musicians Kirchner frequently collaborated with over the years—bassist Lonnie Plaxico, pianist James Weidman, drummer Adam Cruz and guitarist Ron Jackson among them—in various configurations. The playlist meanders all over the map, with four Kirchner originals, a trio of pieces co-written by Kirchner with pianist Galt MacDermot, and covers of tunes from such disparate sources as the Gershwins, Janis Ian, Dr. John and French composer Michel Emer. Charleston for You also covers a lot of physical miles. Pre-Katrina New Orleans is visited twice, with Dr. John’s spooky tale of voodoo queen “Marie Laveau” and Kirchner and MacDermot’s easy-flowing “Blue By the River (Port of New Orleans).” Kirchner’s lovely, introspective “Riverside” wistfully travels between Manhattan and San Francisco, while the edgy “Lights of L.A.” paints an urgently sinister portrait of Tinseltown. Emer’s “L’accordéoniste,” performed in French, recalls Piaf-era Paris, and the closing blend of Caetano Veloso’s velvety “Coracão Vagabundo” and Baden Powell and Vinicius de Moraes’ vibrant “Berimbau,” both presented in Portuguese, conjures a quiet Rio evening suddenly enlivened by Carnaval. It’s an awful lot to absorb in one sitting, but well worth the far-flung trip." -Chris Loudon/Jazz Times
"Style, elegance, impeccable musicality, chanteuse extraordinaire - they all apply to the amazing Lisa Kirchner. For this listener this is her strongest album to date - more variation, more variety of accompaniment, more pizzazz, more tenderness. Take an hour out the day to be transformed by this musical stylist! Not only does Lisa Kirchner have a voice of great beauty and a sense of poetry in the way she delivers lyrics, but she also happens to be a rather fine composer - a trait she shares with five of the twelve songs she sings here. Probably a bit of her artistry in performing and composing is in her genetic nature; her father was the late brilliant classical composer Leon Kirchner.This combination of musical styles and sung in English, French and Portuguese is as exciting as any new recording by a female vocalist to be release this year. Lisa Kirchner is on top of her form and this Album simply has it all."
- Grady Harp/Amazon
"Take old school vocal jazz, a touch of caberet and a dash of Broadway and you have a nice receipe for a very entertaining release from Lisa Kirchner entitled Charleston For You. I was immediately taken by some of the talent listed on the release as well including straight ahead drumming phenom Adam Cruz and guitar virutuoso Ron Jackson so for the purist that wants to argue "credibility" then game over. There are several Kirchner originals here that are as solid as they come including "Red Wine and White Lies" along with "Lights of L.A." Some of the more eclectic tunes that help bind this wonderful release together include a nice riff on a Janis Ian tune "Jesse" and of course a standard from George Gershwin "The Man I Love." ...An elegant vocal talent that could as a former co-worker from American Idol would say about certain talent - "She could sing the phone book." Brent Black/Critical Jazz
"Lisa has a fine voice that she projects over a dozen tracks, friendly ballads with varying accompaniment. The music is mostly gentle pop with country elements but she injects different elements to broaden the appeal. Kirchner does a fine job playing guitar and singing on "Jesse". We also enjoyed the rich superimposed harmony on "Riverside", the funky "Lights of L.A." and the bouncy spirit of "L'accordéoniste". She wraps the set with a taste of bossa nova on "Coracão Vagabundo/Berimbau". - Oscar Groomes/O's Place Jazz Magazine
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