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Jamie Leonhart at Le Poisson Rouge
The sharp-witted chanteuse continues to develop as an artist
Jamie Leonhart at a 2008 Joe’s Pub performance (Photo: Alan Lee)
The early years of the twenty-first century have seen the rise of a new kind of diva, dynamic in her emotional range and diverse in her genre-crossing ability to express that range. A few talented singers come to mind, Norah Jones, Feist and Corrine Bailey Rae are but to name three examples of this phenomenon. Another member of that compelling company is the radiant and ebullient singer/lyricist Jamie Leonhart, appearing at (le) Poisson Rouge on April 21.
Born in New York City, the granddaughter of a cantor, and the youngest of three musically-curious children, Leonhart began studying the violin at the age of three and singing soon after. Her inspiration to find her own voice began in her early teen years while singing in a vocal jazz ensemble, and at home foraging through her brother’s expansive eclectic record collection. After graduating with a degree in English Literature from Barnard College, Leonhart continued her musical journey: through leading a ‘pop’ band, to singing as a soloist in the New York Metro Mass Gospel Choir to performing as a solo artist at prominent New York venues such as Rockwood Music Hall, the Living Room, and Joe’s Pub.
Leonhart writes about many things: love, vulnerability, perspective, patience, and trust. “These songs talk about the truth … the truth about being uncomfortable, fitting in or not fitting in, and addressing and sometimes accepting flaws and faults,” she says. “A lot of the tunes explore that: the human condition in its most basic form. The more intimate and specific I am with my lyrics, the more I hear from people that a song really ‘spoke to them’—that I captured the sentiment that they were struggling to put to words, or felt alone in. So something very personal and intimate becomes universal.”
Leonhart has performed as a soloist from the stages of great New York institutions including Avery Fisher Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall to intimate venues such as Joe’s Pub and Rockwood Music Hall. She is employed as both a voice actor and vocalist for television and radio (Lifetime, Oxygen, TRESemmé, Neutrogena brand, Johnson & Johnson, Bratz brand dolls, etc.) and also works extensively as a background and session singer (Judy Kuhn, Paul Brill, Beatriz Acevedo, the Undisputed Heavyweights and more).