Leigh Harris - Vocals/ head motherfucker in charge
Etkilendikleri
All the mystical magicians of New Orleans, who were a tremendous part of my childhood soundtrack-- James Booker, Professor Longhair, & the Wild Tchoupitoulas being the most resonant -- and, in no particular order & expanding constantly, Betty "Nasty Gal" Davis, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Tom Lehrer, Frank Zappa, Mae West, Ry Cooder, David Johansen, the Coltranes, Ray Davies, Les Mystere des Voix Bulgare, the ORIGINAL Kool & the Gang, Tom Lingard, Andy Partridge, Curtis Mayfield, Elaine Stritch, The Shangri-Las, Raymond Scott, James Brown, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Jim Carroll, Betty Carter, George Clinton, Judy Garland, ee cummings, Patti Smith, Al Greene, the Stones, Van Morrison, Robert Crumb, Jimi Hendrix, Patsy Cline, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Miss Betty Welles, Leonard Bernstein, Aretha, Sun Ra, Al Kooper, Billie Holiday, Bootsy Collins, Ken Russell, Colette, Mose Allison, Don Van Vliet, Yma Sumac, Tom Waits, Sam Cooke, Gil Scott-Heron- Brian Jackson-&the Midnight Band, Buffy Ste-Marie, Marvin Gaye, Brian Wilson, Little Jimmy Scott, David Bowie, Harpo & Chico, George & Ira, John & Yoko, Tish & Snooky, Lucy & Desi, Snake & Jake...
"She has a voice that makes sirens, mermaids, and other magical singing creatures get really depressed and go take lessons & get therapy and shit."--Micah E. Herman
Shortly after her first birthday, New Orleans native Leigh "Little Queenie" Harris was humming entire lullabies back to her parents; six months later, she'd added the lyrics..."and I haven't ever really shut my face since," she told journalist-poet John Sinclair in a 1999 interview.
Sharing billing with early hometown mentors like Allen Toussaint, Dr John, Irma Thomas, James Booker, The Meters, and Professor Longhair at legendary local nightclubs, recording studios, and the Jazz & Heritage Festival from the time she was a teenager, she later went on to perform live and on disc from sea to sea, with such wildly diverse acts as BB King, Elvis Costello, Sun Ra, Jerry Jeff Walker, The Guess Who, Bonerama, Ellis,Wynton, Branford, Delfayeo and Jason Marsalis, Odetta, They Might Be Giants, Gatemouth Brown, The Gospel Soul Children, G Love & Special Sauce, CC Adcock, The Soul Rebels Brass Band, Harry Connick Jr, The Subdudes, Malavoir, The Neville Brothers, The Pfister Sisters, Astral Project, Pete Seeger, Asleep at the Wheel, The N.O. Nightcrawlers, Michael Wolff's Impure Thoughts, Zachary Richard, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Roomful of Blues, Taj Mahal, Li'l Band o'Gold, NRBQ, The Fleshtones, Delbert McClinton, Bryan Ferry, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Buckwheat Zydeco.
She was an integral part of Ron Cuccia's groundbreaking JazzPoetry Group, and it was with that quintet the now-classic "My Dawlin New Orleans" was heard in a small theatre at the city's Contemporary Arts Center for the first time. She formed various brilliant groups around her style-defying voice and imagination. notable among them : Mixed Knots, an unlikely confluence of who's who string-instrument players performing unforgettably deranged acoustic versions of songs from the catalogs of Jimi Hendrix, Duke Ellington, The Monkees, The WPA, film soundtracks, and everything in between; Roy G Biv was an innovative jazz-funk quintet consisting of two keyboardists, two drummers, and vocals; and The Ofay Soul Choir, later known as Little Queenie's Wahini Dakinis, were a breathtaking array of celebrated voices belting out songs they never expected to sing (nor did audiences expect to hear them), always to standing ovations.In the late 90s, she, Mixed Knots, and The Dakinis were joined onstage by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert called "This Rhythm Is Ours" ; during that cultural season, she and Terence Blanchard were chosen as the music community's honorees at the CAC League's annual Beaux Arts Ball. She was named Female Performer of the Year by Gambit Entertainment Weekly in 2000. In July 2003, at Central Park's Summerstages Series' Tribute to Janis Joplin, she was part of a lineup of fabulous vocalists including Phoebe Snow, Judith Owen, Kate Pearson, N'dea Davenport,Lene Lovich, and many more, each of whom sang JJ favorites accompanied by original members of Big Brother & The Holding Company and The Kozmic Blues Band ; the always-demure (and, at this point, barefoot) LQ was later serenaded in return by a hair-raising assemblage of divas onstage- and sweaty New Yorkers on the green- with that obscure old Joplin tune, "Happy Birthday To You". That fall, LQ and pianist Lawrence Seibirth recorded three tunes for SRT's Patchwork: A Tribute to James Booker, one of which, "Providence Provides", was nominated by Offbeat Magazine readers as Song of the Year. In 2004, her double-edged paeans to The Big Easy, "Dawg Days" and "My Dawlin", were featured on Shout!Factory's anthology, Doctors,Professors,Kings and Queens:The Big Ol' Box of New Orleans. Working with jazz, pop, funk, blues, folk and rock artists from all over everywhere, she's provided music for film and television in the US and Europe, produced and recorded 3 albums of her own, and contributed to countless others as a performer, composer, producer, babysitter, psychiatrist, beauty consultant, love broker, phamacologist, and diplomatic ambassador.
The completion of her last New Orleans CD, Purple Heart, had been held up for well over a year due to master data damage/loss from the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina when she decided to bootleg her own tracks ; this edition is currently being made available now in extremely limited quantity pending legit label release. Her first two solo CDs- the award-winning House of Secrets, and Polychrome Junction, which features Roy G Biv, can be found on her website, at cdbaby.com, iTunes, in non-corporate retail establishments, and, like all her fine products, in select automobile trunks from coast to coast in North America. Also available on iTunes, cdbaby.com, etc: an additional CD entitled Home, a compilation of "lost" recordings by her seminal NOLA band, Li'l Queenie and the Percolators, released on her Deeva label in conjunction with the group's reunion show in The Crescent City during the 2007 festival season, slated for filming as part of a documentary about her, ahem, adventuresome life and career.
Now relocated to North Carolina, she has begun to join forces with artists of all stripes in her adopted region, is recording & performing this summer from New Orleans to New England, and continues to surprise, disarm, and blow away new audiences, carrying musician and listener alike with her through the music of her roots, beyond the swamps, and into the 21st century.
"...Leigh Harris has been one of New Orleans' boldest, most arresting singers since her days fronting Little Queenie & the Percolators--which spawned the Continental Drifters and the Subdudes-- in the early 80s, when she belted out roots- rock before it became a 90s catchphrase. Her talents have unfolded in layers over the last two decades like a blossoming flower as she's nurtured her interpretive gifts for jazz, blues, gospel, and standards...her CD House of Secrets is a stunning culmination of her art, an utterly beautiful collection... her singular talent flourishes in any setting... no matter how familiar the material, rest assured that Harris will make it her own."
-- GAMBIT ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
".. Harris, on House of Secrets, has re-invented herself and the American singer-songwriter tradition by incorporating a completely natural, European sensibility.Casting herself in the surprising, and wholly satisfying, role of a Delta version of Edith Piaf, Harris offers us one of the year's most inventive tributes to the power of song and a new appreciation for the richness of New Orleans' musical legacy."
--OFFBEAT MAGAZINE
"She's a short, dynamic Southern woman with a pure, powerful voice that can rise ecstatically to gospel abandon...radiant, tough, tight…thrilling"
-- THE NEW YORK TIMES
"A virtuoso jazz singer with rock-n-roll in her veins and the pipes & phrasing of a great gospel belter... even her scat singing has soul"
-- STEREO REVIEW
" sassy and musicianly...she imitates, instrument by instrument, a Dixieland band during her talking 'Ten Carat Blues', in which she asserts she's 'tuff' and backs it up... every time she pulls off a daredevil vocal turn, like coiling a 10-note melisma around an unsuspecting word... hurtling way, way above the band like a dolphin leaping into sunlight...Little Queenie IS t-u-f-f-f-f-f"
--THE VILLAGE VOICE
"...oscillating between shimmying blues and soulful, pour-it-all-out balladry, this girl can SING, honey...a night with Little Queenie is indeed memorable." - --MUSICIAN MAGAZINE
“New Orleans’ dynamic, diminutive diva who means business… hypnotic” - --BILLBOARD MAGAZINE
Hey Leigh thanks for the friendship. Hope you're feeling better. Looking forward to having you join The Caravan one morning soon. You going to check out the new Aquarius Music Hall Saturday night? Hope to see you there.
Cuando anhelemos una vida sin dificultades debemos recordar que los robles crecen con fuerza con vientos en contra y los diamantes nacen bajo presión.
When we long for a life without difficulties we should remember that oaks grow with up with foul winds and diamonds born with low presion.
Quand nous aspirerons à une vie sans difficulté nous devons rappeler que les chênes croissent avec dehors avec des vents dans contre et les diamants naissent sous pression.
Read the entire Dictionary today, and yesturday, shit every day for the past month, and I might do it again today...Im really glad now I invested so much time, energy, and money into taking Speed Reading Courses! Intelligence is the Great Cosmic Leveler, and The Master Of Language is The Master of Universes, because Words Create UniverzeZ you dig! 3000+ books of every and all subjects reside in My Mind, and I Love it! Now you know why I always feel Powerful!
Da Lion of Judah Prinze Royal Elite Da Kingz N Da Building Yez!
If I Am to Die Today So Be it; Death I Laugh at You! You can only take me once and not b4 my time. This I know is true so until that time/its time to meet you I will Live Hard, Love Hard And Make All My Dreams Cum True! So YOU Death to whom 'Most Men Fear', You Powers, Your Wrath I Do not Care! And Yes I have the balls so Yez I do dare to taunt you, for you scare me not; Because I embrace Life until the Day That I drop! So Fear You NEVER and No Being on Earth This is How I'll Always Feel while I on God's Green Earth!
Da Lion of Judah Prinze Royal Elite Da Kingz N Da Building Yez!
HI THANKS A LOT FOR ADDING ME ! HEY LITTLE QUEENIE, IT'S NICE TO MEET YOUR MUSICAL WORLD. WOUAH. YOU SING SISTER!!! AND YOUR MUSICIANS ARE FUNKY GOOD. I LOVE THE TUBA BASS ON DAWG DAYS.
WE DON'T HAVE JAZZ / BLUES / FUNKY STUFF LIKE YOU DO IN FRANCE YOU KNOW, IT'S GOOD TO LISTEN TO YOUR STUFF.
IF YOU CROSS ATLANTIC SEA TO PLAY, TELL ME I'LL TRY TO COME TO A GIG ALL THE BEST TO YOU & YOUR FAMILY & FRIENDS
MY FIRST RELEASE IS ON JAZZMAN RECORDS (UK) https://www.jazzmanrecords.co.uk CHECK THE JAZZMAN 12 PAGE AND LISTEN TO THE SOUND IT'S ALSO ON MY PLAYER
Hi Little Queenie, thanks for the add request! Please let your friends know about Steel Pulse's MySpace page, so that they can receive updates when Pulse will be performing in their area. There is also a new feature there where Pulse fans can receive Text Messages about local upcoming shows, so register your phone now! Also, check out many cool new items that have been added to the STEEL PULSE STORE!
Oh, Queenie, thank you for your comment. I used to go watch you in New Orleans - Maple Leaf Bar, I think - back around 1980 and I loved you. I was so pleased to find you on Myspace.
Thanks for your friendship, it's not only a pleasure but a honour to be your friend, it's a pitty we live so faraway, it would be great for me playing in a jam with you, wonderful voice full of feeling, have a look at DEONLIGUAN, it's my band, I'm playing again because of them, I love them, www.myspace.com/deonliguanrock, good luck and R&R from Pamplona (Spain)
Online!
