Lisa Michel

Biography

Daughter of veteran record producer Ed Michel (which, she states, did not give her any special advantage in her career), Lisa Michel has been on the New York jazz scene for the last 12 years. Michel had her first professional gig in 1987 while attending New England Conservatory of Music where she studied classical voice. While attending the Institute, Michel began performing with her own group which included John Medeski, now of Medeski, Martin & Wood. Discarding opera and lieder for jazz, Michel moved to the center of jazz activity, New York, hanging out at the temple of avant garde, the Knitting Factory. Commuting to Philadelphia, she studied with Dennis Sandole, (one of John Coltrane's teachers). Meeting pianist David Berkman in 1991, he has since become her musical soul-mate. With him, she went to Europe in 1993 singing at clubs in Berlin and Hamburg with a "not very good, but willing to try hard" German swing band. Michel began to record with others, appearing on Leni Stern's Black Guitar and Recollection, released in 1997 and 1998, respectively, as well as being featured on Sam Newsome and the Global Unity. 1998 brought another tour of German with a more favorable outcome than the earlier voyage. In the same year she was featured at the 1998 Heritage & Jazz Festival in St. Louis. In addition, she shared the stage with Leni Stern in the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival in Washington D.C.. Her voice is featured on the soundtrack of Hollywood independent director Linda Kandel's 1999 film, Mascara. Michel has a lush, clear and bright voice which she applies with ease to blues, swing and ballads. Her vocal facility is shown to excellent effect on a very good first album You Should Be Nicer to Me (which she wrote), continuing her musical relationship with David Berkman. With this first album under her belt, Lisa Michel is well on the way to becoming one of jazz vocal's brighter lights; When Summer Comes followed in 1999. ~ Dave Nathan, All Music Guide