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Lisa B aka Lisa Bernstein

Lisa B (Lisa Bernstein) is a unique combination: award-winning literary poet and riveting singer, performer, and recording artist.

HER LITERARY POETRY is featured in her second book God in Her Ruffled Dress (10/23, What Books Press), her most recent full-length record "Reverberant" (Piece of Pie Records), her first book The Transparent Body (Wesleyan University Press), the chapbook Anorexia (Five Fingers Poetry), and 60+ literary magazines and anthologies, including Antaeus, Caliban, City Lights Review, Field, Kenyon Review, Lilith, Ploughshares, Poetry International, Tikkun, and Zyzzyva. 

AS A SINGER-POET, LISA MELDS SUNG LYRICS AND SPOKEN POETRY in original songs and adventurously reimagined standards, with jazz, hip-hop, and electronica grooves. Her seven full-length albums and various singles released since 1999 all received radio play and charting on hundreds of trade-reporter jazz, college, and free-form stations.

THEY ALSO GARNERED CRITICAL ACCLAIM in Jazz Times, Jazziz, All About Jazz, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and many other publications. 

All of Lisa B's CDs were recorded at Pajama Studios in Oakland, Calif. in close collaboration with Grammy-nominated producer-engineer-composer James Gardiner (Jim), who has 42 gold- and platinum-certified records as an engineer.

SHE HAS PERFORMED AT 90+ VENUES in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles, and elsewhere, in fall 2023 beginning a book tour augmented by some musical performances.

SHE HAS WON FELLOWSHIPS OR GRANTS from the City of Oakland, United States Artists, Hardly Strictly Music Relief Fund, California Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the East Bay/Oakland Relief Fund for Individuals in the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Headlands Center for the Arts, Ucross Foundation, Barbara Deming Memorial Fund/Money for Women, and the Puffin Foundation. With a master's degree in English literature/creative writing and years of experience as a coach and teacher, she offers a range of workshops/clinics to performers and creators. She also works as a professional psychic reader and coach

More of Lisa B's Story

Poetry and jazz have always been a part of Lisa B's life.

Lisa's mother wrote poetry, and her father was a serious aficionado of avant-garde jazz as well as a friend to many musicians, whom Lisa met at a young age, including Jackie McLean, Elvin Jones, Cecil Taylor, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
 
AS A CHILD, LISA B STUDIED CLASSICAL PIANO, WHILE HER LISTENING RANGED FROM JAZZ — in particular, her parents’ favorites Carmen McRae and John Coltrane — to R&B and musical theater. But as an adult, her first forays into live performance were public readings of her own poetry.
 
HER POEMS BEGAN APPEARING IN LITERARY JOURNALS AND HER FIRST FULL-LENGTH BOOK WAS PUBLISHED in 1989 by the prestigious Wesleyan University Press New Poets series. Meanwhile, Lisa B found that standing up alone before an audience with just her own words was powerful training in performance. 

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Recording

Lisa B Will Release Reverberant: Poems & Music On October 11

Lisa B Will Release Reverberant: Poems & Music On October 11

Source: GoMedia PR

New Release Highlights Both Aspects of Lisa B’s Work, Featuring the Singer and Poet Reciting and Singing Her Original Poetry Within Jazz and Creative Music Settings Singer and poet Lisa B (Lisa Bernstein) will release her seventh album, Reverberant: Poems & Music, on October 11. The new record joins the two strands of Lisa B’s work, vocal jazz and poetry, in riveting new ways. In a departure from Lisa B’s previous albums—which feature her jazz vocals in original songs and ...

4

Recording

Vocalist And Poet Lisa B (Lisa Bernstein) Releases "I Get A Kick: Cole Porter Reimagined" On Jazzed Media, Available January 19, 2018

Vocalist And Poet Lisa B (Lisa Bernstein) Releases "I Get A Kick: Cole Porter Reimagined" On Jazzed Media, Available January 19, 2018

Source: Mouthpiece Music

LISA B (Lisa Bernstein) is not only a jazz singer and songwriter, she’s also a widely published poet and spoken word performer. On I Get A Kick: Cole Porter Reimagined, her latest CD and sixth as a leader, she applies her poetic prowess and vocal gifts to fresh interpretations of ten tunes by Cole Porter, one of the finest of the lyricists and composers (unconventionally, he was both) who created the Great American Songbook. According to Lisa B, “My five ...

“A singer, spoken-word artist and poet with an incisive way of chronicling situations, memories, and emotions… a pliable, expressive voice dipped in blue… saucily suggestive… imagistic.” - Jazz Times

“Daring, dexterous singer/songwriter/poet Lisa B...with appeal to both traditional and contemporary jazz tastes and even hip-hop hipsters.” - Jonathan Takiff, Philadelphia Daily News

“Lisa Bernstein's mix of spoken word poetry...and passionate jazzy, high-register vocalizing is …hard to resist.” - All Music Guide

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Primary Instrument

Vocals

Location

Oakland

Clinic/Workshop Information

Mind-Body-Spirit Tools to Increase Confidence, Clarity, and Joy: for Performers and Recording Artists Learn simple, powerful mind-body-spirit tools to use during practice, performance, and recording projects! Lisa B will give an overview of the energy anatomy and its relationship to the physical body and will show musicians and singers how to productively work and play with specific energy tools. She will teach you how to use these to feel more grounded, free, and confident on stage and during practice; connect with your original enthusiasm for making music; gain freer access to your physical instrument; release mental, emotional, and even physical pain; let go of negative outside influences and outdated programming; and confidently visualize and plan project and career outcomes.

John Coltrane
saxophone
Cole Porter
composer / conductor
Art Ensemble Of Chicago
band / ensemble / orchestra
Earth, Wind & Fire
band / ensemble / orchestra

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

I Am an Orchestra: A...

Piece of Pie Records
2019

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I Get A Kick: Cole...

Jazzed Media
2018

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Christmas Time Is...

Piece of Pie Records
2011

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The Poetry of Groove

Piece of Pie Records
2009

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What's New, Pussycat?

Piece of Pie Records
2006

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I Am an Orchestra: A Tribute to Cecil Taylor

From: I Am an Orchestra: A Tribute to...
By Lisa B aka Lisa Bernstein

Videos

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