Home » Jazz Musicians » Laura Windley
Laura Windley
Laura came to jazz music from the dance floor, picking up swing dancing in 1998. A few years later she became a DJ for those same dances, broadening her knowledge and love of jazz and swing with non-stop listening and music collecting. From there it was only natural that she try singing the songs that she had grown to love and, because a swing singer needs a swinging band, Laura went on to co-found the Mint Julep Jazz Band with her husband, trombone player Lucian Cobb, in 2012. Laura has become a staple of swing dance events throughout the U.S., performing with her own band as well as bands lead by Jonathan Stout, Michael Gamble, Paul Cosentino, Craig Gildner, and Jonathan Doyle.
Singing in a sweet style with a serious rhythmic underpinning and drawing comparisons to a young Ella Fitzgerald, Ivie Anderson, and Helen Forrest, Laura is known for her authenticity of sound – as you enter the dance hall, you may think you are hearing a vintage recording. She can’t help but swing, no matter what the tempo, and she has a splendid conversational approach to the lyrics. Michael Steinman has called her “the Joan Blondell of swing singing: sweet, tender, and lemony all at once. And once you’ve heard her, you won’t mistake her for anyone else.”
Tags
"There are so many beautiful (male and female) earnest almost-singers in the world. Audiences admire them while they are visually accessible. I listen with my eyes closed at first. Laura is THE REAL THING — she swings, she has a splendid but conversational approach to the lyrics; her second choruses don’t mimic her first. And her voice is in itself a pleasure — a tart affectionate mixture of early Ella, Ivie, Jerry Kruger, Sally Gooding. I think of her as the Joan Blondell of swing singing: sweet, tender, and lemony all at once. And once you’ve heard her, you won’t mistake her for anyone else." Michael Steinman, Jazz Lives
