LISA ENGELKEN is a fearless singer with a daunting stage presence. Her horn-like phrasing and tonal clarity puts a chill back into contemporary jazz vocals as she “defines the ‘extra’ in extraordinary“ (Jazz Times).
Part freight train, part junkyard trombone, the tumbleweed Engelken alternately locomotes and floats through a myriad of moods & vocal styles, spicing her tunes with Portuguese, French, Spanish and Italian. But operatic and theatrical training couldn’t polish off the rough edges as she wields her acrobatic 3-octave range like a weapon, like a wand, intensified by sheer joy, crankiness and irony.
From her web site post on her latest album:
CARAVAN features 10 of Lisa’s fresh arrangements of standards, Brazilian, and contemporary selections by such varied composers as Tizol & Ellington, Joni Mitchell, Baden Powell, Cole Porter and Billy Idol.