“Daring, dexterous singer/songwriter/poet... with appeal to both traditional and contemporary jazz tastes and even hip-hop hipsters.”
— Jonathan Takiff, Philadelphia Daily News
“A pliable, expressive voice dipped in blue... saucily suggestive... imagistic.”
— Lucy Tauss, Jazz Times
“Funky, fresh and sexy as all hell...seamless blending of jazz, hip-hop, soul, spoken word and popular music.”
— Jordan Richardson, Canadian Audiophile
“Inventive and often haunting. ”
— Scott Yanow, L.A. Jazz Scene
“Whatever she knows or sings comes, in Whitman's term, from the body electric.”
— Frances Mayes, author, San Jose Mercury
“Strange, musical, funny, sexy poems. Look no further for a deeply spiritual, feminist celebration in verse.”
— Diana Whitney, Girl Trouble
RECORDS, BOOKS, GIGS & AWARDS
IN PERFORMANCE AND ON RECORDINGS WITH HER BAND, LISA INTERWEAVES SUNG AND SPOKEN VERSE in original songs and adventurously reimagined standards and covers.
HER SEVEN FULL-LENGTH RECORDS AND VARIOUS SINGLES released since 1999 have gained radio play and charting on hundreds of trade-reporter jazz, college, and free-form stations.
LISA B'S RECORDINGS ALSO GARNERED CRITICAL ACCLAIM in Jazz Times, Jazziz, All About Jazz, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and many other publications.
Lisa B is readying her NEXT ALBUM OUT AUGUST 2026: STUNNING SOUL-JAZZ VERSIONS OF NEWLY RELEVANT '60s CLASSICS: " '60s Magic Now!: The Y-Verse."
RECENT AND FORTHCOMING SINGLES FROM THE RECORD INCLUDE Bob Dylan's "THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN,' '' "SPOOKY," AND "DEAR MR. FANTASY."
HER FREE-VERSE POETRY is featured in her second book God in Her Ruffled Dress (What Books Press), also available as an audiobook with new original music; her 2019 full-length album "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.
Lisa's forthcoming record, "'60s MAGIC NOW!: THE Y-VERSE" is being recorded with her band and engineer D-Wiz aka Dale Everingham at Bay Area studios for August 2026 release! Previously, she 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 for artists in R&B, hip-hop, jazz, and pop.
SHE HAS PERFORMED AT 90+ VENUES in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Los Angeles, and elsewhere.
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 (including a stint as Associate Director of The Poetry Center at San Francisco State University), she offers a range of workshops, clinics, and classes to performers and creators. She also works as a professional psychic reader and coach.
For bulletins, check out her blog.
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.
In a natural progression, Lisa embarked on the study of jazz and groove singing and composition — incorporating poetry into her musical performances.
HER KEY MUSICAL INFUENCES SPAN not only Coltrane and McRae, but also the bedrock of the Great American Songbook; vocal jazz pioneers Sheila Jordan, Jeanne Lee, and Lambert, Hendricks & Ross; melders of jazz, poetry, and soul Gil Scott-Heron and Jill Scott; and two who testify in music and verse, Aretha Franklin and Allen Ginsberg.
THE SPOKEN VERSE SHE INTEGRATES INTO HER SONGS reflects the influence of 1950s public poetry readings to jazz accompaniment, the biting rhythms of contemporary creative rap, and the poetic lyrics of modern singer-songwriters. The result on her seven albums and various singles is genre-bending and multidimensional.
RETURNING TO A FOCUS ON WRITING POETRY FOR THE PAGE WHEN COVID CURTAILED PERFORMANCES, Lisa was thrilled to secure the Oct. 2023 publication of her second full-length volume of poems by What Books Press.
A RESIDENT OF OAKLAND, CALIF., Lisa B's celebration of Oakland includes her music video “Holiday in Oakland,” which went viral locally and was nominated for an Oakland Indie Award. She has mentored youth through the public schools, city parks and recreation programs, and the Boys & Girls Club.
SHE WORKS NOT ONLY AS AN ARTIST and educator but also as a professional psychic. See more at her blog.