Suzanna Smith & The Peggy Lee Project

Founded in 2012, THE PEGGY LEE PROJECT is a musical and multimedia collaboration between Oakland, CA-based vocalist Suzanna Smith and pianist Lee Bloom that seeks to honor the influence of Peggy Lee on American popular music — as a singer, songwriter and entrepreneur.

Peggy Lee was a sophisticated stage persona who rose to fame at the height of the Big Band era, serving her apprenticeship with the “King Of Swing,” Benny Goodman, before establishing herself as one of the pre-eminent female singers of the post-war age. Realizing that versatility could help maintain the public’s interest in her, she navigated many different musical paths, from jazz, blues, and swing to Latin, pop, soul, and even, in her later years, soft rock. The best Peggy Lee songs reveal what a versatile singer she was.

Lee was blessed with a laconic vocal style, never wasting a note and eschewing unnecessary embellishment. Or, as her former arranger, Artie Butler, once told this writer: “She could change the molecules of the oxygen around her because she mastered the art of simplicity. It wasn’t that she had the greatest voice, but she was a unique song stylist. You just heard two notes and knew it was her.” THE PEEGY LEE PROJECT celebrates her talent! She has performed songs that are known by generations: Fever, Is That All There Is?, I'm a Woman, Black Coffee.

Suzanna brings an ALL-STAR band featuring Lee Bloom on piano, John Wiitala on bass, and Jon Arkin on drums. This intimate group of musicians will be an exquisite setting for a trip through the music of Peggy Lee.

Christopher Louden in Jazz Times gave this high praise to Suzanna in reviewing her recording, Halfway Between Heaven & Love, "There are relatively few contemporary female vocalists who evoke Peggy Lee, at least not genuinely. Suzanna Smith, new to recording, but a seasoned pro who has been honing her artistry in and around the Bay Area for over a decade, numbers among that rare ilk. That Smith sounds like Lee slightly breathy and warmly sensual with a hint of huskiness is undeniable, but the parallels extend much further. Lee's ability to not just caress a ballad but smother it in mink has seldom been matched. She was also a sage swinger never too much, never too little as well as a first-rate songwriter. Smith checks all those boxes."

Brent Black on CriticalJazz.com said her approach is "organic, eclectic, and contemporary, yet rooted in the tradition of what old school vocal jazz was once all about, soul."

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