Search - Lea Delaria, Janette Mason, Julian Siegel :: Be A Santa

Her new album, Be A Santa, finds Lea DeLaria swinging her way through the Christmas songbook, backed by some of the best British jazz musicians around and produced by the English acclaimed pianist and composer Janette Mason. 'I've always wanted to make a Christmas Album,' says the singer. 'All the greats did it; Ella Fitzgerald, Louie Armstrong,
Frank Sinatra, Mel Tormé - I wanted to have mine out there too!' And rather than simply churning out a few tired jazz versions of the same old songs, Lea decided to do things her way and in her own inimitable style. 'In order to make a Christmas CD that would stand out from the modern crowd I knew
it would need to swing 'old school'. So I chose secular songs that lend themselves to the '50s and '60s style of jazz and then handed them over to the ultra-talented Janette Mason who joined me in creating the arrangements.' Joining Lea are some of the UK's top players saxophonist Julian Siegel, trumpeter Martin Shaw, bassists Simon Little and Geoff Gascoyne, vibes player Anthony Kerr, drummer Mark Fletcher and of course
Lea's long time companion Janette on piano, who also co-wrote the album's one original track, A Modern Christmas Tale. 'It's our Trojan Horse of a track,' says Lea proudly. 'You listen to it and you think you've heard it before. You ask, 'Who wrote that one?' Well, we did. We just snuck it in.'