Search - Barbara Lea :: Remembering Remembering Lee Wiley

Different Island, Same Opinion

TIM | Honolulu, HI | 11/23/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"As a longtime and serious jazz fan I got my CD as a gift. Some people might like it but I mostly agree with the Electra10 review. I gave mine away, which says it all. By the way she most certainly did NOT sing with Benny Goodman's band! Also there a not too many songs on the album associated with Lee Wiley, so why the title? I also agree that Lee Wiley is the greatest."

Lea is no Lee

electra10 | HI United States | 02/01/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"While checking out what was available of Lee Wiley, I came across this album. I purchased it(vinyl)almost 20 years ago, was disappointed with it and put it aside. So when I came to this site and saw several extremely favorable reviews for this and other Barbara Lea albums, I got my album out and played it again. There are some great singers who do not have great voices in the classical sense but they have that indefinable something that gets into your brain and creates pleasure. Lee Wiley and Billie Holliday are like that. Barbara Lea doesn't have a great voice but unfortunately she doesn't have that other quality either. Her style is slow, low and has a very narrow range. The album liner describes her sound as "measured," "dry," "small-scale." It's a pleasant little album but quickly forgotten. On a couple of the cuts she does sound slightly like Lee Wiley.Several of the Lea reviews claim that she sang with the Benny Goodman band. Benny Goodman had one of the greatest Big Bands of all time and vocalists of the same quality such as Helen Ward, Martha Tilton, Peggy Lee and Helen Forrest. It is possible the reviewers are confusing Lea with Peggy Lee. I am a Goodman fan and I thought I knew all of his vocalists but I never heard of Barbara Lea as one of them. She is not listed in The Big Bands by George T. Simon. According to information obtained from the liner notes and the CD NOW biography Lea sang only with some college bands and some "Detroit dance orchestras while in school." No mention of singing with Goodman, which would have been the highlight of her career. She graduated from Wellesley in about 1955 which probably makes her too young to have been in the Benny Goodman band which disbanded in 1946. Why do I make such a big deal of this? Because if one had the talent to be a vocalist for Benny Goodman, then one has a lot of talent. Since musical appreciation is subjective anyway, it goes a long way to convincing you that she is a pretty good singer if Benny Goodman hired her. So it is of some importance to know if it is true or not. Maybe Benny would have hired her, but I doubt it.Buy the real thing. Buy Lee Wiley. You'll never get her sound out of your head."

Simply Wonderful

Richard F. Mentz | ERIE, PA United States | 06/20/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Anyone familiar with Lee Wiley will recognize these songs.
They are done beautifully by Barbara Lea, a long-time
devotee of Lee Wiley. Barbara Lea has her own style, but
it is in the same tradition of Lee Wiley. She sings
the melody with no gimmicks and is simply wonderful. She is
backed by a small jazz group who compliment her singing."