Beauty And The Beat Reimagined By Suzanna Smith And The Peggy Lee Project at Musically Minded Academy

“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.” — Christopher Louden, Jazz Times....

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“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.” — Christopher Louden, Jazz Times.

In a special performance, vocalist Suzanna Smith and The Peggy Lee Project pay tribute to Peggy Lee’s first collaboration with pianist George Shearing — the album ‘Beauty and the Beat.’ In the intimate venue of Musically Minded Academy, located in the Rockridge area of Oakland, Suzanna is joined by pianist Lee Bloom, bassist Sam Bevan, and drummer Jon Arkin.

Peggy Lee and George Shearing, both at Capitol Records, were brought together for the first time in 1959 to perform and record a concert during the Second National Disc Jockey Convention at the Americana Hotel in Miami. It was from this concert that the album ‘Beauty and the Beat’ emerged. George Shearing recalled “The whole industry was there, all the main record companies, so this gave us a built-in audience response. In fact, it was an incredible audience and the whole atmosphere of the album was charged because of that.” Lee and Shearing had just been up for 48 hours planning the concert and were exhausted, and yet the album captures Peggy at her very best — vocally brilliant, stylistically shining, swinging on the upbeat numbers, heart-tugging and intimate on the ballads. And Shearing at the peak of his form, too.

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