Versatile Lea Delaria whips up some head banger jazz
By Chad Jones, STAFF WRITER





DOES SHE SWING - OR WHAT? Lea Delaria's new album - Double
Standards - features alternative rock tunes served up jazz style.

THE LAST TIME we saw Lea Delaria around these parts, she was a
princess sleeping on a pea in a concert version of the musical "Once
Upon a Mattress."
That was late last year, and now the multi-talented performer is back
in the Bay Area, where more than 20 years ago she made waves as an
intensely in-your-face lesbian comic. This time she's here in the
guise of jazz singer.

No pretender, Delaria is a seriously good chanteuse along the lines
of Anita O'Day, Annie Ross and even Peggy Lee.

Delaria is at San Francisco's Empire Plush Room through Sunday to
promote her new CD "Double Standards" on which she attempts to turn
alternative rock songs into sturdy jazz tunes.

If you heard Delaria's previous album, "Play It Cool," which gave the
jazz treatment to show tunes like "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd"
and "Cool" from "West Side Story," you know she has the chops to make
non-swinging tunes swing and swing hard.

Dressed in a dark suit — she called it her "jazz suit" — and black-
and-white-checkered Vans sneakers, Delaria began her 10-song set with
No Doubt's "Just a Girl" and gave us a taste of the evening to come:
intense instrumentals, playful vocals and strong back-and-forth
between singer and her quartet.

One exciting revelation was that Delaria's scat singing is
surprisingly good. Unlike many jazz singers, she doesn't project that
too-precious "Look at me! I'm an instrument!" nonsense while
vocalizing.

After meandering through Patti Smith's "Dancing Barefoot," Delaria
made the evening's only musical misstep with her cover of the
Doors' "People Are Strange." The druggy tune is really not
substantial enough to withstand a heavy jazz treatment.

The song has negligible lyrics at best, and Delaria failed to find a
strong musical idea in the miasma of melody.

Her take on Green Day's "Longview" is much better.

"I'm really the only jazz singer who would possibly sing this song,"
Delaria boasted. And she was right.

She took a song about complacency and boredom and gives it a vibrant
bounce. She also used the song as an opportunity to spar with
saxophonist Alex Murzyn on what she called the traditional "trading
of the fours challenge." He'd play, then she'd mimic him or vice
versa. They both seemed to be having so much fun it was hard to tell
who won.

Though the Empire Plush Room is a cabaret, Delaria and her quartet
insisted on turning it into a jazz club. For us cabaret fops, that
means dealing with seemingly interminable instrumental solos when
five minutes can seem like 60. We're all about the vocals, not the
music.

But for the cool jazz cats, drinking in the work of great musicians
like Murzyn, drummer Barbara Merjan, bassist Andy Higgins and
pianist/music director Jeanette Mason, is a groovy experience.

Following the effective balladry of Neil Young's "Philadelphia" came
the most recognizable song of the evening: Blondie's "Call Me," a
tune that has more charm in a jazz setting than it does in pop.

You couldn't say the same for Chrissie Hynde's "Tattooed Love Boys,"
which Delaria (with ample assists from drummer Merjan) rendered as an
aggressive, big-voiced piece of jazz opera weirdness.

Robert Wyatt's "Alliance" turned out to be the evening's dirge, and
the Jane's Addiction hit "Been Caught Stealing" ended the set with
some righteous funk.

For an encore, Delaria made the mistake of hauling out Harold Arlen
and Ted Koehler's 1931 standard "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue
Sea." This was a mistake only because the clean, simple melody and
clear, clever lyrics put all the previous songs to shame. The
effortless jazz of the tune made the converted rock tunes seem
labored by comparison.

Say this for Delaria: she has gone from stand-up comic to Broadway
star to jazz crooner, and she's done it all with skill and
dedication. At Tuesday's show she mixed in some comedy, although she
crossed a line in discussing her dislike of Pres. George W. Bush.
After a few jokes about his daughters and wife, she suggested someone
should "take him out" and said she'd gladly do it herself.

Even as someone who prides herself on being outrageous and
controversial, Delaria should know that standing on a stage and
encouraging murder is the opposite of cool. It's irresponsible and
unnecessary.



You can e-mail Chad Jones at cjones@... or call (925)
416-4853.