LISA ENGELKEN
Genres: Vocal Jazz, Pop, Art Song, Folk • United States

A Kansas-born jazz vocalist, composer, and arranger who refreshingly re-imagines any song she tackles. With her unique voice and singing approach -- which stands rock, pop and jazz songs on their heads -- Lisa Engelken is far from a garden-variety jazz vocalist, and that she insists on traveling to the beat of her own musical drum has kept her work refreshing and often striking. Born in Big Skies, KS, into a large family, Engelken was seemingly always singing as a child, and she later trained in classical voice and theater, but she always kept her own maverick vision of what a song needed to be, and became skilled at arrangement and harmony. Moving to the east coast, she formed the sextet the Zimmermans in Washington, D.C. with Jonathan Spottiswoode, and the group recorded two albums, Cut and The Loneliest Woman in the World, before splitting. Engelken also fronted a D.C.-based jazz read more...