"Umbrellas in Mint," Lisa Kirchner's new CD, is the most exciting album Ms. Kirchner has yet to produce. She is in beautiful voice, the shimmering, delicious lines of her vocals are here in abundance, giving the listener shivers of pure pleasure; and the songs! Her writing continues to flourish, as a garden of lyric beauty. What a singer! and what a CD! I am impressed, as I always have been, by Lisa Kirchner's talent and her continuing success as a singer, writer and performer” – Judy Collins

Lisa Kirchner Umbrellas In Mint

“Every song in Lisa Kirchner’s album, Umbrellas in Mint, is worth your attention and time. Ms. Kirchner not only has a beautiful voice, but she is a master poet with a musical gift. I thank her for including in her liner notes all the words to all the songs, and I recommend that you listen and follow along as I did.” Carl Reiner

From the blog

Off Topic'd  

http://the-unmutual.blogspot.com/2013/03/leon-kirchner-revelations-intimate.html

Comes a review of Leon Kirchner REVELATIONS

  Thursday, March 21, 2013

Leon Kirchner: Revelations - An intimate portrait

Labels: chamber music, contemporary music, review

Leon Kirchner : Revelations 
Joel Fan, piano
Diana Hoagland, soprano
Beverly Hoch, soprano
Scott Dunn, conductor
Leon Kirchner, piano
Verdant World Records

Revelations is an interesting overview of Kirchner's music. It ranges from some of his earliest work as a student in 1943, up through 2006, three years before his death. It's also an intimate overview,  comprising of works for solo piano and piano plus voice compositions.

The opening and closing piano works -- Little Suite (1949) and The Forbidden(2006) frame the collection nicely. The Little Suite is charming in its simplicity and straight-forward themes. The Forbidden, though more complex, flows with the same easy motion as the Suite.

Dawn, while tonally based, avoids all the cliches of choral writing. This brief work has a sense of urgency to it that effectively conveys the meaning of the text. Words from Wordsworth, written 20 years after in  1966 is much more strident and edgy in tone. This isn't an academic exercise in dissonance. Kirchner illuminates the text with his carefully constructed harmonies.

Three Songs (1946) and The Twilight Stood (1982) are the most angular and atonal of the selections. Once again, the music is there to serve the text. Kirchner brings the emotions of the words vividly to life.

Pianist Joel Fan, who performs on all but one of selections, is an admirable interpreter of this music. His sympathetic readings bring its emotional content to the fore.

http://the-unmutual.blogspot.com/2013/03/leon-kirchner-revelations-intimate.html

Lisa Kirchner Umbrellas In Mint is #1 Jazz Album on Radio CUH, and Top Ten on WDPS

LISA KIRCHNER UMBRELLAS IN MINT- In this her sixth album, jazz stylist Lisa Kirchner pushes the boundaries of her inestimable talents as a singer and arranger and goes for creating an entire album based on a storyline. She has written both the music and the lyrics for this highly imaginative exploration into poetry and stage plays and invites us on a journey called UMBRELLAS IN MINT - a story like no other and one that likely other singers will add to their repertoire, if not in toto then at least in excerpts - that is how strong this music is….Kirchner is such a brilliant stylist that she is able to take us on a surreal flight of fancy about love and life in Manhattan. She sings lead (and background) vocals, and is accompanied by (or enhanced by, so fine are these musicians) the following: Xavier Davis, piano, Sherman Irby, saxophone, Ron Jackson, guitar, Bill Schimmel, accordion, Vicente Archer, bass, and Willi Jones III, drums….This is excellent music, each song different enough to maintain forward momentum, but each is equally fine. A very successful outing. 

–Grady Harp/Amazon.com

Leon Kirchner's "Lily"

Jeremy Eichler/Boston Globe: Top Ten Great Moments of 2012- “Most worthy retrieval of vanished scores: Leon Kirchner's "Lily" performed at New England Conservatory's First Monday series, curated by Laurence Lesser; Selections by Harry Partch, performed at a Partch festival cohosted by NEC and Northwestern University.”“And how amazing, too, that among the 11 musicians at this performance were violinist James Buswell, celebrated clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, and cellist Lesser, brilliantly repeating their original performances” Lloyd Schwartz/The Boston Phoenix “After an enigmatic, questing flute solo from Sooyun Kim, the 11 instrumentalists conversed among themselves, like guests at a dinner party for distinguished artists. Soprano Diana Hoagland soared in her high-lying part, like the soul trying to shed its mortal coil. It whet the appetite for the complete work. As for the prerecorded voices, they were those of Kirchner - reading a monologue from “Henderson’’ - and his wife, Gertrude. The dead were still among the living. - Jeffrey Ganz/Boston Globe

Charleston For You

5.0 out of 5 stars A First Lady of Song July 5, 2012

By Grady Harp HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Audio CD

Style, elegance, impeccable musicality, chanteuse extraordinaire - they all apply to the amazing Lisa Kirchner. For this listener this is her strongest album to date - more variation, more variety of accompaniment, more pizzazz, more tenderness. Take an hour out the day to be transformed by this musical stylist!
Not only does Lisa Kirchner have a voice of great beauty and a sense of poetry in the way she delivers lyrics, but she also happens to be a rather fine composer - a trait she shares with five of the twelve songs she sings here. Probably a bit of her artistry in performing and composing is in her genetic nature; her father was the late brilliant classical composer Leon Kirchner.This combination of musical styles and sung in English, French and Portuguese is as exciting as any new recording by a female vocalist to be release this year. Lisa Kirchner is on top of her form and this Album simply has it all. Grady Harp, July 12