Scroll down for information on three CDs and two books.

Go to http://cdbaby.com/all/lisablisab to hear samples of all songs on all three CDs.

WHAT'S NEW, PUSSYCAT? (Piece of Pie Records POP-5812) 1. What's New, Pussycat? (.mp3) song sample 2. Slay Me (My Young Cat) (.mp3) song sample 3. Cha Cha de la Gata (Kitty-Cat Cha Cha) (.mp3) song sample 4. Our House (.mp3) song sample

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CENTER OF THE RHYME (Piece of Pie Records POP-3552) 1. Joe Williams Died Walking / Every Day I    Have the Blues (.mp3) complete song 1 minute sample 2. Be Electric (.mp3) complete song 1 minute sample 6. A Place We Knew (.mp3) complete song 1 minute sample 7. Center of the Rhyme (.mp3) complete song 1 minute sample
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J. Gardiner – producer, arranger, engineer, mix engineer, Touch-Tone Productions
Pajama Studios, Oakland, California – fabulous recording site
George Horn – mastering, Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California

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CENTER OF THE RHYME
Critical response

Jazziz, 2003 "Women In Jazz" issue:
Great pipes....talented songwriter.

Rita Rochelle, Voice of America broadcast:
A beautifully sensuous voice, so melodic...an excellent writer. She inspires us.

Jim Clark, KUSD-FM:
Her poetry riffs and asides remind me of the jazz poetry of Chicago's great Ken Nordine.

Monterey County Herald:
...up-and-coming jazz singer Lisa B...brings a whole new take on some familiar songs as well as quirky originals, such as her “Joe Williams Died Walking” that opens up her latest album...And she is a terrific lyricist, which you might expect from an accomplished poet, but comes as a revelation nonetheless.

Jonathan Takiff, Philadelphia Daily News:
Daring, dexterous singer/songwriter/poet Lisa B catches the "Center of the Rhyme" (Piece of Pie), an imaginative set of originals with appeal to both traditional and contemporary jazz tastes and even, on occasion, hip-hop hipsters.

Jackie McLean, saxophone master, educator:
“Fresh, very interesting, impressive: Lisa B is a brand-new Somebody here. She definitely has a talent that’s all hers. Her music is both commercial and traditional. She has her own sound—a very nice voice. And the writing…I was lifted up by ‘Be Electric.’ ‘A Place We Knew’ is gorgeous, with gorgeous chord progressions…”

Ted Panken (JAZZIZ, downbeat, WKCR-FM, New York):
On “Center of the Rhyme,” singer-poet Lisa B, like all rugged individualists of the jazz tribe, articulates her accomplished narrative with a tonal personality entirely her own. She spins tales of desire and obsession, formally rigorous, filled with precise, striking images. Somehow, she finds clarity when such fundamental opposites as male and female collide and—following the eternal laws of dialectics—combust into a third dimension that transcends the sum of its parts.

“When I first kissed you, I did see stars, the pull between us was so strong,” she speaks-sings on the title track. “I saw gravity and brilliance in the round sky and ground, desire and sound lit me from inside, from the center of the rhyme. And I never understood how you could reel from this physical revelation back to the gears of your solitary life... I cried, but I finally let go. I learned we all have our meter and our time.”

Ms. B is by no means alone in chronicling in song the torments and raptures of eros. What separates her from the pack is a consistent imperative to swing and a keen understanding of how to articulate the many paths which that third dimension can take. A cool-eyed realist, she’s an optimist, a survivor, sustained by a personal philosophy rooted in blues values. Consider her description of maestro Joe Williams: “The suavest man to sing the blues./He sang that every day he had them/But no one was confused./From his depths of strength and sorrow/Danced joy down to his shoes... You see, Joe had the perspective/That style was more than shine./That from a gritty roadhouse show/Comes truth, which is divine./That making it look easy/Means you look death in the eye.”

In point of fact, Ms. B makes it sound easy. Her voice is a lovely instrument, her timbre warm, her phrasing fluid, her articulation pristine, and she possesses an emotional range that makes lyrics sound like truth. She sings like the dickens. It’s hard to discern her influences. She cites the broad resources of poetry and rap; conceptually, the Art Ensemble of Chicago; and stylists as diverse as Gil Scott-Heron, Bonnie Raitt, and Carmen McRae.

It was Ms. McRae who remarked, “You have to know where you’re going when you improvise.” Lisa B does, and listeners to “Center of the Rhyme” will gladly follow her.

ALLMUSIC.COM:

Lisa Bernstein’s...mix of spoken word poetry (think rap for the uptown swing crowd) and passionate jazzy, high register vocalizing is an acquired taste, to be sure, but it’s hard to resist in the sense that you’re never sure what she’s going to do next. Is it ruminating in words on the life, death and afterlife of Joe Williams (over an outstanding trio swing vibe that segues into her playful, straightforward singing on “Every Day I Have the Blues”)? Is it enhancing Bobby Caldwell’s “What You Won’t Do For Love” with a whole new spoken story of a love deeper than Caldwell could have imagined?...Or another musical poem? The easy swinging, bluesy original “Keeps Me Up All Night” is a snazzy romance that shows what the quirky vocalist can do with normal, engaging material. And “A Place We Knew” reveals a thoughtful singer of solid phrasing and a good vocabulary of modern and traditional jazz. All the chit chat is cute, clever and definitely something that sets her apart...

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CENTER OF THE RHYME
Selected Lyrics

Be Electric
© 2003 Lisa Bernstein

It’s the weakness.
It’s the trigger.
It’s the faultline.
The wire transmitter.
If you want to get in,
if you want to get out
Hot, cold, frozen,
electrical shout. I can’t
forget you when you vibrate
my secret name
where I curl inside the underbrush
of cells, and pain
pulses away in the sunlit
flushed communication,
the information highway
deep into my nation
I’m a system, a country,
a place to tell the truth,
a fast hot planet,
a network getting loose
and tight and loose and
tight again
I contract my losses,
expand my wins

Chorus: I’m electric. You’re electric. It’s the secret.
Be electric. You’re electric. Hear the secret.

We rise and rise
into the space we make,
keep pushing through all the
trouble and fakes,
all the other people’s faces
and problems and needs
littering my feet
like an oak tree’s leaves
as you bore into the sap,
the syrup at the core
and you see your own face
in the mirror at my door
keep looking, brother
keep looking, lover
keep pushing, friend
keep finding, man.
Hold me, take me
show me, make me
see your face explode
in the sunrise gold,
the mirror at my throat
and the vault where I hold
onto you.

Chorus, out…

Center of the Rhyme
© 2003 Lisa Bernstein

( ) I remember my mother’s disappearing
perfume, alone in a crib in a room,
I felt my separate self for the very first time
but I understand it only now, from the center

of this rhyme. ( ) And your face
looms into view, pulling me into a cavern of kisses
remembered, and out, you’re not here, but I’m new
without you in the now, this time, in the center

of the rhyme. ( ) I can taste it
like a slice of tangerine, like the rustle in the sun
of my dress when I was ten, the sweetness
filling me from torso to legs. And I can taste it like a

black liqueur burning through the shadow of the latest
disappointing human act, step back, I shouted, taking
what was stolen, what was mine, now savoring the bittersweet
triumph at the center of the rhyme. ( )

BRIDGE

When I first kissed you, I did see stars, the pull
was so strong I saw gravity and brilliance
in the round sky and ground, desire and sound
lit me from inside, from the center of the rhyme. ( )

And I never understood how you could reel from this physical
revelation back to the gears of your solitary
life, such joy you had to fear, what was real
was strife. ( )

But I finally let go, I learned we all have our meter
and our time, I can’t tell you where your own soul’s harmony
lies, what to build or what to break unless it’s mine,
( ) but I can watch you darken and shine, and I can
enter the pleasure, take the measure, tell the story,
feel the center of the rhyme.

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Joe Williams Died Walking
© 2003 Lisa Bernstein

Joe Williams died walking
From his hospital bed to his home
He said he had to get back to the golf course
He was seeing spirits in his room
So he got out of bed and put on his clothes
And said, “Today I’ve got to roam”

Yes, Joe Williams died walking
The suavest man to sing the blues
He sang that every day he had them
But no one was confused
From his depths of strength and sorrow
Danced joy down to his shoes

You could’ve known Joe would die walking by the
Way he moved on stage
Giving a smooth two-step as he
Held an arcing phrase
Dipping his knees to dig down deep
With shouts of pain and praise

You see, Joe had the perspective
That style was more than shine
That from a gritty roadhouse show
Comes truth which is divine
That making it look easy
Means you look death in the eye

Now Joe’s walking to heaven
And he’s singing all the way
He’s still singing he has the blues
With a big smile on his face
And a baritone like God’s voice
Saying, “Hello, Judgment Day!”

Every day…..

Captured by Time
© 2003 Lisa Bernstein

(spoken over intro: )
Captured by time
In the new war
Trapped in wartime

(verse 1: )
Every goodbye brings tears
The joy of seeing your eyes, their sparkle
In the next instant gone
Except in my mind, tasting of salt
And the tears in my throat open into this song
Holding you now in the air
Holding your sparkling eyes in sound
And yet you still disappear

(spoken chorus 1: )
Captured by time
All we have is trapped in time
I wish I could crush the capsule of time in my palm
In the silence, let the world find calm
But my hands are empty
Bereft I stand
A single strand
As everything else turns

(verse 2: )
I see all of you, my loves
Lined up for the end of the world
Orange and gold and blue and purple
I can see the tones swirl through you
And you know we will die
And you know that to live we must speak
Tell how the wires of power bind the strong to the weak

(spoken chorus 2: same chorus)
Captured by time
All we have is trapped in time
I wish I could crush the capsule of time in my palm
In the silence, let the world find calm
But my hands are empty
Bereft I stand
A single strand
As everything else turns

(verse 3: )
Hearing the guns go off
Even across the world, they crackle
In the next instant gone
Except in my mind, tasting of blood
And the tears in my throat open into this song
Holding you now in the air
Holding your sparkling eyes in sound
And yet you still disappear

(spoken chorus 3: same chorus)
Captured by time
All we have is trapped in time
I wish I could crush the capsule of time in my palm
In the silence, let the world find calm
But my hands are empty
Bereft I stand
A single strand
As everything else turns

(repeat verse 3
improv out)

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FREE ME FOR THE JOY (Piece of Pie Records POP-6055) 1. Free Me for the Joy (.mp3) 1 minute sample 2. Virtual Kiss (.mp3) 1 minute sample 3. You’re Not A Girl Anymore (.mp3) 1 minute sample 4. Trane’s Ride (.mp3) 1 minute sample
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Track list

1. I Remember Paradise - Lush, samba-tinged pop about love, loss, and what lasts.

2. Summertime Song - Pulls you into the rhythm of the ocean and the rhythm between two people. A hypnotic, funk-jazz mermaid call.

3. You’re Not A Girl Anymore - Voices the bewilderment of post-boomer women at contemporary culture’s pictures of what’s female and starts to envision a new way. Haunting, rich pop-folk-jazz.

4. God of Your Heart - Up tempo pop-rock anthem in song and speech about the god you are despite the commodified landscape.

5. Whoever Loves Is Afraid - A rhythmic ballad about a best friend who borrows boyfriends and poetry.

6. Free Me for the Joy - Grooving pop r&b about seeing past the shadows of old heartbreak to the joy of new love.

7. Turning It Around - When is a peach more than a peach? Erotic, rhythmic, trance-inducing.

8. Virtual Kiss - Cool jazz-funk tale of cyberspace and redemption from inside the office cubicle.

9. Trane’s Ride - Midtempo jazz-hiphop giving a voice to Coltrane in “Naima,” with a new chorus.

10. God No. 2 - “My God who is the bodies of all the men I’ve loved/the breasts I couldn’t suck enough/who is the cat’s body...” Definitions of the divine that keep expanding the expected.

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FREE ME FOR THE JOY
Personnel

Bob Mocarsky – keyboard
J. Gardiner – keyboard and miscellaneous instruments
Dave Yamasaki – guitar
Curtis Ohlson and Frank Thibeaux – bass
Marcos R. Biddle – drums
John Santos – percussion
Sandy Cressman, Nikita Germaine, Sandy Griffith, Alice Peacock – background vocals
Rock Hendricks – tenor sax

J. Gardiner – producer, arranger, engineer, Touch-Tone Productions
Dale Everingham, Vincent Wojno, J. Gardiner – mix engineers
Pajama Studios, Oakland, California – fabulous recording site
Paul Stubblebine – mastering, Hyde Street Studio D, San Francisco, California

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FREE ME FOR THE JOY
Critical Response

“…a dramatic, drawn-out emotional voice…should be commended for her finer songwriting efforts.” - JAZZIZ

“…a hybrid sound of jazz-pop, contemporary jazz and spoken word, all with a bit of underlying swing…” - WWW.DOWNBEATJAZZ.COM

“Bay Area singer-songwriter-poet Lisa B pulls all her talents together…Lisa B is certainly capable of bringing Joy.” - CDNOW.COM

“...devoid of cliche and formula...thoughtful, creative lyrics. Lisa B brings a fresh voice to today’s contemporary jazz.” - ALLABOUTJAZZ.COM

“…memorable originals including one collaboration with John Coltrane’s ‘Naima,’…an expressive study in symbolism…Lisa B is creative, versatile, and offers an enjoyable set on her debut release.” - JAZZREVIEW.COM

“…has built up a following in the urban cultural phenomenon…reveals Lisa B’s talent for writing a powerful lyric…[a] rich, throaty voice and lively command of the language…Lisa B is up for the challenges of a performing career that can function within existing parameters and cut new ones.” - JEWISH BULLETIN OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA; WASHINGTON D.C. JEWISH WEEK

“...Occasionally bringing poetry and light rapping to a quiet storm/NAC foundation, Lisa B shows promise on her first full-length album, [including]...a very dreamy ode to the saxophone master. Other noteworthy songs range from the lush ‘I Remember Paradise’ and the haunting ‘Turning It Around’ to the Joni Mitchell-ish ‘You’re Not A Girl Anymore’...” - GETMUSIC.COM

“…Lisa B finds a unique niche that fuses John Coltrane, a breathy rap delivery, hip-hop beats, and a pronounced eroticism.” - BAM MAGAZINE

“…a unique combination of catchy lyrics, jazzy vocals, and pop melodies…poetry that makes it brilliant.” - GUITAR SHOWCASE TIMES

“…red-hot performance poet and musician.” - POETRY FLASH

“…Whatever she knows or sings comes, in Whitman’s term, from the body electric.” - SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

For more complete reviews and response to FREE ME FOR THE JOY, go to Press & Quotes.

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go to CDs

Anorexia (fictional poetry, Five Fingers Poetry), saddle-stitched chapbook

Frances Jaffer:
“These vivid poems present a story that needs to be told. Brilliantly imagined, painful, intense, often strangely beautiful, they evoke the constant hunger, the infuriated will, the unforgiving rage of the adolescent, all remembered here as if in the present by the woman who is emerging into health and appetite. An intense and absorbing book.”

Stan Rice:
“…Its themes of domination, withdrawal, gorging, and the various forms of craving that constitute life make this sequence poem a metaphor for subjects beyond its title. One day is fine; the next we find ourselves in a state without longing. And we spiritually shrink. It is the accomplishment of this fascinating collection of sixteen closely related poems that the particular narrator’s struggle becomes our own writ small.”

Kevin Killian:
“We don’t find out the narrator’s name, ‘Lorie,’ until relatively late in the sequence…In the first poem, ‘My Birthday,’ the narrator’s only a letter of the alphabet. The ‘sliver of birthday cake’ she refuses to eat (while watching everyone else gorge themselves) ‘is too thin to reveal my whole name, just the o.’ …The eros behind these poems is terrified by a desire for death so strong it would overwhelm the entire being…Anorexia is the most hypersexual book you’ll read for many years to come…Bernstein here has gone beyond the limit, to a primitivist, non-logical set of alignments and balances…Ordinary meals are described with a sickening detail that curdles the stomach…This is the impossible, high loathing of Timon, of Coriolanus…The allure of Anorexia is the perfectly even path Bernstein takes, balancing this set of double-edged conceits without a false step…Her book is responding, as well, to the lessons of Olson, Wieners, Levertov, Creeley and the other projectivist verse masters. If content is no more than an extension of form, the stripped-down, demodulated line of Anorexia is a witty, charged experiment both in evading and incorporating current strictures on language…The narrator of the poems is always balancing content (say: calories….) against form (she sees slender mannequins in a shop window….) But I shouldn’t lose sight of the narrative here, since it’s its most fascinating component. There’s a mother and a father and their daughter, who move through different pictures of a crisis…Bernstein’s heroine finally breaks the shackles of the taboos that surround her to reinvent herself in a new form.”

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The Transparent Body (poems, Wesleyan University Press), hardbound

Frances Mayes:
“…Whatever she knows or sings comes, in Whitman’s term, from the body electric.”

Daniel Halpern:
“Here’s a poetry set out in physical terms—often ruthlessly so. Tied to the things of this world as they are, Ms. Bernstein’s poems would have pleased William Carlos Williams—there are plenty of things whose volume contains ideas. There’s hardly a missed opportunity to approach the objects of her world with open hands, to employ details of sensuality to invoke what surrounds her. Here’s a book that wants to touch you.”

Booklist:
“…it is her gift that she manages, through the extreme clarity of her images, always to engage us…A good selection for women’s literature collections.”

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