Leah Coloff is a pretty impressive musician. David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Debby Harry all thought so when she played with them – so did the judges who recently awarded her a Grammy.
But then there’s family.
Clearing out the family home after the death of her father she came across an old letter to her music tutor.
In it her dad Lawrence, himself a music teacher, wrote that Leah just didn’t have what it takes to be a professional.
Perfectionism sucks. Family expectations cause confusion. Maybe unexpected discoveries can set you freeand even be something to sing about.
This year Leah will be on stage in Edinburgh telling her story through spoken word, song and music.
Super Second Rate is a show that’s funny, poignant and humane from a woman who the New York Times says “plays and sings with artful angularity and a rock-inflected assertiveness”.
Raised in the USA’s Pacific northwest, Leah’s music interweaves her classical roots with 70s punk rock in a style she identifies as CLUNK.
In the classical realm, Leah has worked with contemporary composers including Philip Glass, Ted Hearne, Joel Thome, Sean Friar and Michael Gordon.
She has also performed and recorded with artists including Trey Anastasio, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Michael Cerveris, Rufus Wainwright, Lou Reed, Damon Albarn, Ziggy Marley, Linda Thompson, Dean & Britta, Angelique Kidjo, Nancy Sinatra and Mark Mulcahy.
Then there are her own songs and music, which have been characterised as honest, sensual, funny, brutal, pissed-off, beautiful and chilly sweet.
And this year the multiple award-winning Leah, and her colleagues in the Scorchio Quartet and Tonality, took the Grammy for best new age, ambient or chant album for So She Howls by composer Carla Patullo.
Leah was also a member of the seven-piece onstage band for Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma! from its run at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn to the Tony Award winning production on Broadway.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
