Suzanna Smith “The Peggy Lee Project”
Lee Bloom piano | Fred Randolph bass | Michael O'Neill saxophone and bandleader
$15 Cover
The San Francisco Examiner calls Suzanna Smith “a jazz singer with sass and style to spare.” Suzanna has been featured several times on KCSM's 'In The Moment' and is one of the creative forces behind The Sound Room in Oakland. In 2013, she released her debut recording, ‘Halfway Between Heaven And Love,’ to critical acclaim.
Born in Boulder, Colorado, Suzanna Smith grew up in Livermore where she fell in love with singing early on. At Livermore High School she joined the choir and the chamber chorale and performed in several musicals. After graduating from Wellesley College with a degree in computer science and where she found time to get deeply involved in the a cappella scene, she returned to the Bay Area where she enrolled in the Jazzschool in Berkeley. There she worked closely with mentors Antonioli, Madeline Eastman, Maye Cavallaro, and Stephanie Bruce. “I arrived at the Jazzschool mostly because I was looking for a situation that could lead to performing,” Smith says. “It turned out that from doing a cappella my ear could really latch on to the harmonies. Jazz became such a deep well to dive into.”
Her initial love of Ella Fitzgerald led her to Anita O’Day, then to Shirley Horn and Sarah Vaughan. More recently she started paying particular attention to the great vocal tunesmith, Peggy Lee. Inspired by the example of Peggy Lee as an extremely prolific composer, and to challenge her own songwriting, Suzanna created and leads The Peggy Lee Project — paying tribute to Ms. Lee’s vast repertoire while taking listeners on a tour through Lee’s big band days, lost radio recordings and many of her biggest hits. Suzanna has recently returned to the studio to record The Peggy Lee Project in anticipation of Ms. Lee’s centennial birthday in 2020. The arrangements, created in close collaboration with pianist Lee Bloom, lovingly revisit and re-imagine the Peggy Lee songbook. Suzanna and Lee Bloom along with bassist, Fred Randolph and saxophonist, Michael O’Neill bring The Peggy Lee Project to Cetrella Los Altos.