Barbara Lea

• Name — Barbara Lea • Birth Name — Barbara Ann LeCocq • Born — 10 April 1929 • Birthplace — Detroit, Michigan, U.S. • Died — 26 December 2011 • Place of death — Raleigh, North Carolina • Genre — * Jazz • swing • dixieland • cabaret • Occupation — Singer • Years Active — 1951–2007 • Label — * Fantasy • Challenge • Audiophile • Website — www.barbaralea.com

Lea was born and raised in Detroit. Her father was a clarinetist before becoming attorney general of Michigan. He changed the family name from LeCocq to Leacock, which she changed to Lea when beginning her singing career. She decided at an early age to become a singer, participating in contests and singing with dance bands. She attended Wellesley College near Boston and studied music theory. She worked at the Storyville club in Boston when singer Lee Wiley performed there in the early 1950s. Her debut solo album, Woman in Love, was released in 1955. She became an actress during the 1960s, then moved to California in the 1970s and received a degree in drama from California State University, Northridge. In the 1970s, Lea was invited to the National Public Radio series American Popular Song with Alec Wilder and Friends. In 1976, she appeared in two shows, one featuring the songs of Willard Robison and one featuring songs performed and recorded by Lee Wiley. Lea appeared in the JVC, Kool, and Newport Jazz Festivals several times, but her increasing devotion to the songs as written led to concerts of the works of Rodgers and Hart, Arthur Schwartz, Cy Coleman, Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, and the Gershwins, as well as cabaret appearances devoted to Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, and Yip Harburg. She died in 2011 from complications of Alzheimer's disease.

• Benny Carter, Benny Carter Songbook Volume II (Musicmasters, 1997) • Loren Schoenberg, Solid Ground (Musicmastsers, 1988) • Loren Schoenberg, Just A-Settin' and A-Rockin' (Musicmasters, 1990) • Loren Schoenberg, Out of This World (TCB, 1998) • Dick Sudhalter, Melodies Heard Melodies Sweet (Challenge, 1999)