“I wanna be Lezlie Harrison when I grow up.”
Good humour, organ trio, swing and the blues, 70s soul culture back at the start of jazzfest
Cory Weeds said that quote about vocalist's Lezlie Harrison's two-nighter on June 21 and 22, 2024 at Frankie's Jazz Club during the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. The New York-based vocalist with North Carolina roots fronted a Vancouver trio of Chris Gestrin on organ, André Lachance on guitar, and Jesse Cahill on drums to usher Frankie's into the jazzfest.
While I'm pretty sure Weeds was honouring Harrison's winning personality, the two have deeper similarities than you might realize at first blush; Harrison is a bit of an impresario herself, being a host and interviewer on WBGO jazz radio and having co-founded the venue The Jazz Gallery in NYC. Weeds met her through organist Ben Paterson, who played on two of her records: Soul Book, Vol. 1 (2020) and Let Them Talk, released on Cellar last year. (Paterson has two Cellar albums of his own.)
