Lucinda Belle
@ the PizzaExpress Jazz Club
15 June 2012

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Biography

So, which Lucinda Belle would you like to meet first? There’s the orchestra leader. The international-quality harpist. The widely-travelled session player, the accomplished singer-songwriter, composer, the music coach and mentor. The keen feature writer, frequent and articulate blogger, and the launderette owner. First and foremost, as the frontwoman of the Lucinda Belle Orchestra, the London-based musician has put all of her vast experience into what already sounds like a most notable debut album, “My Voice and My 45 Strings.” It showcases one singular woman, her orchestra, and collaborations with such esteemed and experienced fellow writers as Graham Lyle and Ed Harcourt. With an infectious love of music that reaches from Django Reinhardt to Michael McDonald, Leonard Cohen to the Mamas and Papas and Queen to Débussy, the sound of Belle and her orchestra is as vibrant and versatile as you’d expect. She honed her skills playing harp in hotels, but soon ditched that to become a Jazz Harpist in none other than Nashville. Returning home with harp in the back of a black cab, a new era began where she earned a reputation as a songwriter and session player in the good company of Rufus Wainwright, The Petshop boys, Jamaroquai and Robbie Williams, with whom she caught her break, spotted at the Electric Proms with him. Belle is pioneering the way forward for the harp. Effortlessly breaking down stereotypes, she gracefully transports you into her world proving with her original acoustics covers such as Gaga’s “Telelphone Song” and Paolo Nutini’s “Candy”, that she and just her harp are enough to fill any stage.

“I really do believe in my songs and that there’s something for everyone in my music,” she says. “I did a full circle and became who I was meant to be in life.”