The Reporter-Herald
Loveland, CO :: 5/2/2008
N.Y. quartet blends cabaret, jazz
By Glenn BurnSilver
What do you get when you take a country music singer who likes jazz, a classically trained upright bass player, a Latin-infused guitar virtuoso and a quirky melodica and piano player and swirl them together in the big blender of New York City influence?
A tall, cool drink of cocktail pop, compliments of the Lascivious Biddies. This female-foursome takes a jazz meets cabaret meets pop music approach to songwriting, penning ditties with a dose of humor wrapped up in excellent musicianship and the occasional four-part harmonies.
And nothing is off limits for these biddies, who sing about everything from men and relationships, life in and out of the Big Apple, but also buying shoes.
“One time, we found this shop,” begins Deidre Rodman with a laugh. “We came out with eight pairs of shoes. We actually have a song about (buying shoes), so that made for a good intro that night.”
As for the cocktail pop title, Rodman proudly states no other band holds that designation.
“It took us years to come up with that,” she says. “We all wear cocktail dresses on stage, so there is a glamorous side to it. We blend some pop with jazz, cabaret and four-part harmonies. There’s just so much going on that cocktail pop wraps it all up.”
An Idaho native, Rodman arrived in New York in 1997 after earning a master’s degree in jazz studies from the University of North Texas. Lead singer Lee Ann Westover also relocated from Texas some years earlier and happened into her life as a singer, albeit with a country swing outfit. Upright bassist Saskia Lane came from San Francisco to study at the Juilliard School, while Ila Cantor is the solo New York native, though much of her guitar education was picked up in Barcelona, Spain.
The original intent of this combo was to form a Go-Go’s cover band. However, the obvious limited potential of such a move led the band to focus on their own writings and talents.
“No, that never really happened,” Rodman says with another laugh. “We still do one song, but we realized we wanted to do so much more than that.”
And that idea of always doing more sticks with the Biddies. While early on the band generally sang as one and always shared the stage together, now the singing and playing are broken up into various combinations, with duos and trios filling the space.
“We’re growing as a band, so we have some different ideas now,” Rodman says. “We’ve started mixing it up. We don’t all need to sing and play at the same time.”
The instrumentation has changed a little as well.
“I play the melodica, then (Westover) got a glockenspiel, which added a nice sound, and now’s there’s a ukulele in the band,” she says. “We joke that soon we’ll have to start traveling with a tuba and string section.
“But it’s been a really organic process,” she adds. “The growth has been really nice, and I think people will appreciate (the variety). ... It’s so much fun.”
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