Leigh Harris
Leigh Harris (July 27, 1954 - September 21, 2019) born New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, nicknamed "Little Queenie", was a New Orleans R&B and jazz singer and songwriter.
Career
Leigh Harris showed talent at a very young age. She performed in public for the first time at the age of 11 in February 1966 singing and playing her guitar at Tulane University Center in their monthly Folk Festival. The hootenanny was broadcast throughout campus and the dorms of Tulane by WTUL.
Leigh first performed as "Little Queenie" on April Fool's Day 1975 at Jed's Bar on Oak Street.
By mid-1977, she had a regular Monday night set at Tipitina’s with keyboardist John Magnie (also known then as Johnny Zimple). With the addition of other talented musicians, this collaboration soon evolved into Little Queenie and the Percolators (also called Li'l Queenie and the Percolators). The band primarily played New Orleans clubs including Jimmy’s, The Dream Palace, Snug Harbor and Tipitina's, and also performed at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
The first incarnation of Little Queenie and the Percolators in 1977 consisted of Leigh Harris (vocals), John Magnie (keyboards and vocals), John Meunier (bass and vocals), Butch Gomez (sax) and Alan Pecora (drums). Saxophonist Sed Sedlack replaced Gomez and soon afterwards jazz guitarist extraordinaire Emily Remler joined the group for a few months. The next lineup (around 1980) introduced drummer Kenneth Blevins with Fred Kemp on saxophone.
In March 1980, Little Queenie and the Percolators performed for several nights at Kenny's Castaway in New York City which led to their first national press. Leigh Harris had made her presence known.
By 1982, band members were Leigh Harris (vocals), John Magnie (keyboards and vocals), Tommy Malone (guitar), Ricky Cortes (bass) and Kenneth Blevins (drums). Other musicians joining in at various times included Charles Neville (sax), Sonny Landreth (guitar), Craig Wroten (keyboards), Earl Turbinton (sax), Phil deGruy (guitarp), Tom Fitzpatrick (sax), Gregg Mazel (sax), Mike Sizer (sax), Eric Langstaff (trombone), Charles Joseph (trombone), Eric Traub (sax), Karl Allmon (sax), and Reggie Houston (sax).
The Percolators disbanded in 1982 with a final performance at Tipitina's on June 7, but Leigh remains "Little Queenie" in perpetuity.
The Percolators released one single in 1980, "My Dawlin' New Orleans," co-written by Charles Neville, Ron Cuccia and Ramsey McLean [citation needed] which was an instant hit and has become a New Orleans standard. Leigh Harris (along with John Magnie) had been an integral part of Ron Cuccia's groundbreaking Jazz Poetry Group in July 1979; other musicians in the group were Charles Neville (sax), Ramsey McLean (bass) and Ricky Sebastian (drums).
In 1982, Leigh, John Magnie and guitarist Bruce MacDonald (then Leigh's husband) formed Little Queenie and the Skin Twins.[1] Another notable collaboration was Mixed Knots with Leigh on vocals and Jimmy Robinson (guitar), Cranston Clements (guitar), Paul Clement (bass guitar), Tom Marron (guitar), and Mitchell Moss (fiddle).
Other bands fronted by Leigh's soulful and dynamic singing included Backtalk, the Boys of Joy, and Little Queenie and the Rhythm and Blues Death Squad. Leigh also performed throughout the years in duets with guitarpist Phil deGruy, pianist Amasa Miller or pianist Josh Paxton.
Leigh enjoyed singing with other New Orleans vocalists including Susan Cowsill, Vicki Peterson, Suzy Malone, Holley Bendtsen, Kathleen Stieffel, Jan Clements, Annie Clements and Debbie Davis.
Over the years, Leigh Harris performed with other established New Orleans musicians including Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, The Meters, and Professor Longhair.[2] Leigh also appeared live and on recordings with BB King, Elvis Costello, Sun Ra, Jerry Jeff Walker, The Guess Who, Bonerama, Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Odetta, They Might Be Giants, The Gospel Soul Children, CC Adcock, Harry Connick, Jr., Buckwheat Zydeco, The Subdudes, The Neville Brothers, Astral Project, Pete Seeger, Asleep at the Wheel, Michael Wolff's Impure Thoughts, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Roomful of Blues, Taj Mahal, Li'l Band o'Gold, NRBQ, The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Bryan Ferry, Anders Osborne, Doug Duffey and Delbert McClinton.[citation needed]
Director John Sayles cast Leigh in two of his movies; she can be seen and heard singing in Eight Men Out and she plays the part of Kit in Passion Fish.
Leigh Harris collaborated on music for film and television in the US and Europe, including the HBO series Treme.
Leigh Harris produced and recorded four solo albums.
Home, a compilation disk of Little Queenie and the Percolators tunes was finally released in October 2018.
On July 25, 2019, the New Orleans City Council honored Leigh “Little Queenie” Harris by proclaiming her birthday, July 27, as “Little Queenie” Day.
Personal Life
Leigh was nicknamed “Little Queenie” by a boyfriend. “A nickname somebody made up to get me mad, but I thought was really funny,” she later told John Rockwell when interviewed for his column "The Pop Life" published in the New York Times on March 27, 1980.
Her first marriage to guitarist Bruce MacDonald produced her only child Alex, also a musician, who has quite a reputation as a "rocking" washboard player.
She relocated to Rural Hall, North Carolina, after floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina destroyed her home. Soon after, she married another musician, bassist Rick Ledbetter.
In early 2016, Leigh was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer that had invaded her brain, her liver, her lymph system and her bones. A benefit concert, was held on May 26, 2016, at Snug Harbor in New Orleans. The sold-out fundraiser featured two shows with a roster of locally and nationally known names, including Peter Holsapple, Vicki Peterson and Susan Cowsill, three former members of the Continental Drifters.
Leigh Harris succumbed on September 21, 2019 after a long and hard fight.
Discography
Singles and Tracks
"My Dawlin' New Orleans" (Single on vinyl, 1980)
"Kiss" (track released April 24, 2016)
"Bring A Torch, Jeanette, Isabella" (track released December 18, 2018)
CDs
- Little Queenie and the Percolators - Home (released October 2018)
- Leigh Harris - House of Secrets (released January 1, 1999)
- Leigh Harris - Polychrome Junction (released August 2006)
- Leigh Harris - Unreleased: Live in NOLA (w. Josh Paxton & Phil deGruy) (released April 2015)
- Leigh Harris - Purple Heart (released December 2018)
Filmography
Eight Men Out (1988) - Singer
Passion Fish (1992) - Kit
References
- ↑ "'Stompin', playin' ' gives trio style". Hattiesburg American. Hattiesburg, Mississippi. 9 February 1984. p. 9. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
- ↑ Grant Britt, "Lil Queenie Interview," No Depression, September 4, 2012
- ANDR (May 1, 2007). The Gang's All Here. Offbeat Magazine.
- Doug MacCash (September 28, 2018). Little Queenie: The New Orleans rock star is now receiving hospice care. nola.com/The Times-Picayune.
New Orleans Musicians Show Love and Support for Li'l Queenie My Spilt Milk Lil Queenie Interview No Depression
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