Jamie Leonhart

Jamie Leonhart, a New York City resident, works as a reflective yet daring singer and songwriter. Her output, marked by shadowy and somber qualities alongside an airy dimension, sits mainly within adult alternative pop-rock yet draws clear inspiration from jazz, cabaret traditions that include German cabaret, torch singing, and pre-rock pop forms. Among her broad influences are Tori Amos, Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, and the Beatles, together with Peggy Lee and the distinguished German composer Kurt Weill.

Born Jamie Obstbaum in New York City during the early 1970s—Leonhart is her married name—she is the granddaughter of a cantor and spent her childhood in Leonia, New Jersey. As a teenager she performed with a regional jazz vocal ensemble, then returned to New York City in early adulthood to study at Barnard College, the women’s liberal arts school affiliated with Columbia University since its founding in 1889. After earning a degree in English literature, she served as lead singer for the New York City band Methuselah Jones in the late 1990s before committing to a solo career.

A multi-instrumentalist on violin, glockenspiel, harmonium, and further instruments, she issued her debut solo EP, Area, in 2002 while still recording under her birth name. In September 2003, at age 31, she married Michael Leonhart, the active trumpeter, guitarist, and pianist who is the son of jazz bassist Jay Leonhart and jazz singer Donna Leonhart and who has recorded with artists including Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Meredith D’Ambrosio, and a reunited Steely Dan.

She next released the self-issued EP Forward Motion in 2006; its six tracks all appeared on her first full-length album, The Truth About Suffering, which Michael Leonhart produced, arranged, and mixed for the Sunnyside label in early 2008.