NICKI LEIGHTON-THOMAS

Candid Recording(s):

Biography:

A young star in the making - a beautiful voice, a beautiful personality, immaculate style, and an ability to live and breathe the songs she sings, Nicki Leighton-Thomas is something quite special.

Born of a Mauritian mother and Welsh father, Nicki was in the envious position of growing up in both Mauritius and Bath. A childhood in the French colony meant she was bi-lingual and young Nicki was lucky enough to have inherited her father's strong voice and her mother's natural swing. As a consequence, performance was always in her blood and from a very early age she longed to be on the stage. Her first appearances were in the choir, but the enterprising singer Nicki was still at school when, with local musicians, she formed a jazz band to play in the hotels and restaurants of the island.

nicki's linguistic skills took her to Paris for two years before a spell at drama school that finally brought her to London and fringe theatre in the early Nineties. "It was period of my life that I enjoyed immensely, but a never ending tour of 'Murder By Sex' destroyed any illusions I had about theatre and I turned my mind to music." Stints in pop bands ensued before Gary Husband (of Level 42) asked her to join his Trio ".. and I was back singing jazz."

on one show at The Groucho Club, musical director Simon Wallace asked her to meet jazz lyricist, Fran Landesman ("the legendary doyen of songwriters" Evening Standard). "Fran is an amazing woman and a quite breathtaking lyricist. Much as I adore singing the standards, Fran's lyrics are so incisive and cutting, yet 'meaty' and funny'. They had me in fits of laughter and in tears just reading from the page. I jumped at the chance to perform them."

Landesman, creator of Spring can Really Hang You Up the Most, Ballad of the Sad Young Men et al has come up with 13 brand new lyrics. Laced with wit and depth they ranged from the brooding melancholy of Down to the acerbic In a New York Minute through to Nicki’s Dilemna (Damned If I Do). Nicki applies her immediately personal style to the whole range of tunes benefiting from expert accompaniments from the hand picked supporting cast. Checkout tenorist Dave O’Higgins verile solos, the art of Paul Stacey’s guitar and producer Simon Wallace’s succinct piano input throughout.

what a treat! As Stage says “Fran Landesman’s song collection is sexy and sensual, racy and recreational. Landesman’s lyrics are sharp as razors and dripping with bitter venom a she twists our her cynical observations of love and fidelity. Simon Wallace’s jazzy blues tunes complement them perfectly. A heady mixture of jazz and song swimming with sensuality and erotic undercurrents. This is definitely one that won’t sink without a trace.”