Leigh Harris
Leigh Harris, 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. Shortly after her first birthday, Leigh was humming lullabies back to her parents; six months later, she'd added the lyrics... "and I haven't ever really shut my face since" she told poet John Sinclair in a 1999 interview. She performed in public for the first time at age 11 in February 1966 singing and playing her guitar at Tulane University Student Center in their monthly Folk Festival. The hootenanny was broadcast throughout campus and into the dorms of Tulane by WTUL radio.Leigh first performed as "Little Queenie" on April Fool's Day 1975 at Jed's Bar on Oak Street in uptown New Orleans.
By mid-1977, Leigh had a regular Monday night set at Tipitina's with keyboardist John Magnie who later played with The Subdudes. With the addition of other talented musicians, this collaboration soon evolved into Li'l Queenie and the Percolators, later called Little Queenie and the Percolators. The band played throughout Louisiana, including regular gigs at New Orleans clubs Tipitina's, Jimmy’s, The Dream Palace and Snug Harbor and yearly performances at The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
The first incarnation of Li'l Queenie and the Percolators in 1977 consisted of Leigh Harris, John Magnie, John Meunier, Butch Gomez and Alan Pecora. Saxophonist Sed Sedlack replaced Gomez and soon afterwards jazz guitarist extraordinaire Emily Remler joined the group for a few months. The next lineup introduced drummer Kenneth Blevins and Fred Kemp on saxophone.
In March 1980, Li'l Queenie and the Percolators performed for several nights at Kenny's Castaways nightclub in New York City which led to their first national press. Leigh Harris had made her presence known. Sitting in for Kemp on these gigs was Fred Lipsius, the original saxophonist from Blood, Sweat & Tears.
By 1982, band members were Leigh Harris, John Magnie, Tommy Malone, Ricky Cortes and Kenneth Blevins. Other musicians joining in at various times included Charles Neville, Sonny Landreth, Craig Wroten, Earl Turbinton, Phil deGruy, Tom Fitzpatrick, Gregg Mazel, Mike Sizer, Eric Langstaff, Charles Joseph, Eric Traub, Karl Allmon, and Reggie Houston.
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 which was an instant hit and has become a New Orleans standard. The song, later credited as "My Darlin’ New Orleans – Li’l Queenie & The Percolators" appeared as the closing song in HBO's Treme. Leigh Harris had been an integral part of Ron Cuccia's groundbreaking Jazz Poetry Group in July 1979; other musicians in the group were Charles Neville, Ramsey McLean and Ricky Sebastian.
In 1982, Leigh, John Magnie and guitarist Bruce MacDonald formed Little Queenie and the Skin Twins. Another notable collaboration was Mixed Knots with Leigh on vocals and Jimmy Robinson, Cranston Clements, Paul Clement, Tom Marron, and Mitchell Moss.
Other bands fronted by Leigh's soulful and dynamic singing included Backtalk, The Boys of Joy, Little Queenie and The Rhythm and Blues Death Squad, Roy G Biv, The Ofay Soul Choir and Little Queenie's Wahini Dakinis. Leigh also performed throughout the years in duets with guitarpist Phil deGruy, pianist Amasa Miller or pianist Josh Paxton.
Leigh enjoyed singing with other female 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. Leigh also appeared live or 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, Larry Sieberth, 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, Doug Belote, Clark Vreeland and Delbert McClinton.
Director John Sayles cast Leigh in two of his movies; she can be seen and heard singing "After You've Gone" 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. "My Darling New Orleans" by Li'l Queenie and the Percolators is played during end-titles on the very first episode of Treme, 'Do You Know What It Means?'. Leigh is also seen performing her original song "10 Carat Blues" with Josh Paxton in 'Don't You Leave Me Here' of 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.
Leigh Harris was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2019.
On July 25, 2019, the New Orleans City Council honored Leigh “Little Queenie” Harris by proclaiming her birthday, July 27, as “Little Queenie” Day.
QBall was posthumously released in November of 2019 featuring a live performance of Little Queenie and Mixed Knots.
Personal life
Leigh Harris was born July 27, 1954, in New Orleans, Louisiana, the daughter of Gertrude Morris Middleton and Allan Joseph Harris, Jr. Leigh was the oldest of three, her sisters being Sally and Ellen. Her Pop, a manufacturer’s representative for the Allan J Harris Company by trade, was a clarinetist, with a love for Big Band and Dixieland music. Her Mom was Founder and Director of The Little School at St. Martin's, where she also taught.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 Harris MacDonald, also a musician, who has quite a reputation as a rocking "skrubologist".
She relocated to Rural Hall, North Carolina, after floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina destroyed her New Orleans home. In 2006 she married another musician, composer/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. She fought a long, hard battle and passed away on September 21, 2019.
Discography
Singles and Tracks
- Li’l Queenie & The Percolators -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-q6W2oBlMw
B side "Wild Natives":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKb7EwkWxIg
- Leigh Harris - "Kiss"
- Leigh Harris - "Bring A Torch, Jeanette, Isabella"
- Her ode to New Orleans' summers: Dog Days:
- Her updated version of "My Darlin' New Orleans" With and added spoken word intro by Ron Cuccia:
- The Theme for Mardi Gras "If Ever I Cease to Love":
- Live Concert:
- From the Movie Eight Men Out, Leigh Singing the closing music "After You've Gone":
- "Cloudburst" - some fast Jazz Scat:
- "Telephone Sleeping in my Bed":
CDs
- Leigh Harris - Jazz Poetry Group
- Leigh Harris - Little Queenie and Backtalk
- Leigh Harris - House of Secrets
- Leigh Harris - Polychrome Junction
- Little Queenie and the Percolators - Home
- Leigh Harris - Purple Heart
- Little Queenie and Mixed Knots - QBall
- Little Queenie and the Percolators - Live at Jimmy's, Oct. 20. 1979
Filmography
- Eight Men Out - Singer
- Passion Fish - Kit
- HBO TV series Treme 'Don't You Leave Me Here'
Soundtracks
- HBO TV series Treme 'Do You Know What It Means?
- Eight Men Out
Performed by Leigh 'Little Queenie' Harris
"I Be Blue" Written by John Sayles and Mason Daring
Performed by Leigh 'Little Queenie' Harris