Lesa Carlson

Lesa Carlson is an American musician, actress, raw foods chef, choreographer, and a former Miss Idaho in the America's Miss Pageant. Her background includes three years of opera training, awards bestowed in both New York City and Los Angeles, and performances with members of the Turkish National Symphony.

Music
Carlson founded and creatively directed Lesa Carlson Off Blue, a critically acclaimed jazz ensemble fusing old-school jazz, turntablism, and multimedia. Weaving turntablism with improvised jazz vocals and grooves, Carlson combined seemingly disparate forms in her music. Lesa has performed at the House of Blues, the Hotel Niko, the Three of Clubs, 02 (Woody Harrelson's restaurant), and the premier party for Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy's feature film Bowfinger. She also held artist residencies at The Knitting Factory, Atlas and Louis XIV. Over the years she has played with Soko Richardson, Kenny Moore, Jack Sheldon, and Linda Hopkins. She worked in the studio with record producers Chris Gubisch and Bruce Sugar. Recently recorded singles include "Laissez-Faire" and "Robert Johnson Motherfucker."

Evolution into the Conscious Revolution
Evolution into the Conscious Revolution is a fully improvised jazz album weaving bassist Miles Mosley and drummer Robert Perkins together with Carlson's vocal abstractions throughout the album. "Carlson belts like the love child of Jim Morrison and Grace Slick, a chanteuse-turned-shaman, twisting familiar standards like "Brother Can You Spare a Dime" into beat-poet meditations and crooning hypnotic originals like "Lessons of the Leaves" like she's summoning up some old pagan earth god for a little jam session."

Track listing
 * 1) "Brother Can You Spare A Dime" – 4:17
 * 2) "Serenade The Sea" – 6:04
 * 3) "Nature Boy" – 6:12
 * 4) "Evolution" – 4:29
 * 5) "Her Nursery" – 5:38
 * 6) "Lesson of the Leaves" – 3:48
 * 7) "Lazy Days" – 5:52
 * 8) "Your Face" – 6:59
 * 9) "Change"	 – 6:40
 * 10) "Blue, Yellow and Green" – 4:16

Carlson also worked on the album with trumpeter Bryan Lipps, Gimel Hooper and Edward Alfonso on turntables, and flutist Harold Bennett. Most of the songs were written and produced by Carlson, and co-produced by Jon Griffin. It was recorded in 2002 at the Center for the Recording Arts, Los Angeles.

Acting
Carlson is a professional actor working both in film and in theater. She is a life member of The Actor's Studio. She has appeared in three films: Dangerous Waters (1994), Flesh Suitcase (1995) and Luster (2002). Her acting manager is Charles Kienzle with Sweet Revenge Entertainment.

Raw Foods
Carlson is an internationally known raw foods chef and eco-entrepreneur. She created five raw food-based businesses, including three packaged foods lines sold through specialty grocery outlets such as Whole Foods, a raw food delivery service called Seed Live Cuisine, and the Silverlake restaurant Jade Raw Fusion. She developed and currently operates Raw Body Bar, an exclusive, home delivery raw food pharmacy program.

Personal life
She was born and raised in the mountains of Idaho and on Shoshoni Native American lands. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

Media links

 * 'Raw Food Is No Oxymoron' Los Angeles Times February 17, 2002
 * 'Au Naturel' Los Angeles Business Journal September 10, 2001