Karen Lake

To sum up...

I've been a professional jazz singer for over 6 years and in that time have sung with many fantastic musicians. I perform regularly at weddings, private and corporate events, and publicly at hotels, restaurants, wine bars & pubs. I've sung while cruising down the Thames for a corporate event, improvised live over Ian MacMillan's poetry in Sheffield Cathedral, performed under the moonlight in Renishaw Hall's beautiful summer Gardens and entertained in the elegance of Betty's Cafe Tea Rooms. Previous clients too numerous to mention include World Snooker, Mercedes Benz and The Crucible Theatre. I love doing this! And this is how I started...




My Early Years

I've always enjoyed singing and remember at school being chuffed to bits (and amazed!) when at a school choir rehearsal my best friend told me she didn't sing through the last verse so she could listen to me! Cool eh?! I think the song was the carol "Adam Lay Ybounden"...


As my young years flew by I sang in this n that... jamming in teenage bedroom bands with my then fella and his friends (one of them being the now legendary Richard Hawley no less!), garage studio recording sessions for Sheffield indie band Fast Ugly Nation, impromptu duet performance of "Summertime" with Amanda Donohoe at a Crucible Theatre leaving party, late night folk jam sessions at the old Red House pub in Sheffield, singing with the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, completing a Red Tape Studios Performance course with flying colours... before finally finding JAZZZZ. 

The jazzz years
Oh yes. Working the evening shift in Cues Gift Shop at the Crucible Theatre, my friend Margaret and I swooned and crooned along with the stunning vocals of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan and Louis Armstrong. Decided this jazz lark was definitely for me but couldn't quite work out how to actually get into it. Discovering the Jazz Workshop at King Teds was a revelation. Learnt loads and made many friends. Joined a band in 2004 and out of that Lounge Lizards duo was born in 2005 with guitarist Andy Chantry. During this time I built up my repertoire with some  amazing songs and performed as support to some fantastic musicians at the Sands - Courtney Pine, Clare Teal, Ian Shaw, The Pasadena Roof Orchestra, to name just a few. After a while I decided I needed a little help and so had some lessons with the amazing jazz singer, Anita Wardell. 


Impressions was born out of Sheffield band Black Coffee again in about 2005. We've had some amazing gigs and some great experiences together. We played Jazz in the Gardens 2 years running at Renishaw Hall (huge moon, magical gardens, lovely audience, perfect), Music in the Gardens in Sheffield's Botanical Gardens 2009, experienced the dizzy heights of cream cake ecstasy during tea breaks while performing at several branches of Yorkshire's delightful Betty's Cafe Tea Rooms and last year had great fun playing an evening of poetry and jazz improvisation at Sheffield Cathedral with Barnsley bard, Ian McMillan. What an amazing chance to try something different! We recorded our cd, No Moon At All, March 2010 and are looking forward to starting work on another one soon. 


During the last 6 years I've worked in some truly amazing venues (see my list!!). Have swung with the swing band and love singing in the many duo and trio line ups I've appeared in. I look forward to many more years of singing and can never thank enough the special people in my life who have helped and supported me during my jazz years so far :-)