Lisa Coleman (musician)

Lisa Coleman (born August 17, 1960) is an American musician. Coleman plays piano and keyboards.

Coleman's father, Gary Coleman (not to be confused with the actor) was a session musician in the 1960s and 70s and formed a friendship with fellow musician Mike Melvoin. Their families became close with each other and often played and recorded music together; Lisa Coleman formed a close relationship with Mike's daughter Wendy Melvoin that would continue throughout their lives and careers.

The Revolution

At the age of 19, Coleman first came to attention as part of Prince's backing group in 1980 for his Dirty Mind album and tour. She replaced keyboardist Gayle Chapman, who had become uncomfortable with Prince's sexual lyrics. Coleman played keyboards for Prince on his Controversy and 1999 albums, and was a session player for recordings by The Time and Vanity 6. Coleman had a central role in the development of Prince's first top-10 single, Little Red Corvette: it is said that Prince got the idea for the song when he dozed off in Lisa's pink Mercury Montclair after an exhausting all-night recording session. The lyrics came to him in bits and pieces during this and other catnaps. Eventually he was able to finish it without sleeping.

Coleman introduced her longtime friend Wendy Melvoin to Prince during the sessions for 1999, where she contributed vocals to the song "Free". Melvoin would replace guitarist Dez Dickerson in 1983. Coleman and Melvoin became members of the newly designated The Revolution. The band experienced the explosive popularity of Purple Rain, and recorded two additional albums with Prince, Around the World in a Day and Parade, the soundtrack to Prince's film Under The Cherry Moon.

Now

Wendy & Lisa have released their new album, White Flags of Winter Chimneys. It is available exclusively on their web site wendyandlisa.com (with unreleased bonus tracks), to be followed with CD and Limited Edition vinyl releases, as well as being made available at iTunes, Amazon MP3, and other digital music stores in March 2009.

White Flags of Winter Chimneys is Wendy & Lisa’s first album since 1998’s Girl Bros. Self-produced and self-released by the duo, the album is a gorgeous kaleidoscope of song-compositions with influences ranging from trance to electronica to 70’s funk and straight up rock and roll.

The renowned fine artist and graphic designer Rex Ray, whose artwork has adorned albums by David Bowie, Diamanda Galas, Deee-Lite and many others, designed the album packaging. Additionally, the packaging of the CD will be a 6-panel Digipak made of recycled board, printed using non-toxic vegetable based ink, and a FlexTray made from 100% post-consumer plastic (recycled soda bottles).

Other credits

Shortly after the completion of the Parade project, Coleman and Melvoin left the Revolution, and started their own musical duo, Wendy & Lisa (also known as Girl Bros). The duo are also continuing in their successful television-scoring career. Currently, they are in their third season of scoring the NBC-TV hit “Heroes,” and they are taking on the scoring duties for the upcoming “Virtuality” on Fox and “Nurse Jackie” on Showtime. They have received the prestigious ASCAP award for Composer’s of the Year for their work on Dangerous Minds, the theme to HBO’s Carnivale, Crossing Jordan and Heroes.

Personal life

In April 2009, Coleman gave an interview with Out magazine declaring that she was a lesbian.

External links

• Official Wendy and Lisa site
• Lisa Coleman at IMDb