Laura came to jazz music from the dance floor, picking up swing dancing in 1998.  A few years later she became a DJ for those same dances, broadening her knowledge and love of jazz and swing with non-stop listening and music collecting. From there it was only natural that she try singing the songs that she had grown to love and, because a swing singer needs a swinging band, Laura went on to co-found the Mint Julep Jazz Band with her husband, trombone player Lucian Cobb, in 2012.  Laura has become a staple of swing dance events throughout the U.S. and overseas, performing with her own band as well as bands led by Jonathan Stout, Michael Gamble, Paul Cosentino, Craig Gildner, and  Glenn Crytzer, performing with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, as well as performing at Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night Swing with her own band and with Michael Gamble and the Rhythm Serenaders.

Singing in a sweet style with a serious rhythmic underpinning and drawing comparisons to a young Ella Fitzgerald, Ivie Anderson, and Helen Forrest, Laura is known for her authenticity of sound – as you enter the dance hall, you may think you are hearing a vintage recording. She can’t help but swing, no matter what the tempo, and she has a splendid conversational approach to the lyrics.   Michael Steinman has called her “the Joan Blondell of swing singing: sweet, tender, and lemony all at once. And once you’ve heard her, you won’t mistake her for anyone else.”