Don Glori - Welcome

 

Welcome to Welcome. Created by double-bassist and composer Gordon Li recording as Don Glori, the album reflects jazz, soul, Brazilian and funk. Gordon paints with all of the colors available in the musical spectrum resulting in an incredible vibrant and uplifting set of songs. Gordon and his collaborators wield sax, vibraphone, bass, keys, flute, drums, percussion and vocals into a stew that reaches out and grabs your soul. Such a joyful and eminently human set of songs shouldn't be missed.

Welcome is out now via Bedroom Suck & Flightless in Australia and New Zealand, Cargo Records in the UK and EU, and Dispatch Dept. in North America.

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Bandcamp for Welcome

Various links for Welcome

"Dlareme" and "Ponte" by Don Glori

 

Don Glori is a recent discovery, but the two singles from his upcoming album Welcome provide the midweek lift we needed. "Dlareme" and "Ponte" display the artist's love of Brazilian, funk and house music, as well as jazz. "Dlareme" is a particularly vivid explosion of sounds, while "Ponte" is a bit more nuanced. However, both are vibrant and uplifting, and we recommend them heartily.

Don Glori is the recording name used by Melbourne musician and composer Gordon Li. Welcome will be out October 14 via Bedroom Suck Records.

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Pre-order link for Welcome

“Blind War” (feat. Ben LaMar Gay) and “Green” by TOMÁ

Photo by Paul Schütz 

TOMÁ is the name under which Bulgarian guitarist/producer Tomá Ivanov records, and he has released a couple of songs ahead of a full album due out at the end of July. This is a fantastic record, featuring a variety of collaborators each bringing a different ingredient to Ivanov's impeccable producer skills. On "Blind War" he is backing Ben LaMar Gay, a Chicago producer and MC, with an understated set of keyboards and staccato beats:

 

TOMÁ · Blind War ft. Ben Lamar Gay

In addition, here's the instrumental "Green", an upbeat jazz/hip-hop track - love the guitar on this:

He claims influences you would probably expect - Squarepusher, Flying Lotus, Aphex Twin - but in listening to this, you can also feel the influence of his jazz studies, along the lines of Stones Throw and other LA-based artists like Thundercat and Kamasi Washington. It's a heady mix and high quality music. More to come, but you get the idea. 

Jasper the Vinyl Junkie - Vinyl Junkie Thangs

Vinyl Junkie Thangs is a true delight, a bountiful collection of funk, jazz, soul and Latin music from BBE Music, curated by Jasper the Vinyl Junkie. It's along the lines of great crate-digger collections like The Funky 16 Corners - you know the type. This is Jasper's first curation for BBE since 1997, so fortunately he has pulled together 18 tracks, broken into four sides and a 7" (vinyl format, of course). Says Jasper: “Even all the digital interference hasn’t stopped vinyl being a fantastic way to get your groove on. When I put together compilations like this back in the day, there were just 3 formats: Vinyl, CDs and Cassette Tapes. Now there’s a whole heap of ways to get your favourite tunes: downloads, streaming, youtube etc. etc… Even so, when I put an album together, I always do it with the analogue in mind, so it has a certain feel to it.” 

 The stuff is all pretty funky, but runs the gamut from old school funk with horns (and screeches and growls), like The Ashantis' "Safari" to Basement Freaks' "Makes Me Wanna Scream", a drum-based rave-up remixed by Blend Miskin with lasers and synths, and falsetto wails throughout.

   

   

 There are several instrumentals and a number of Latin-tinged tracks, like "JB's Latin" by Spitting Image - well, it's almost an instrumental, but there are inspired scat-style shoutouts scattered between the flute and electric guitar breaks that keep the attention levels up where they belong:

 

 

This is tough stuff - fun, hardworking music. Play it at your next get-together and watch everybody start to move. They can't help it. It's out now on BBE Music.

Vinyl Junkie Thangs at BBE Music

Bandcamp

“Frozen in Time” by Jyroscope & Montana Macks

Photo credit: Jason Nelims 

This is a deeply satisfying hip-hop song, featuring a great low-key sort of "film noir" jazz saxophone intro, a solid beat and three excellent artists. Jyroscope is a Chicago group consisting of MCs I.B. Fokuz, Collasoul Structure and DJ Seanile - and producer Montana Macks. Ahead of their upcoming EP Happy Medium, they're sharing this single, "Frozen in Time":

 

 

The lyrics seem to be about the delicate balance between striving for more and guarding what you have in a world (and a city) that can be hostile to both of those, between protecting your own (family, career) and putting yourself out there. As I said, it's deeply satisfying in a number of ways. You can pre-order and listen to this at their Bandcamp, they also share news via Instagram - see below. 

Jyroscope Bandcamp 

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Dive Index - Refolded: Waving at Airplanes

Dive Index is a collaborative project of California producer Will Thomas, with vocals from Natalie Walker and Merz. Last year he released the album Waving at Airplanes, and over the time between then and now, he took the songs apart, sort of dub style, and with the help of several fellow producers and remixers, came up with new identities for each of the songs. It's exhilarating music - while it does settle into a groove from time to time, it doesn't settle in for long and the hallmark of this record is its changes in direction, which keep the sound fresh and your mind engaged. Here’s “Wish I Had a Pulse”, a hypnotic track with a languid vocal by Natalie Walker:

 

 My favorite track on the album is this Mike Lindsay (Tuung) remix of "She's Exploding". It’s got a noirish quality - sort of murky, muffled in places and dark, dark lyrics. “Bloodstained fingers” and what is it she keeps apologizing for? 

   

That's also Walker on vocals, but the mix distorts the vocals along with most of the instruments, to great effect, creating an overwhelming atmosphere that has you gently swaying until the synthesizers do a sort of stepdown and reset everything. This song has some great singing on it - really, the whole record does. Along with Walker, vocals are contributed by Merz, as on this emotive song "Say Yes to Tenderness":

 

Beautiful, sort of cinematic in spots, this album rewards repeated listening because there is so much going on in each track, and there is so much variety in beats and melodies from song to song. It's out now on Neutral Music. 

 Dive Index at Neutral Music

Kendra Sells - All In Your Head

In the course of seven songs, one an interlude and one labeled an outro, Kendra Sells takes the listener on an exhilarating trip, and true to the title, it is all in your head. The one constant throughout the EP is her sinuous, fantastic voice. She is able to contort the vocals to fit all types of music - for example, the psychedelic soul of lead track “Your Cut”, a song that has plenty of musical twists:

 

 Another turn around the bend is "Call Me When Ur Dead", a pleasant instrumental with sort of a samba feel, which plays out as the singer fully executes a breakup. How many ways can you say "don't call me again"? Well, that's the deal here. She's singing it all the way out, because she wants to make sure this person gets the message:

   

 The key track to me on this record is "Wondering / Bad Doctorzz". This is the one where Sells delivers her eclectic musical talent with both barrels, and it is a true wonder. As mentioned, this record is all over the place, in the best way possible. From psychedelic soul to a Brazilian-tinged sweet-sounding breakup ballad to, what we have here, a track featuring a Black Sabbath guitar intro which leads into a slinky vocal in which Sells sounds like she is singing about a bad boyfriend ("It's a trap so don't pay him no mind / Cause he's used to getting his way all the time"), and then the music switches gears into some serious Bad Brains-style punk guitar noise, while Sells segues into singing about a real problem in a personal way:

Bad doctors build a repertoire of writing people off
Say call us when you’re dead if you’re just worried bout a cough
You don’t look like my daughter and you don’t look like my son
If they don’t see a problem then they don’t believe there’s one
Just cause they don’t see a problem doesn’t mean there isn’t one

credits

 

That probably works better than a study or a page full of statistics at getting you to pay attention to the fact that some people are not treated the same way as some other people by the health care industrial complex, because she sounds like she's singing from experience, with some real anger, and the music is bracing, so you're going to listen. 

This is an amazing record. What is most impressive, other than, again, her terrific voice, is the amount of musical ground that is covered in the course of essentially five full songs. I feel like she has more to say, and I’m looking forward to hearing more from Sells. If you don't like your music in preset "genres" and squeezed into categories, you'll be rewarded for giving this one a try. 

  Kendra Sells - All In Your Head

Carlos Niño & Friends - More Energy Fields, Current

 

Carlos Niño & Friends' new record, More Energy Fields, Current, is out, and you will enjoy spending some time with it. Niño is a DJ, producer and percussionist, but his most important talent appears to be his ability to pull groups of artists together and sort of inspire their best work and collaboration. This album is carefully arranged and layered to create quietly spectacular moments one after another, like the way the gently swinging but insistent drumbeat fades into a flute by way of what sounds like a treated B3 or synthesizer along with some ambient sounds (water, woods), before building to a crescendo on "Salon Winds":

   

 That video is a film by Cara Stricker, who has done videos for Blood Orange and Alicia Keys, among others, and the track was recorded at a backyard concert at Mike D's Malibu home by the team Nino assembled for this record: Jamire Williams, Nate Mercereau, Jamael Dean and Aaron Shaw. Every song on here provides an opportunity to explore new sounds or combinations of sounds, and Niño's collaborators are completely in sync. Spend some time with it, and please be sure to put on your best headphones, or find a quiet night for driving and put it on. The final track, "Please, wake up" is a reflection of the opener and it has a patient but insistent feel, and sort of gently glitches out into a quiet set of chimes, which is the perfect way to end the record:

 

 Wake up! it says. From Nino's liner notes: "We’re all in this together. I look forward to living in a much higher, much more conscious, harmonious state, here, with You, on this Magical Planet Earth.” The digital is out now, available from International Anthem and the vinyl will be out on June 25.

International Anthem Records - Bandcamp

Dope Sagittarius - Sacred Places

Dope Sagittarius is a group led by Harlem musician Luqman Brown, playing an exhilarating blend of funk, rock and jazz, in a style that is pretty much unrestrained and without borders as to “genre”. The record was to be released in 2016, but due to Brown having a stroke and a lengthy recovery, and of course, 2020, the record encountered delays and obstacles, but is finally ready to see the light. And you are going to want to check it out, because you need this unrestrained, upbeat record in your life. 

It’s a riot of sounds: layered synthesizers, drumbeats and vocal choruses behind Brown’s singing and the occasional rap break or guitar solo (somebody has been listening to their Eddie Hazel). It is mostly uptempo, with the funk and rock elements driving at a fast pace, until it slows down a bit for a ballad like “LaRonda” (but even that contains danceable elements). Check out the galloping tempo on lead song, “Alive”:

I take sort of a double meaning on this song - he states that it's about doing what you can against bullying, but hearing him sing "I'm living for today / watch the first step I take", given what he's gone through in the last several years, is to encounter a very high level of joy. Did I say that he's a hell of a singer? Well, he is. 

The song "Black Empress" is faster, with staccato drum machine beats driving the tempo and a frenetic violin solo that moves up and back in the mix, with an extended rap about halfway through that delivers this couplet: "and damn if the karma didn’t boomerang / And you wish you had treated them better then you had" - the song is a warning, and the Empress an instrument of vengeance. As Brown says: "When I wrote this song, back in 2016, it was because I was fed up with the killing of unarmed Black people by police that year and throughout American history. Sadly, not much has changed since then. This is my way of saying that, if we can't stop this senseless killing, the world will end in chaos and violence”:

 

My favorite track is "Sacred Place", mainly because I think it's got his best singing. But the extended dancehall rap does add a bit of variety:

   

This is a great record, fairly bursting with ideas, eclectic musical approaches and, again, some great soul vocals from Brown. The music is available online, and the vinyl is out this week. Highly recommended.

Dope Sagittarius at Bandcamp

Dope Sagittarius at Buddhabug Records

“Cold as Weiss” by Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio (henceforth, DLO3), has released a new single track, recorded at Colemine Records HQ, with their new and permanent drummer, Dan Weiss. They’ve quickly become a favorite of mine, and I’m happy to share this - all three of these guys deserve more exposure. On this track, we have some creative, slinky Jimmy James guitar lines weaving in and out of the pace set by Weiss’s drums and Lamarr’s B3. It’s short and snappy, and you’ll want to spin it again and again:

 

They've also announced a few live dates upcoming, and you can buy downloads or order other music at their site (or via the Bandcamp track above - just click through for the site). 

DLO3 Website

“The Man Who Sold the World” by The Hics (Bowie tribute Modern Love due out May 28)

 We’re happy to be able to tell you about this upcoming David Bowie tribute record, including covers by The Hics, Helado Negro, Khruangbin, We are KING and a host of other artists recording alternative versions of some well-known and some lesser-known cuts from Bowie’s oeuvre. As one of the Bobs put it so well, we celebrate the guy's entire catalog. Here is “The Man Who Sold the World” by The Hics. It creates a whole new mood around the song, sort of a low-key spy soundtrack feel:

BBE Music · The Hics - The Man Who Sold The World

And here is "Sound and Vision" by Helado Negro, a fairly catchy Latin-tinged slow and easy hip-hop track that highlights the melody of the original song while creating a new way to think about the lyrics of this 1977 Bowie classic. I like the idea of including this one in a jazz/hip hop/electronic music collection - Bowie was trying some new stuff on Low at the time, and this feels pretty true to the spirit:

 

 Finally (I'm just catching up) here is We are KING playing "Space Oddity" - a stretched out electronic version with breathy female vocals that ramps up the volume and layers in more sounds as it builds. Because the song's so well-known and loved, a cover would have to be pretty different, and this one is.

 

So hopes are high for the rest of this record. Definitely looking forward to the Khruangbin track.  The album is due out May 28 on BBE Records. 

BBE Music Website 

The Hics Facebook 

Helado Negro website 

We Are KING website

Carlos Niño and Friends - “Thanking the Earth” from forthcoming More Energy Fields, Current, out May 7

Carlos Niño is a Los Angeles-based producer, arranger, DJ and is the leader of the ensemble that created these wonderful tracks from his upcoming album More Energy Fields, Current. It is quiet, unhurried, fairly self-contained instrumental music, with a theme of our relationship with our planet. Carlos has a good-sized contingent of collaborators, each bringing something unique to the mix. In true DJ fashion, Carlos is able to pull it all together within the bounds of the length of a single track.

And here is a track released earlier, "Pleasewakeupalittlefasterplease". It is also fantastic:

 

Stay tuned for more - the album is due to be released digitally May 7, with physical copies (vinyl, cassettes, etc) due to arrive in June. You can preorder and check out some of his other music (recommended) at his Bandcamp site.

Carlos Niño at Bandcamp

Dr. Lonnie Smith - Breathe

Out now on Blue Note is Dr. Lonnie Smith's fine set of live jazz tunes bookended by a couple of wonderful collaborations with Iggy Pop, on which Iggy's distinctive baritone renders the lyrics of a couple of great Summer of Love standards into almost spoken word pieces. The first one, "Why Can't We Live Together", is a pretty inspired choice. The original was not a pop tune in a conventional sense - Timmy Thomas anchored the song with a drum machine and then did a lot of improvising on the keyboard. They took over a minute out of the song to get to a radio version. Here, Smith takes the improvising to another level, stretching it out to over 6:00. I'm so glad to have this version of this song:

 

"Sunshine Superman" is another quirky tune that these guys take on to create a distinctive version of their own. Donovan's sort of behind the beat, swaying vocal makes a good take off point for Iggy's unhurried, warm vocal:

 

In between these two are some well-played tunes, covers like "Too Damn Hot" and "Epistrophy" and Smith originals like "Bright Eyes" and "Track 9". Smith's band features some stars in their own right: Jonathan Blake (drums), Jonathan Kreisberg (guitar), Robin Eubanks (trombone), John Ellis and Jason Marshall on saxophones and Sean Jones on trumpet, with Richard Bravo adding percussion on the two bookend covers. Don Was produced the record and it's an example of quality-meets-quality, with great results. 

Here is Smith, on how the record got done: “I was playing with my trio at Arts Garage in Delray Beach in Florida. Iggy would come by and say he wanted to play with me. I let him play slaparoo and he loved it. He enjoyed playing with us. We thought about recording a few songs, so we went in with my trio backing us up, and it worked.” I'll say it worked. 

  Dr. Lonnie Smith at Blue Note Records

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio - “Jimmy’s Groove” - out today

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio is a tight three-piece playing impeccable funk/jazz. Their latest single, “Jimmy’s Groove”, is available right now - it’s an outtake from their recent album and is part of two non-album singles being released to supplement the record. It’s a rollicking six minute instrumental - just try to sit or stand still while you’re listening, and tell me you don’t feel that bass line right from the start:

   

 An added treat - when doing a little research on these guys I found a live version of one of my favorite songs, so you get this thrown in. Definitely stick around for the part where Delvon takes it up a notch on the keyboards at about 2:30:

 

These guys are incredible, expect to hear much more from us about them. The track is available at Bandcamp, you can clidk through the track above. On Colemine Records.

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio at Colemine Records

Throttle Elevator Music - Final Floor

Throttle Elevator Music is a collective featuring saxophonist Kamasi Washington and trumpeter Erik Jekabson along with longtime collaborators and songwriters Matt Montgomery and Gregory Howe. Howe is the guitar player and founder of Wide Hive, the label that released all TEM's music. Joining them are Mike Hughes on drums, Kasey Knudsen on alto saxophone, Ross Howe on fender guitar with Mike Blankenship on organ. Recorded between 2013-2020, the tracks on Final Floor have not been released previously and are a testament to the quality of work this group was doing together. These are not outtakes, but finished pieces, fully realized visions of the interplay between jazz, funk, surf rock, punk, reggae and motorik. It's exhilarating. I've been a big fan of Washington's work - both the affecting tone of his playing and the wide variety of musical types and collaborators. But as talented as these players are individually, the group here is even greater than the sum of its parts. There's plenty of tension, but also a lot of beauty, sometimes together - like the way the guitar underlies the soaring sax solo on "Ice Windows":

 

Throttle Elevator Music · Final Floor

Sadly, Final means final - as in, Throttle Elevator Music is no longer a collective. Happily, a lot of these guys play together in the Wide Hive "house band" so keep an eye out for more from this label. And of course, Washington has continued to release music, including the soundtrack for the Netflix documentary profiling Michelle Obama, Becoming.

Wide Hive Records 

Oneness of Juju - African Rhythms 1970​-​1982

We aren't given to grand statements. After all, our mission is to alert you to music that we like. But we are going to step out of our lane a bit and tell you that African Rhythms 1970-1982 is an essential album. The band is Oneness of Juju, led by James "Plunky" Branch, which fused funk, jazz and African rhythms into an irresistible stew of sound. This album, which was originally released in 2001, collects the band's output for a 12-year period in San Francisco, New York, and Richmond, Virginia. This collection of music would be welcome any time, but its re-release is especially appropriate for the current focus on the status and travails of our Black fellow citizens. Check it out below, and explore further at the Bandcamp link.

African Rhythms 1970-1982 is available in digital, double CD, and triple LP formats via Strut Records.










Bandcamp for album
Plunky's Facebook

REVIEW: Toco - Memoria

Tomaz di Cunto performs under the name Toco, which could be a diminutive or short form of his full name, but is also Portuguese for ‘"play’". He is a vocalist, guitarist and composer of breathtaking talent and has a rare ability to combine the best parts of two great genres - Brazilian samba and European jazz. Toco has been making records in Milan for the Italian Schema label but hails from Brazil. Working with the Milanese acid jazz producer Stefano Tirone, (aka S-Tone), Toco'’s reputation has been steadily building. If you watched the film Silver Linings Playbook, you heard “Guarapiranga”, a track from one of his previous albums.

The title of the album, Memoria, refers specifically to the regions of Minas Gerais and the Brazilian northeast, its hot climate, the religiousness of the people and its faith in miracles, calling to mind images of mysterious and surreal popular tales, where time flows slowly in an intimate dimension.

“Minas”, a poetic homage to Minas Gerais, opens the album:



In his youth, Toco met Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, and that influence shows in the more "bossa" numbers, such as "Manè":



Toco's collaborators include Brazilian artists such as Robert and Eduardo Taufic, Mauro Martins, Edu Hebling, Marquinho Baboo, Ligiana Costa and Selton. Nina Miranda, already known to the public for her collaboration with Smoke City and Da Lata, joined this cast of amazing artists.

This is the third album that Toco and Tirone have produced together. The previous collaborations were “Instalaçao Do Samba” (Schema, 2004) and “Outro Lugar” (Schema, 2007). Their collaboration results in some absolutely breathtaking music - bearing out some obviously ambitious artistic concepts, certainly... but free-flowing and full of the joy of life. This is a beautiful record - one of the best I have heard so far this year.

Memoria is available now via Schema Records.

New Jazz Trio Discovery - Larry Goldings/Peter Bernstein/Bill Stewart - Ramshackle Serenade

As I have shared here before, I am not a jazz critic. However, I sure do appreciate good jazz, and when the opportunity arises, I'm happy to share new recordings with WYMA's readers. It's been my experience that piano trios or quartets tend to make my favorite records (excepting Coltrane, of course), but occasionally we come across a group led by a Hammond B3 player like Larry Goldings, and you are going to want to check out this trio: Golding on organ, Peter Bernstein on guitar and Bill Stewart on drums. They've recorded together for years and together have produced some world-class music. Their latest is Ramshackle Serenade.

Here's a short video featuring some discussion and some clips of the players - it gives a good idea of their approach and the album's sound, which is pristine:



This is not just a good,solid jazz album by some very good veteran players -- there is greatness here. From the inspired covers like Jobim's "Luiza" and Horace Silver's "Peace", plus the standard "Sweet and Lovely", to the sweet originals: album opener "Roach", a Goldings composition which gives Stewart ample opportunities to show off his chops, and Bernstein's "Simple as That", which is pretty straight ahead. Actually, it's mostly originals and they stand up very well.

Here's the album closer, "Peace" - just beautiful:



The album's out now (released in late June) on Pirouet Records.

Ramshackle Serenade at Pirouet Records website

REVIEW: Kathleen Grace - No Place To Fall

Kathleen Grace has a clear, bright, beautiful voice, and impeccable taste in material. She swings back and forth from straight-ahead jazz to light alt-country with a sprightliness and ease that are as enjoyable as they are admirable. She's assembled a crack band on this record, including one of my favorite instrumentalists in the world, pedal steel gunslinger Greg Leisz. Leisz has played with a host of greats, including (just to name a very few) Los Lobos, Dwight Yoakam and Beck, bringing a sad, sweet quality to their music that nothing but perfectly-played pedal steel can deliver. And it's similar here. His playing provides a nice accompaniment, and at places, a counterpoint, to her vocals. Both are just wonderful by themselves, and even better combined.

Opening with a Townes Van Zandt composition is a courageous, assured move, and Grace does a terrific job with the track that gives the album its title.



The album features a few more inspired covers. Grace gives her own spin to Tom Waits' "The Briar and the Rose" and The Meat Puppets' "Plateau", as well as a suitably jazzy take on "Mood Indigo". "Plateau", in particular, is so left-field, yet so well done, it's the kind of thing you'll want to play for friends just to see if it dawns on them just what song this is. Grace, like the Puppets, is an Arizona native, which might explain both the song choice and the heart she puts into her cover.



Not only does she do great things with other folks' tunes, her originals here are wonderful. "A Fine Young Woman" is a country song that sounds like it might have been written some time ago. In fact, I started searching for it, to find out who wrote it all that time ago. Funny, Grace just wrote it recently. It is a great story song in the tradition of "Mama Tried" or "Saginaw Michigan" - great music that would almost work just as a short story.



No Place to Fall is out now (May 13) on Monsoon Records.

Kathleen Grace website
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New Jazz Discovery: Jim Clayton - Songs My Daughter Knows

When it comes to jazz, I'm certainly no expert but I know what I like. And it's usually sax (Coltrane, Rollins) and piano (Tyner, Evans, Monk)... so when a new piano jazz record arrives in my inbox, I'm bound to give a listen. When a piano jazz record with a concept as charming as Songs My Daughter Knows, by Canadian pianist Jim Clayton, arrives, it'll get more than a cursory listen. And in this case, that's a good thing. This record is absolutely delightful. Clayton plays with great swing and joy - almost certainly the joy is due to the fun he must have had picking out the songs with his wife and input from their daughter, nascent tastemaker Eileen Agnes (Lenny) Clayton.

And the swing, whether wide like on "Grouch Anthem" and "Tea for Two",



or lighter as on "Rainbow Connection",



is excellent.

Clayton traveled to New Orleans to record the album and assembled a combo featuring drummer Jason Marsalis, percussionist Bill Summers, trumpeter Marlon Jordan and bassist Peter Harris. The rhythm section is uniformly excellent - the drums and piano work especially well together.

Clayton, in the information accompanying the record, describes the significance of several of these songs to him, his wife and 3-year old daughter: "Count Basie’s vibrant “'Flight of the Foo Birds'” (from 1958’s The Atomic Mr. Basie) served as the soundtrack for a montage of home movie footage ... of his daughter in various modes of play. “'Tea for Two'” served as a lullaby for his baby daughter while the jazz standard “'Autumn Leaves”' was a tune played in the recovery room after Lenny'’s birth. The opening drum cadence from the main theme to Aaron Sorkin’'s acclaimed TV series The West Wing was another musical tidbit that caught Lenny'’s ear, as was the Dirty Dozen Brass Band'’s rendition of the Cannonball Adderley tune '“Inside Straight'."

The kid has great taste in music, and her dad sure can play. If you like piano jazz, give this a listen.


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