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And old DMP CD remastered for SACD. Splendid sonics, caberet jazz duet (piano and standup bass violin) with great presence and intimacy.The lyrics are a bit quirky, but quite intelligent and, ultimately, winning.
Mr. Leonhart sings original songs of his own composition, and plays a very nifty standup bass, too. He's not going to get any auditions at the Metropolitan Opera, but his vocal presentation is, nevertheless, highly affecting -- reminiscent of great Fred Estaire as a singer.
I love the interplay of the piano, and bass violin, voice on this recording. The pianist (sorry, I'm too lazy to read the liner notes) sounds as though he was born joined to Mr. Leonhart's hip. He responds to Leonhart's singing and playing with uncanny anticipation and sensitivity. A drummer would RUIN this musical repartee.
When you hear this record, you will probably think of artists like Harry Chapin and Johhny Cash, with whom the lyrical approach of these songs has much in common. Yet, the jazz musical context of these pieces may even bring Jack Kerouac and the beat generation to mind. There's a song about a man contemplating suicide when he crosses a bridge, a song that struggles to understand how Robert Frost paid his mortgage with his poems, another about a stage door johnny to a strip-tease dancer in the 50's, a prayer for the strength to stop drinking.
Mr. Leonhart lyrics are sometimes startlingly forthcoming, yet there is a sensitivity and civility that makes him a welcome guest nonetheless. "Salamander Pie" is the work of a jazz troubadour. It's hard to think of a record that gives you the sense of having encountered a unique and engaging personality, a stuggling fellow spirit, on such an initmate basis.
And, (it's almost too good to be true!), the sonics and engineering are exemplary.
Follow Ups:
I have had the CD since 85 or so and it has always been one of my favorites. Has anyone auditioned any of his other recordings?
He's a New York session guy. I bought the original CD back in the olden days due to a CD Review rave, as did many others. As a regular at Zinno's (New York's best jazz / food place, but sorry, no longer) he gigged regularly with Bucky Pizzarelli, among others. One night I took my original disc cover for an autograph, as I always do. He's a pretty laid back kind of guy. He was surprised that someone wanted him to sign that disc as he did not take it too seriously. He said that the disc did not sell at all until CD Review's take on it. Two months later a reader trashed it and the sales went down significantly. Do to that or that all potential buyers had already bought it? Who knows. Regardles, it is good fun stuff that proves that early PCM, properly implemented, can actully sound ok. Moon Over Miami is demo material. Mike Renzi's piano sounds rich. He is a session guy as well who I believe played on occaision at Zinno's.I got the SACD from of all places, Overstock.com for 11.99.
Thanks for citing Mike Renzi's piano. I couldn't remember his name, and was too lazy to get out the liner notes and look him up myself. But I have to agree, Leonhart's bass playing is "darn good," as you put it.Who could trash this recording? A READER? Amazing story!
You know, as good as labels like DMP and Chesky and Telarc and others are at recording, their marketing abilities seem to be correspondingly poor! The sad thing is that most of these audiophile record labels don't even seem to know who their customers are! I would say that 80 to 90% of all audiophiles are baby boomers, whose musical references are the 60's and 70's. Yet, there is an absolute DEARTH of material produced from this era by the so-called audiophile labels.
You can probably find 50 versions of "Round Midnight" on these labels. But Beatles covers? Paul Simom covers? You can think of a dozen others ... they're NON-EXISTENT! Don't these people want to sell records???
I have the original CD; and I must say the sonics on the original are also superb sounding!
:-)
Don't remember. It's been in my collection for a while. I've always enjoyed it immensely. It's one of those "old reliables" I can toss in my player for guaranteed enjoyment.However, it's in stock at Amazon.com USA. My guess is you'll probably find it cheaper somewhere else, if you're willing to look around a bit. Elusivedisc.com will probably stock it, too. But that "Order with one click" feature at Amazon gets me every time. All told, perhaps "tolled" us a better expression, it's probably cost me a couple of hundred dollars.
You might try ordering direct from DMP's website. I'm not sure they're accepting orders anymore though. I just tested it on my computer, and a blank page comes up on my screen.
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