Jay Leonhart

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Jay Leonhart (right) with Barbara Carroll at a Jazz Vesper at St Peter's Lutheran Church (2007)

Jay Leonhart (* 6. December 1940 in Baltimore , Maryland as James Chancellor Leonhart ) is an American bassist , singer and songwriter in the areas of jazz and popular music .

Live and act

Leonhart comes from a musical family and began to play the piano, guitar and banjo. At the age of fourteen he switched to the double bass and played in a Dixieland jazz band in Baltimore . He had lessons at the Peabody Institute in 1946/48 and again in 1956/57 , graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1960/61 and then at Oscar Peterson's Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto , which he left to join touring big bands such as Buddy Morrow and Mike Longo to play. In the early 1960s he began to work as a professional musician, such as with John Eaton . From 1963 to 1967 he played in the backing band of Ethel Ennis , he also worked as an insurance broker and pilot.

In 1968 he came to New York, where he met the singer Donna Zier and married. Leonhart played in the bands of Urbie Green (1968 to 1970), Marian McPartland (1970 to 1973), Jim Hall (1971 to 1973), Tony Bennett (1971 to 1974) and 1974/1975 in the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Big Band ; since 1974 he has also worked in a duo with Barbara Carroll . He also worked as a freelance artist for Lee Konitz , Buddy Rich , Tal Farlow and others, and otherwise mostly worked as a session musician for artists such as James Taylor , Ozzy Osbourne and Queen Latifah . He also recorded with Chuck Wayne and Harold Ousley . Between 1975 and 1995 he was awarded the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences three times as The Most Valuable Bassist .

Jay Leonhart has released a number of albums under his own name, including a. with Roger Kellaway and for the DMP and Sunnyside labels, on which he also appears as a singer of humorous songs and vocalises ; his best-known title is "It's Impossible to Sing and Play the Bass". He refutes that in his one-man show ( The Bass Lesson ).

He composed several titles for various artists such as Blossom Dearie , Lee Konitz and Gary Burton . Leonhart has also worked on recordings with Benny Bailey , Dick Hyman , Bucky Pizzarelli ( 5 for Freddie , 2007), Gerry Mulligan , Louis Bellson , John Bunch , Eddie Higgins , Meredith D'Ambrosio and Dave Grusin . He regularly appears in duo with trombonist Wycliffe Gordon ; together they created the album This Rhythm on My Mind .

Discographic notes

  • Two Lane Highway (1992)
  • Salamander Pie (1983)
  • There's Gonna Be Trouble (1984) (with Joe Beck )
  • Cool (2004)
  • Group 15 Plays Monk (2007)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Leonhart, Jay
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leonhart, James Chancellor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Baltimore , Maryland , USA