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The beginning of LMT in 1978 (from left to right)
Thomas Dawson, Troy Davis, and Lenny Marcus.
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Lenny Marcus began playing professionally in my first band at 18 years old in Baton Rouge, LA. Then, I took off for New Orleans, the city of JAZZ…
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After that, Lenny attended The Berklee College of Music (Boston, Mass.) in 1980.
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Then it was back to New Orleans…where Lenny became the house pianist for the Meridien Hotel on Canal Street, plus enjoyed playing gigs every night for about 12 years all over New Orleans and having TOO much fun! |
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Peter Ingram
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Meanwhile, Peter Ingram was living in Raleigh, North Carolina, after emigrating from England. In Raleigh, Peter ran a jazz club called "The Frog and Nightgown" for many years, featuring such greats as Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, Ramsay Lewis, Stan Getz and many others; but he tired of being a club owner and started a great jazz band called Group Sax which played all over North Carolina and won many awards, including a spot at the Atlanta Jazz Festival. |
| After a long stint in New Orleans, Lenny packed up and went to North Carolina and started playing a few gigs here and there with various bands. One night, he was playing in the back of a Chinese restaurant in a band called Dr.'s Orders, and Peter Ingram came in to check out the music. He liked the way Lenny played and hired him to sub for Group Sax when their regular pianist couldn't make it.
In 1991, Lenny got Peter to play some trio gigs…then more trio gigs…they called themselves different names…and started getting a 'sound'….their own style began developing. Lenny began to compose music for the jazz trio. They used different bassists with varying styles... finally settling on the very versatile John Brown.
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The original
"Bat In The Hat" LP cover
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"Bat In The Hat" LMT's first, was released in 1983, and was digitally remastered and repackaged in 2004. This LP has Jim Singleton on bass and Herman Jackson on drums.
LMT began getting spots, opening up for the likes of jazz legends Jon Luc Ponty and Sonny Fortune. Lenny moved from the Raleigh area (up to Southwest Virginia), but we held the band together and broadened its base to both Virginia and North Carolina, plus really playing all over the Mid-Atlantic Region, and occasionally branching out to other areas.
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Charlie Byrd playing guitar with LMT
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They started to record and had the good fortune of having several great jazz musicians join them in the studio and accompany them on our CDs, including the late great Charlie Byrd, and Frank Foster, Sonny Fortune, and others. Robbie Link had joined the Trio on bass by this point.
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Then in 1996 they released the first Lenny Marcus Trio CD "Remember Infinity," which had tracks with Chip McNeill and one song with the awesome vocals of Lisanne Lyons titled "Destiny." Once again Robbie Link on bass and Peter Ingram on drums made up the rest of the Trio for this project.
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Back in the studio in 1997, we began work on what would become our next CD as a trio "A Different Shade of Blue." They were joined by the legendary Charlie Byrd on guitar.
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Frank Foster
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In 1999, LMT played with Frank Foster at the "Spice Jazz Festival" in Grenada. |
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Work began on their next project "Jazzaphrenia." This CD featured guests Frank Foster on tenor sax and Sonny Fortune on alto sax. This mix of great musicians solidified this project's jazzy chemistry. |
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In 2000, we landed a spot in the Caribbean based "International Barbados Jazz Festival" and played with Sonny Fortune. |
Released in 2002, "Jazz Tonight" features the superb horns of Brian Lynch on trumpet and Chip McNeill on saxophone, as well as both John Brown on acoustic bass and Ed Mikenas on electric bass and doubling on percussion.
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From left to right: Ed Mikenas,
Lenny Marcus, and Peter Ingram
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Then it was back into the studio to begin recording "Cathexis. It was completed in the fall of 2004 with the usual star studded list of artists including: John Brown on bass; Bob Bowen on bass; the stellar vocals of Jane Powell; Brian Lynch on trumpet; Ray Codrington on percussion, flugelhorn and trumpet; Chip McNeill on sax; and last but not least the great David "Fathead" Newman on sax. |
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Peter Ingram, Ray Codrington, Lenny Marcus,
John Brown, and David "Fathead" Newman (left to right)
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LMT with David "fathead" Newman from a "Cathexis" CD recording session.
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Shortly after "Cathexis" was released the "Bat In The Hat," LMT's first project, was digitally remastered and repackaged for Compact Disc in late 2004. |
| LMT began essentially in the back room of a Chinese restaurant in North Carolina in 1991, where Lenny first met jazz drummer Peter Ingram, and gradually, after scores of club gigs, concerts, and festivals, and many recording sessions over the past ten years, and after hooking up with John Brown, LMT has become a very well-schooled, unique-sounding bluesy-jazz group that all of us are proud of!
Together, with much help from great CD cover artists, such as my sister Leslie Marcus-Diekmann (cover for "Remember Infinity" and "A Different Shade of Blue"), Moe Paraan ("Jazzaphrenia" and "Cathexis"), and Bob Schamerhorn (the remastered "Bat In The Hat" CD) and webmaster of our web site "www.lennymarcusmusic.com." They hope to burst into the new millennium and fill it full of jazz!
Although they absolutely know that there are MANY jazz groups playing all over the United States and the world, and they are just one of probably thousands, they feel that LMT has 'something' just a bit different than anyone else. And that's what it's all about to them…offering something unique to "say" with their music, and hopefully continuing to develop LMT's sound for years to come. Onwards into the new century!
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