For week 243 of Jam of the Week, we were asked to contribute protest songs. I took the opportunity to write a new one, inspired by (what else) some unfortunate comments by a prominent figure in our national news. Here’s “Ain’t It The Truth”
Tag: original song
In honor of Valentine’s Day, enjoy these original songs about love & lovers.
Without You: an old-fashioned song about lasting relationships
The Heart Says: a song about love, patience, and donuts
And finally, Snow Day, a seasonally appropriate song about the challenges (and promises) of relationships in winter weather
I’m always on the lookout for inspiration for new songs, which usually comes in the form of a unique turn of phrase that turns into a lyric or a title. For this new song, a cabaret number called “All I Ever Lost,” inspiration came from Dani Stoller, a talented singer/ actress/playwright I met last year at a cabaret hosted by Barbara Papendorp, another talented singer/actress who I have the pleasure of performing with regularly around the DC area. Dani told us a story of a failed relationship, concluding that “all I ever lost was my TV.” Several months later, that sentiment evolved into this song, which Barbara and I premiered on Aug. 23 at Bistrot Lepic. Enjoy!
Thanks to Tony Gudell for capturing this performance by Barbara Papendorp and the DC Jazz Jam house band of my song “Without You” at the jam on May 14, 2017. With Percy White, bass, Mark Caruso, guitar, and Will Stephens, drums.
I’ll be playing with Barbara at Bistrot Lepic on May 24, and with Tony at Acadiana on June 18. Hope to see you there!
in the US, Arbor Day is coming up on April 28. It’s the day we set aside to celebrate the trees, and like all holidays, it deserves some good holiday songs.
Here’s my contribution, recorded here with the talented vocalist and actress Barbara Papendorp. Enjoy the song and spare a moment for a tree!
Celebrating our favorite mathematical constant on 3/14 with this short song. Happy Pi Day!
Happy to discover this week that the syndicated public radio music show Upfront Soul added my song “Hanukkah Light” to their playlist for their Dec. 19 show, which is being broadcast this week on the program’s home station, WERU in Maine, and several other community radio stations around the US. You can tune in in your town, or listen to the program online through PRX.
This recording is from “Snowing In Vegas,” the holiday album I recorded with Aaron Myers last year. There’s more original seasonal songs on the album, which you can purchase on CD (or stream at your convenience).
Happy holidays and best wishes for a musical 2017!
To celebrate the holidays and the release of the holiday album from Aaron Myers, Snowing In Vegas, here’s a video for Aaron’s new holiday song “Love All Year.”
I listened to this tens of times while making the video, and it just doesn’t get old. It’s a beautiful song that I hope will take its rightful place in the library of American holiday classics.
Enjoy!
So we were telling some friends about an unexpectedly cold trip we made out West several years ago, and an idea for a song broke out. Twenty minutes later, we came up with this. Enjoy!
Just completed a new song, “The Rhythm of Jazz”, which you can hear here:
This is dedicated to the brilliant jazz musician Nahum Perferkovich (link points to a site in Hebrew), who I had the privilege of studying with briefly many years ago when I lived in Israel. In one of our first lessons, he told me that I had a natural advantage as a jazz player because the rhythm of jazz comes from my native language, American English (it certainly doesn’t come from the Russian language!). That comment has stayed with me ever since; I think it’s an essential truth about the music.
His other great comment was that “jazz is night music,” which may yet find its way into a song…
Oren Levine, jazz pianist and composer 