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Lenny White

Leonard White III is best known for playing in Chick Corea's Return to Forever and being one of the forerunners of jazz-rock/funk.

White was born in New York City. A self-taught, left- handed drummer on a right-handed kit, he began his career in local groups, and playing regularly with Jackie McLean in the late 1960s. In 1969, he first appeared on Miles Davis' historic recording on Bitches' Brew and later in 1970 he played with Freddie Hubbard on Red Clay before joining Corea's Return to Forever and Azteca in 1972. A year after, Azteca dissolved and he became dedicated to RTF. For five years, he recorded a number of albums with Return to Forever including the award winning "No Mystery" and "Romantic Warrior. When the group split up in 1977 White signed with the Nemperor label (via Atlantic) and recorded two albums as leader.

In 1978, he switched to Elektra for his album Best of Friends, before forming the group Twennynine in 1979, with Carlo Vaughn (vocals), Jocelyn Smith (vocals), Skip Anderson (keyboards), Barry Johnson (bass), and Eddy Martinez (guitar). He later became one of the Jamaica Boys, a group also including Marcus Miller (bass) and Dinky Bingham (vocals), and worked with all-star groups Echoes of an Era and Griffith Park.

White has played with many of the greatest jazz musicians, including Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, Gato Barbieri, Gil Evans, and Stan Getz.

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Radio & Podcasts

Lenny White, Petite Blonde-Live, Uncle Moe's Space Ranch and School Of The Arts

Read "Lenny White, Petite Blonde-Live, Uncle Moe's Space Ranch and School Of The Arts" reviewed by Len Davis


Drummer Lenny White, Dave Liebman, Anthony Jackson, Bill Evans Sax, Dennis Chambers, and German band The Intergalactic Maiden Ballet. School Of The Arts with the late T Lavitz and Dave Weckl. Brett Garsed with Uncle Moe's Space Ranch and Cosmic Farm with Jeff Sipe.Playlist Lenny White “Door # 3" from The New Universe Music Festival (Abstract Logix) 00:00 Back On The Corner “JB Meets Sly/5th St Reprise" from Back On The Corner (Tone Centre) 08:35 Petite Blonde “Oh ...

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Album Review

Eddie Henderson: Witness To History

Read "Witness To History" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Make no mistake: it is the hot buttered soul, “Shaft"-like theme of “Scorpio Rising" that first snags one's attention. But once snagged, the old cool sets in and Witness To History, trumpeter Eddie Henderson's self curated soundtrack, unwinds with a wicked fervor. A deep, wicked joy. Henderson--who has pretty much seen it all from the impulsive, jazz rock Realization (Capricorn, 1973) through The Cookers to the still palpable Shuffle and Deal (Smoke Avenue, 2020)--looks back for a PBS ...

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Reassessing

The Electric Years Box Set

Read "The Electric Years Box Set" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


In a year that has brought us a true bounty of previously unheard majesty including Evenings at the Village Gate: John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy (Impulse!), and Bill Evans; Treasures: Solo, Trio & Orchestra Recordings from Denmark (1965-1969), (Elemental Music) it is only fitting that Miles Davis get his due. And in a very, very big way. Seared into modern memory, modern art, the music presented on the gloriously massive, eleven LP set Miles Davis: The Electric Years ...

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The Vinyl Post

Blackstone Legacy

Read "Blackstone Legacy" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


When trumpeter Woody Shaw passed away in 1989, he left behind a wealth of amazing music, notwithstanding the realized sadness inherent in wondering what more he could have accomplished had he lived a longer life. Back in the mid '60s, Shaw was ubiquitous as a sideman recording iconic albums with the likes of Larry Young, Horace Silver, Chick Corea, Art Blakey, and McCoy Tyner. Despite common misconceptions, Shaw led his first date as a leader in December of 1965, which ...

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Album Review

Eddie Henderson: Witness To History

Read "Witness To History" reviewed by Dave Linn


Dr. Eddie Henderson, 82 years old at the time of writing in 2023, has one of the most interesting stories in modern jazz and is a true Renaissance man. His parents were entertainers; his mother was a dancer at the original Cotton Club while his father was a member of the popular singing group Billy Williams and the Charioteers. Later, his stepfather was a doctor to Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Duke Ellington. When he was nine years old, his ...

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Album Review

M. E. B.: That You Not Dare To Forget

Read "That You Not Dare To Forget" reviewed by Doug Collette


With all due respect to Lettuce's A Tribute to Miles Davis--Witches Stew (Self Produced, 2017) and the all-star ensemble dubbed Bitches Brew Revisited, M.E.B. (formerly known as Miles Electric Band) is an inordinately creative homage to Miles Davis. And given the continually experimental path The “Man With The Horn" chose to follow throughout his career, it is no doubt one of which he would approve. That You Not Dare To Forget is a slightly less than half-hour audio ...

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Album Review

Steve Turre: Generations

Read "Generations" reviewed by Dave Linn


Generations is a wonderful exploration of the bop and post-bop era. Steve Turre both looks back to his roots while encouraging the next generation of musicians to find their voice. It's a position he's eminently qualified for, considering the artists he has played with and his tenure as a long-time jazz educator. Trombone players have a unique place in the sound created in a small jazz band. Their parts helped blend and define any given melody. On this ...

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Performance / Tour

World-Renowned Smoke Jazz Club Announces August Line-Up Including Johnathan Blake’s Latest Blue Note Album, Performances By Special Guests Brad Mehldau, Lenny White, Emmet Cohen, And More

World-Renowned Smoke Jazz Club Announces August Line-Up Including Johnathan Blake’s Latest Blue Note Album, Performances By Special Guests Brad Mehldau, Lenny White, Emmet Cohen, And More

Source: AMT Public Relations

Rated the #1 Jazz Club in New York City (Secret NYC), Smoke Jazz Club welcomes some of today’s leading artists to the stage during the month of August. SMOKE is thrilled to welcome back its former Hammond B-3 organist-in-residence Emmet Cohen this time welcoming beloved saxophonist Houston Person for one-night only Aug 23. Johnathan Blake, one of the most accomplished drummers of his generation, celebrates his sophomore Blue Note album in a four-night run Aug 24-27. For the most updated ...

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Performance / Tour

Strata-East At 50! June 16th With Narrator Danny Glover, Charles Tolliver, Billy Harper, George Cables, Buster Williams, Lenny White & Special Guests!

Strata-East At 50! June 16th With Narrator Danny Glover, Charles Tolliver, Billy Harper, George Cables, Buster Williams, Lenny White & Special Guests!

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations

Strata-East Records celebrate 50 years of amazing Jazz on June 16th at 7:30pm EDT. Price: $20. Day of show $25. The performance will be available on-demand for 48 hours starting June 17th at 12:00 AM EDT. Strata-East @ 50 featuring Charles Tolliver, Billy Harper, George Cables, Buster Williams, Lenny White and special guest Danny Glover! Strata-East Records, now in its 50th year, was created by Charles Tolliver & Stanley Cowell. Their first recording in 1970, “Music Inc" & Big Band, ...

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Recording

Charles Tolliver's 'Connect' Featuring Buster Williams, Lenny White And More! First Release In 13 Years!

Charles Tolliver's 'Connect' Featuring Buster Williams, Lenny White And More!  First Release In 13 Years!

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations

New York-based trumpeter, composer and educator Charles Tolliver presents Connect, his first studio album in 13 years. There's no title track on the new album from Charles Tolliver, but the name—Connect—isn't some ethereal abstraction: it's an invitation. Release date: July 31st. “I wanted the music to connect in these times," explains the trumpeter-composer, a 50-plus-year music veteran and the co-founder of the legendary 1970's jazz label Strata-East Records. “I'm asking the listener to get it: to get what I'm doing, ...

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Music Industry

Legendary Drummer Lenny White Launches New Venture: IYOUWE

Legendary Drummer Lenny White Launches New Venture: IYOUWE

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations

With projects featuring: Joel Levine & Pete Levin IYOUWE is a musical collective created by Lenny White to promote real music in an ever-changing cultural terrain. The collective includes musicians, singers, poets, and rappers. Although many styles of music are embraced by this group, artists at IYOUWE are responding to the urgent need for a culture that has values and values freedom. Our first intention is to present music that inspires, provokes and finds a groove for you. To do ...

Recording

Lenny White Dips Into Archives for "Lenny White Live"

Lenny White Dips Into Archives for "Lenny White Live"

Source: Chris M. Slawecki

Grammy Award-winning artist Lenny White, an influential drummer and longtime member of the fusion supergroup Return To Forever as well as a prolific producer, has delved deep into his own past and come up with another gem in Lenny White Live. A document of a tour of Japan in 1997, this powerful funk-fusion outing features an all-star lineup including fellow Miles Davis alumnus Foley on lead bass along with former Weather Reporter Victor Bailey on low-end bass, former Herbie Hancock ...

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Interview

Something Else! Interview: Lenny White, of Return to Forever

Something Else! Interview: Lenny White, of Return to Forever

Source: Something Else!

Fusion jazz drummer Lenny White is prepping for a reunion with the newly expanded Return to Forever, which will make 32 stops in the U.S. beginning in Pittsburgh on Aug. 7. The newest members are former Mahavishnu Orchestra violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and guitarist Frank Gambale. But White's life away from a band he's played with off and on since the early 1970s has remained as hectic as it is varied. After releasing the well-regarded Anomaly, his first solo album in ...

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Performance / Tour

Lenny White: Live and New York Hot with the Anomaly Band at Catalina's

Lenny White: Live and New York Hot with the Anomaly Band at Catalina's

Source: Jazz (Jazzers Jazzing) by Carl L. Hager

West Coast jazz has traditionally been cool to the East Coast's hot. Dave Brubeck is always pictured in white linen slacks playing an open air concert-by-the-sea, while Charlie Parker is shown popping a Saturday night sweat in his sharkskin suit, squeezed onto a crowded nightclub stage. The iconography extends to the West Coast audience. Like a glass of chablis, chilled, slow and laid back compared to an East Coaster's whiskey shot, feverish, fast and hard. The stereotypes are simplistic and ...

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Performance / Tour

Lenny White Tour with Jimmy Herring on Guitars

Lenny White Tour with Jimmy Herring on Guitars

Source: Michael Ricci

PIONEERING FUSION DRUMMER LENNY WHITE TO EMBARK ON FIRST SOLO TOUR IN OVER A DECADE

Via his genre-defining stint in Return To Forever, his long-admired contributions to Miles Davis's legendary Bitches Brew album, and sessions with everyone from Gil Evans to Stan Getz to Joe Henderson, Lenny White has played a crucial role in expanding the boundaries of jazz, adding a thrilling dose of rock muscle to its inherent improvisational fabric. His influence is widely felt, and his still-evolving creative ...

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Interview

Drummer Lenny White Interviewed at AAJ

Drummer Lenny White Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

Miles Davis kicked the fusion door open in 1969 and some people still haven't gotten over it. Among the future jazz star innovators on Bitches Brew (Columbia/Legacy, 1969) was an unknown eighteen year-old Tony Williams fanatic named Lenny White, who found his recording debut making history. Now an elder statesman at almost sixty, White maintains a furiously fast level of invention tied to an appropriately superhuman technique. Despite recently recovering from shoulder surgery, White packs a punch enviable in a ...

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Book / Magazine

Traps Magazine Sells out Lenny White; Issue 6 Feature on Return to Forever Drummer: Free Download Available

Traps Magazine Sells out Lenny White; Issue 6 Feature on Return to Forever Drummer: Free Download Available

Source: All About Jazz

San Jose, Calif., -- With Return To Forever receiving rave reviews, it should be no surprise that Enter Music Publishing, publishers of hip, drum/percussion magazines worldwide, has completely sold out Issue 6, featuring Lenny White on the Cover. As a result, Enter Music Publishing has made available the Lenny White feature as a free download here. The success of the Lenny White Issue is similiar to that of Enter Music Publishing's Issue 3, featuring John Bonham on the cover, which ...

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Sanyas

Smoke Sessions Records
2024

buy

Unalome

Smoke Sessions Records
2023

buy

That You Not Dare To...

Legacy Recordings
2023

buy

Witness To History

Smoke Sessions Records
2023

buy

Blackstone Legacy

Contemporary Records/Craft Recordings
2023

buy

The Electric Years...

Columbia Records / VMP Anthology
2023

buy

Totem Pole

From: Witness To History
By Lenny White

Tayamisha

From: Unalome
By Lenny White

(Give Me Some) G-String

From: Air
By Lenny White

Dark Moon

From: Anomaly
By Lenny White

Videos

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