During the 2012 Jazz Cruise, JazzTimes set up a make-shift video production studio in “The Boardroom,” a small room on the second deck of the MS Westerdam. Throughout the week, a succession of artists-including Kurt Elling, Freddy Cole, Ann Hampton-Callaway, Don Braden, Ken Peplowski, Wycliffe Gordon, Bill Charlap & Renee Rosnes and many others-came in to talk about the cruise, jazz education and their own projects. We have been posting these interviews at jazztimes.com for the last few months. You can also see more of these video interviews at the JazzTimes YouTube channel.
Born in the Baltimore, Maryland area, bassist Jay Leonhart has been playing music since he was about the size of a cello. Over the years, he’s played with a veritable who’s who of jazz, including Thad Jones & Mel Lewis, Bucky Pizzarelli, Marian McPartland and Tony Bennett. He’s recorded over a dozen albums as a leader, but is probably best known for developing a one-man show “The Bass Lesson,” which- through songs and monologues- humorously depicts the life of a jazz musician, tethered to that famously bulky instrument.
