Lenny Carlson is an award-winning composer, an arranger, guitarist, producer and teacher. His compositions combine jazz and classical elements in inventive ways for traditional acoustic instruments.
Born in Los Angeles, he has produced four recordings of original music, and his compositions have been featured on eight more. One piece, “Biff”, was on the 1985 Grammy Award ballot for Best Jazz Instrumental Composition. Over three decades in the profession, he has composed for film, video, theater and live performance.
Carlson has recently released two CDs of his work. Seat of the Pants (jazz/latin) features Eddie Marshall, Rebeca Mauleon, Barry Green and Hal Richards. Echolocation: Six Movements for String Quartet is performed by Bridget Dolkas and the California Quartet.
Both are available on his website, www.lennycarlson.com and on CD Baby.
In November, 2007, he was awarded a Subito grant from the American Composers Forum to support the presentation of a new fusion work, Three Episodes for Quintet. In February, 2009, two successful performances and a lecture-demonstration were presented, featuring Bridget Dolkas (violin), Hal Richards (reeds and winds), Frederick Harris (piano), Barry Green (double bass) and Curt Moore (drums). A DVD of one of the performances will be available on his website.
He is in the process of establishing a chamber group, The Lenny Carlson Trio, with Hal Richards and Barry Green, to perform his original music. A current composition, Hyphen Dance (for Carter Dewberry), a tango for solo cello, has just been recorded. Upcoming projects include Earth Tones (for Frederick Harris), a five-movement suite for solo piano, and Impressions for Violin and Piano.
Lenny Carlson teaches in the Music Department at City College of San Francisco and has taught jazz history courses in the Stanford University Continuing Studies Program.
