Lenny Carlson Collective

New compositions by Lenny Carlson and “other items of interest.” Lenny says that his compositions might fit a genre that could be called Americana, though it might be more easily understood as a mashup of Jazz and classical music. Kevin Gerzetiz, the pianist in the Collective, also contributes a number of his own compositions an arrangements.

The Collective features Luke Kirley on tuba and euphonium, Carla Wilson on bassoon and Michelle Maruyama on violin.

The performance will be streamed live on Bird & Beckett’s YouTube channel and Facebook page. The YouTube stream can be found at this link: https://www.youtube.com/@bird_beckett/streams’

Lenny Carlson is an accomplished jazz guitarist, an award-winning composer and arranger, and a key faculty member at both San Francisco City College and San Francisco State University. He’s contributed arrangements and original tunes to the Hal Richards Quintet, the Cartoon Jazz Orchestra and other ensembles. Lenny has put out two albums of original music; a selection from the second album, “In the Mud,” was nominated for a Grammy as Best Jazz Instrumental Composition. He designed music and sound effects for video games in the early 1980s, has composed for videos and films and has written numerous books of guitar transcriptions and analysis. Artists included in his list of titles include blues pioneers John Lee Hooker, Lonnie Johnson and Willie Dixon, rocker Neil Young, Bahamian folk guitarist Joseph Spence and classical guitarist Stevan Pasero.