Mr. Lenny Pickett (USA), one of the best and most original saxophone players in the world is teaming up with 3 Nordic top notch jazz musicians: Finnish saxophonists Jouni Järvelä and Pepa Päivinen and Norwegian drummer Audun Kleive. Together they are putting up a remarkable show of yes, 3 saxophones with percussions. The project is based on Lenny Pickett's 1980's cult album "Lenny Pickett with The Borneo Horns".

Lenny Pickett with Järvelä, Päivinen & Kleive are available for summer 2012. The project surely is very demanding for the musicians, extremely entertaining and pleasing for the audience and also danceable on top of it all.

LENNY PICKETT BIOGRAPHY IN SHORT

Lenny Pickett (b. 1954) is best known as the tenor saxophonist of the Saturday Night Live Band. He is one of the virtuosos of the altissimo register. It’s based on harmonics and enables one to achieve notes above the normal range of the saxophone. This technique can be heard clearly in the well-known opening theme to Saturday Night Live.

Lenny Pickett is an autodidact. After dropping out of high school in Berkeley, he spent a brief period studying under Bert Wilson, but amazingly, other than that instruction is entirely self taught on the saxophone. Not viewed as a traditional jazz player, he is best showcased in short bursts of color bringing the life of his horn to center stage in R&B and rock arrangements. He is well known for his funky style, and his ability to make the sax “scream.”

Pickett played with the legendary R&B group Tower of Power horns from 1972 till 1981 and worked as a saxophonist and an arranger for Elton John, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, The Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, and many other recording artists. He is currently the musical director for NBC's hit show Saturday Night Live.

Due to Pickett's strange and wild self taught style, his techniques are endlessly discussed on internet forums, where players speculate on his fingering, whether or not he’s using double or triple tounging, often asking each other “What is Pickett doing?!??!”

Lenny Pickett is currently a professor of jazz saxophone for New York University. He has written articles for "Saxophone Journal" and he contributed a chapter to the instructional book "Sax Lessons With The Greats". He has taught saxophone clinics in the US and Canada and he is a clinician for the Selmer musical instrument company. He has received grants from The National Endowment For the Arts, The New York State Council For The Arts, Meet The Composer, The Mary Flagler Cary Trust, The Lila Acheson Wallace Readers Digest Fund and The First Light Foundation among others and he is the recipient of a Bessie Award and an Emmy.

MUSIC SAMPLES

Lenny Pickett with The Borneo Horns: "Dance Music For Borneo Horns #1"


Lenny Pickett with The Borneo Horns: "Dance Music For Borneo Horns #5"