REVIEW: Lenny Marcus’ “Distant Dream”
Lenny Marcus is equally known for his piano work and as a flautist, and he continues on with both talents on his brand new album, Distant Dream (self-released). While this could easily be placed under jazz, some of it could easily be “easy listening”, and that’s not a bad thing either. It’s the type of music you might expect to hear during the credits of some of your favorite TV shows, if not some of the late 70′s/early 80′s albums of Bob James, where the jazz stylings slowly disappears for something more pop oriented/accessible, as he shows in “Ode To The Night”. Maybe this is why he closest the album with this song, as a lullaby to close the show, but the 15 songs before display his love of jazz in all of its forms. There’s a lot of music to grasp with this one, but my favorite song has to be his version of “Suicide Is Painless”, known by many as the theme to M*A*S*H. Even at a nice 4:33, he manages to capture the song’s beauty in its uncertainty, and it is still relevant today as it was in 1969. Distant Dream is perhaps a dream a bit closer than most people may realize, and at least in a musical setting, it’s right in front of you.
What do you think?