Home » Jazz Musicians » Mike LeDonne
Mike LeDonne
Pianist Mike LeDonne started playing piano at the age of 5 and was raised in his parent’s music store. By the age of 10 his father, a jazz guitarist, began booking him on gigs. He is now an internationally renowned pianist and organist with the unique experience of having played with a wide spectrum of jazz masters from Benny Goodman to Milt Jackson and Sonny Rollins. He has won praise not only from critics but from master musicians: Oscar Peterson picked him as one of his favorite pianists of today.
At age 21, Mike graduated from New England Conservatory in 1979 and moved to New York City with the Widespread Jazz Orchestra. In 1981, he left Widespread to travel to the UK with Panama Francis and the Savoy Sultans. On returning, he began a two-year stint as the house pianist at Jimmy Ryan’s, then one of New York’ s oldest jazz clubs. It was there that he came under the influence of and played with many old masters such as Roy Eldridge, Papa Jo Jones and Vic Dickenson. He spent 1982-1983 with the Benny Goodman sextet and went on to play with Buddy Tate, Al Grey, Ruby Braff and many others. Later he worked 1 year with the Art Farmer-Clifford Jordan Quintet, went to Paris with Grady Tate, and played with more modern masters like James Moody, Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Turrentine, Charles McPherson, Sonny Rollins and Bobby Hutcherson. He also spent time as accompanist to singers Ernestine Anderson, Annie Ross and Etta Jones.
In 1988 he started playing with the Milt Jackson Quartet (along with Mickey Roker and Bob Cranshaw). Mr. Jackson recorded Mike’s compositions and arrangements. Mike also became the band’s musical director. In the fall of 1992, Mike was chosen to be part of a group of top young musicians for the Phillip Morris Superband World Tour. Mike served as musical director for that group, which featured Ryan Kisor on trumpet, Joshua Redman on tenor saxophone, Jesse Davis on alto saxophone, Christian McBride on bass and Lewis Nash at the drums. Around this time, Mike toured with the Newport All-Stars in lineups that featured Harry “Sweets” Edison and Clark Terry. Mike has been playing and recording with Benny Golson since 1997. He has also been leading trios that have included greats like Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, Billy Hart, Pete LaRoca and Louis Hayes.
Mike is on over 100 CD’s as a sideman and starting in 1988 recorded his first of 16 CD’s as a leader. Five on Criss Cross Jazz, three on Double Time Records, seven on Savant and one on Cellar Live. Many of hem award winning and include the greatest musicians around today including Tom Harrell, Gary Smulyan, Dennis Irwin, Kenny Washington, Steve Nelson, Ryan Kisor, Jim Rotondi, Joshua Redman, Lewis Nash, Peter Washington, Peter Bernstein, Eric Alexander, Jeremy Pelt, Joe Farnsworth, John Webber, Bob Cranshaw, Mickey Roker and Ron Carter.
Read moreTags
Eric Alexander: Chicago To New York
by Jack Bowers
Eric Alexander, widely praised for years as one of the jazz world's foremost tenor saxophonists, greets listeners with an unforeseen yet tantalizing curve ball on his latest album, Chicago to New York, employing his luminous soprano sax to enhance the first two numbers, John Coltrane's “Afro Blue" and “Wise One," before unleashing his trustworthy and perceptive tenor to usher him securely through the last five. While the soprano adds spice to Alexander's musical menu, the tenor remains ...
Continue ReadingEric Alexander: Chicago To New York
by Pierre Giroux
Tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander's release, Chicago To New York, is a masterclass in modern hard bop that pays homage to the vibrant musical exchange between two of jazz's most storied cities. This is not just a geographical nod but a conversation across time and space, framed by a quartet whose cohesion and shared sensibilities transcend geographical lines. Alexander, one of the most consistent voices of his generation, joins forces with pianist Mike LeDonne, both standard-bearers of ...
Continue ReadingThe Heavy Hitters: That's What's Up!
by Pierre Giroux
Mike LeDonne and Eric Alexander head up a band called Heavy Hitters, which features a stellar cast of jny: New York's jazz elite, including trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, alto saxophonist Vincent Herring, bassist Alexander Claffy and drummer Kenny Washington. They have released That's What's Up!, a live recording from Frankie's Jazz Club in jny: Vancouver, British Columbia in December 2023 that captures the authenticity, spontaneity, and emotive power of a band firing on all cylinders. The set list is an artful ...
Continue ReadingHeavy Hitters: That's What's Up!
by Jack Bowers
Heavy Hitters is a superb New York-based sextet co-led by pianist Mike LeDonne and tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander. Individually and as a team, the Hitters keep their eyes squarely on the ball, swing for the fences and, more often than not, slam the spheroid solidly out of the park. And on this typically upbeat session they do it in front of an appreciative audience at Frankie's Club in Victoria, British Columbia. A freewheeling groove permeates the concert, ...
Continue ReadingEric Alexander & Mike LeDonne: Together
by Jack Bowers
Eric Alexander and Mike LeDonne have been together many times--on recordings, in clubs, at concerts and elsewhere-- but never quite as intimately so as on this splendid album, even though they are heard Together on only four of the album's nine tracks- -LeDonne maps a solo course on three others, Alexander on two (moving to soprano sax on “Autumn in New York"). Either way, they are delightful to hear and appreciate, and the need for a full ...
Continue ReadingEric Alexander & Mike LeDonne: Together
by Pierre Giroux
Eric Alexander and Mike LeDonne's album Together is an acknowledgment of the magic that can emerge when two masterful musicians collaborate in a duo setting. This release, featuring nine tracks, captures the essence of their longstanding musical relationship, offering a rich tapestry of spontaneous interplay, deep grooves and expressive storytelling through sound. And that sound was captured as the session was recorded at the iconic Van Gelder Studio at Englewood Cliffs, NJ, with LeDonne performing on Rudy Van Gelder's nine-foot ...
Continue ReadingMike LeDonne: Wonderful!
by Jack Bowers
Organist Mike LeDonne's latest recording, Wonderful!, is a labor of love on several levels. Of course, there is love of the music and love of accomplishing something that had not been done before--teaming a gospel choir with jazz quartet. Above all else, there is love for LeDonne's wife, Margaret, and daughter Mary who is disabled but, as LeDonne says, is nonetheless “truly wonderful." LeDonne wrote the album's title song for Mary, wherein he compares her to “a ...
Continue ReadingMike LeDonne: Wonderful!
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Mike LeDonne is a bad-ass. I thought of five different ways to say this more elegantly but I kept coming back to the same phrase. Mike, whose mastery of the Hammond B3 organ is legendary, takes the instrument's sound up a notch on his new album, Wonderful! (Cellar), by enlisting an 11-member non-denominational gospel choir. The sound I'm talking about is jazz in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Mike and I are the same age—67. In fact, I'm about ...
read more
Mike LeDonne: It's All Your Fault
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Mike LeDonne is one funky organist. Three cups of Charles Earland, two tablespoons of Jimmy McGriff with liberal dashes of Don Patterson. Then cook. Mike's Philly sound is always groovy and driving but not overdone. That's the thing about organ albums. You have to know when it's enough, and Mike knows. The beauty of his music is that it respects tradition and drips with '70s swagger. Mike's latest is It's All Your Fault (Savant). Recorded in February 2020, just weeks ...
read more
Mike LeDonne: From the Heart
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Mike LeDonne knocks me out. He's one of the only organists around today who fully grasps the 1970s soul-jazz idiom. Back then, there were seriously groovy Hammond players such as Leon Spencer Jr., Johnny “Hammond" Smith, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Sonny Phillips, Charles Kynard, Charles Earland and Don Patterson, among others. All you had to do was add guys like tenor saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr., trumpeter Vigil Jones, guitarist Melvin Sparks, drummer Idris Muhammad and conga player Buddy Caldwell, ...
read more
Mike LeDonne: That Feelin'
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
I've long been a secret fan of organist Mike Le Donne. I say secret because he doesn't know (yet). I began listening to jazz in the early 1970s by collecting exciting organ combo albums. I still love Hammondites Don Patterson, Shirley Scott, Leon Spencer Jr., Charles Earland and Brother Jack McDuff. Add Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Stanley Turrentine or Grover Washington Jr. to the session and I'm all in. To this day, the sound knocks me out if done right. ...
read more
Mike Ledonne - Keep the Faith (Savant Records, 2011)
Source:
Music and More by Tim Niland
Organist and pianist Mike LeDonne (excellent interview here) has proven himself in a number of mainstream jazz situations, both as a leader and as a sideman. On this occasion he sticks to the Hammond B-3 Organ, accompanied by a fine coterie of musicians: Eric Alexander on tenor saxophone, Peter Bernstein on guitar and Joe Farnsworth on drums. Subtitled “The Groover Quartet" on the album cover, this certainly lays down the path that these musicians chose for this album. The chose ...
read more
NYC Organist Mike LeDonne at Tula's This Thursday
Source:
Seattle Jazz Scene
Mike LeDonne stops at Tulas Jazz Club on his way up to Vancouver later this month. The New York-based organist will be joined by Portland guitarist Dan Balmer and Matt Jorgensen on drums.
LeDonne has been a long-time regular on the jazz scene and has backed up artists such as Benny Golson, James Moody, Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Turrentine, Charles McPherson, Sonny Rollins, Milt Jackson, Art Farmer, Clifford Jordan and more.
THURSDAY, MARCH 25 - MIKE LeDONNE TULAS JAZZ ...
read more
NYC Organist Mike Ledonne at Tula's - March 25
Source:
Seattle Jazz Scene
Mike LeDonne stops at Tulas Jazz Club on his way up to Vancouver later this month. The New York-based organist will be joined by Portland guitarist Dan Balmer and Matt Jorgensen on drums.
LeDonne has been a long-time regular on the jazz scene and has backed up artists such as Benny Golson, James Moody, Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Turrentine, Charles McPherson, Sonny Rollins, Milt Jackson, Art Farmer, Clifford Jordan and more.
THURSDAY, MARCH 25 - MIKE LeDONNE TULAS JAZZ ...
read more
Mike Ledonne Quintet Live at the Jazz Standard in New York
Source:
Two for the Show Media
Pianist/Composer Mike LeDonne will be performing with his Quintet at The Jazz Standard in NYC on Tuesday September 16th, 2008 and Wednesday September 17th, 2008 Set Times: 7:30pm and 9:30pm Mike LeDonne Quintet: Eric Alexander - tenor saxophone Jeremy Pelt - trumpet Mike LeDonne - piano John Webber - bass Joe Farnsworth - drums Mike LeDonne is not only an exceptional musician in his own right, but a living link ...
read more
Dave Mattock
organ, Hammond B3
Caelan Cardello
pianoPhotos
Music
Videos
Mike LeDonne
Location: New York City
Instrument: Organ, Hammond B3
Born: October 26, 1956
