CLARINET - MANDOLIN - FIDDLE - ETC.
Home of NYC multi-instrumentalist Dennis Lichtman's bands and projects.
I was fortunate to work with the brilliant and award-winning Mexican animator Fer Lozada on this video for “Secret Workshop (Theme).” Releases May 26, 2023 on my Youtube channel.
ALBUM RELEASE: June 2, 2023
ALBUM RELEASE SHOW (Jalopy Theatre, Brooklyn): June 8, 2023 TICKETS & INFO HERE
Folks, I couldn’t be prouder of my new all-original concept album, SECRET WORKSHOP. Every tune is inspired by something strange, surprising, revealing, (did I say “strange” yet"?) I discovered in my eccentric inventor/machinist/mad-scientist father’s off-limits workshop after his passing.
album cover art: Mike McDevitt
Joining me were a dream-team lineup of top-shelf specialists in the niche genre of spy-cowboy-jazz-folk-noir - Sam Reider (accordion/piano/organ), Eddie Barbash (alto sax), Roy Williams (guitar), Sean Cronin (bass), and Andrew Millar (drums) with yours truly on clarinet, mandolin, violin, tenor guitar, and some vocals with guest appearances by Alex Hargreaves (fiddle), Tamar Korn (vocals), and more.
An incredible animated music video by Mexican animator Fer Lozada will be released on May 26.
On June 8, we’ll celebrate the album’s release with a show at the gorgeous and intimate Jalopy Theatre in Brooklyn, NY.
This album has been two years in the making. Huge thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts for making this project possible.
I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with my friend Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton in many contexts over the years, but recently we stepped up our duo project and created a full-length album we’re extremely proud of!
It’s 13 tracks of ragtime, blues, 1920s pop songs, and original compositions on many, many instruments.
~~~ AVAILABLE HERE on CD or DOWNLOAD ~~~
It is not available on Spotify or other streaming platforms - this is the only place to get it!
I was recently featured in an hour-long virtual tour of the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens, NY, intended for public school education programs (but enjoyable for all). It was a great honor to be included in the all-star band, and playing music in Armstrong’s house was a deeply moving experience. Louis lived there for the last 30 years of his life, and the house has been beautifully preserved as it was when he lived there. It is a magical place - I urge everyone to pay a visit and take the in-person tour when you can!
Episode 5 of HBO’s The Plot Against America aired tonight, and in addition to a couple of brief on-screen appearances (in a pink tuxedo), I was happy to hear two of my original compositions in the soundtrack!
The show is an adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel of the same name, set in early 1940’s New Jersey. I’m the bandleader at the wedding of Rabbi Bengelsdorf (John Turturro) and Evelyn Finkel (Winona Ryder). I got to choose my band and was happy to bring along two fellow Lovestruck Balladeers (Jake and Sean), one fellow Brain Clouder (Kevin), as well as Walter & Danny who are genius brassmen and helluva guys.
THE LOVESTRUCK BALLADEERS’ self-titled debut album is available on CD or download from Bandcamp and Amazon - but if you want to stream it for free, you’ll just have to wait.
We celebrated the album’s release with a run of northeastern U.S. concerts in late February, culminating in two sold-out shows at Rockwood Music Hall in New York City. It seems like 100 years ago.
Follow the band:
Instagram: @lovestruckballadeers
Facebook: lovestruckballadeers
Youtube: lovestruckballadeers channel
Website: lovstruckballadeers.com
I’m happy to announce that I’ve become an official Selmer Artist and will be seen and heard with my lovely Selmer Signature Bb clarinet from now on.
During a two-week trip to Paris in January that included five concerts and countless pastries, I made time to meet with the good folks at Selmer Paris, fell in love with one of their horns, and inked a deal! Many thanks to Stéphane and everyone else at Selmer for bringing me on board.
I made with my friend Jake Sanders in Paris with my one-day-old horn. The tune is En Attendant Le Jour, which Sidney Bechet recorded in Paris in 1951.
At Selmer HQ in Paris with Henri Selmer and Stéphane Gentil
photo: Aidan Grant
I had the opportunity to play mandolin with Post Malone, Jimmy Fallon, and a good chunk of The Roots on The Tonight Show! We played the old Irish pub song Seven Drunken Nights. Sure, it was goofy, but anytime there’s mandolin on network TV, I’m a happy guy.
It’s an honor to be featured in the December issue of DOWNBEAT - the king of jazz magazines since 1934. Thanks to Allen Morrison, whose full, unedited article I hope to post here soon, along with the edited print version below.
The new album is out, folks! CLICK HERE TO ORDER CD'S, MP3'S, OR STREAM
Many thanks to everyone who came to Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center for the album release show. Both shows were sold out, and none other than Madonna herself was in the audience for the first show! Surreal.
photo: Aidan Grant
Blind Boy Paxton is one of the greatest performers and personalities in the entire roots music field. I had the honor of recording "Just Cross the River from Queens" with him on the steps of Louis Armstrong's House in Queens, NY!
This video, of course, is promo for my upcoming album.
NYC ALBUM RELEASE SHOW AUGUST 1.
ALBUM PRE-ORDERS AVAILABLE NOW, official release date 8/3/18.
The album is a celebration of jazz music in Queens from 1923 to the present. This song (written in 1927 by Albert von Tilzer, the composer of Take Me Out to the Ballgame) is thought to be the only published song from the first 3 decades of jazz that references Queens, although countless legendary jazz musicians lived there.
I'm thrilled about this - my album Just Cross the River is done and ready to get out to the world! The official release date is August 3, 2018, but your first chance to pick up the album will be on August 1 at the album release show. Jazz At Lincoln Center and the New York Hot Jazz Festival are presenting the show at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola. Reservations and show info here.
The album is my first as solo bandleader and features 9 of my original compositions, as well as 5 classic tunes associated with jazz legends who made Queens, NY their home. There was a major migration of jazz musicians into the borough of Queens starting in 1923 with couple Clarence Williams (pianist/bandleader) and Eva Taylor (vocalist). Soon after, they were followed by Fats Waller, Bix Beiderbecke, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and dozens more. Most famously, Louis Armstrong lived there for the last 30 years of his life.
I put together an all-star band of Queens jazz musicians for this album, and I can't wait to share it with you all. If you just can't wait, pre-orders are available here, and you get to download the opening track, 7 Express.
Mona's Hot Four will be all up on the holiday scene next week.
TUESDAY, 2/13
MARDI GRAS @ Mona's
music from 11pm til stupid late
food at 10:30pm
photos: Aidan Grant
WEDNESDAY, 2/14
VALENTINE'S DAY at Drom
doors 7pm, prix-fixe dinner for 2
show 8pm-10pm
Filmed at Welbourne Farm in Middleburg, VA. The farm houses retired horses whose owners don't want to send them to the glue factory. It's also the home of Welbourne Jazz Camp, where I've been on faculty for 7 years.
Cinematographer Tom Krueger has made videos for Stevie Wonder, U2, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Public Enemy, Bruce Springsteen.... and Dennis Lichtman. Russell Welch (the Mississippi Gypsy) is also a Welbourne instructor, and plays damn fine guitar. I was lucky to have these guys at camp, and they were willing to follow me out to a field on a hot afternoon to hang out with the horses - thanks guys! And Lauren Balthrop did a bang-up job with the editing. What a team.
Click above for Youtube or HERE for FACEBOOK
The long-awaited follow-up to "String-Pickin' Fiddle-Bowin' Horn-Blowin' Fool" is coming soon. Featuring Dennis Lichtman and Russell Welch, shot by the great Tom Krueger and edited by Lauren Balthrop.
Tuesday, June 20 - we'll be celebrating at DROM with an 8pm show. Mona's Hot Four with tons of special guests (followed by an after-party at Mona's until stupid late!)
The Brain Cloud's third album is now available! Click here to buy on CD, cassette, or download.
It's finally here! THE BRAIN CLOUD's third full-length album and first live album, Live at Barbès, will be released on April 21! We're doing TWO album release shows in NYC - full info is on the calendar page.
The album is a celebration of our 5-year-long Monday night residency at Barbès, one of New York City's truly great music venues. As Barbès is tiny tiny tiny, we're doing a bigger Manhattan show at Rockwood Music Hall on Friday 4/21, then bringing it home to Barbès on Sunday 4/23.
As many of you know, it's hard to re-create the feeling of a live concert in a recording studio, and The Brain Cloud is a "live" band... the intimacy of Barbès brings out something special in the music that happens there, for us and for all of the other bands that play there. We're really happy with how this album came out - it captures the spontaneity and energy of the band better than our studio records have. Grammy-winning engineer Brian Losch did a killer job with the sound, and we were lucky enough to have a film crew there for part of the recording - videos coming soon!!!
Welcome to the new DennisLichtman.com!
I sure hope that this site will look and function as it should - let me know if something's missing or not acting right...
Thanks for visiting!
-Dennis
