Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jan Leder was born in Queens, New York on May 20, 1944 and showed musical talent from an early age, tapping out melodies on the family piano at the age of three. Quickly surpassing her older siblings, at the age of five, she began six years of piano lessons with her classically trained mother. It was not until junior high school that she first picked up the flute. Formally she studied classical flute but in her free time, she taught herself to improvise rock & roll and pop/R&B tunes alongside local guitarists in New York’s Central Park.

At 17 years old Leder began studying with jazz pianist Lennie Tristano, with whom she continued until his death in 1978. Although crediting Tristano with helping her come into her own as a musician, real recognition and commercial success eluded her until the late 1990s. Her first big break came when Buddy Scott and colleagues from Monad records heard her playing in 1994 at The Dockside in Tarrytown, New York. Her tape of a live date with Art Lillard and others at the Five Spot in New York so impressed Scott, that he signed her to a Monad Records contract and released the live recording intact as the CD Passage to Freedom.

Unfortunately, Passage to Freedom, which includes some really nice work by drummer Lillard, pianist Jon Davis, bassist Yosuke Inoue, and guitarist Mark McCarron, was released just as Monad Records met its demise, leaving Leder’s debut effort largely unavailable and unnoticed for close to two years. In 1998 and 1999, exposure via the internet brought her to the attention of a wider audience and earned her very favorable reviews for Passage to Freedom.

1998 saw A-Records vocalist Diane Hubka recorded Leder’s original composition “Thinking of You” on her own debut CD, Haven’t We Met, which was nominated for a Jazz Award in the Best Debut CD category. Her contribution to Hubka’s CD ultimately led to her signing a recording contract with A-Records, a division of the Dutch label, Challenge Records. The following year she released her second CD, Nonchalant, on which she added the talents of bassist Sean Smith, percussionist Daniel Moreno, and vocalists Angela DeNiro, Mary Foster Conklin, and Cleve Douglass to the already strong instrumental talents of Passage to Freedom collaborators Lillard, McCarron, and Davis. Flutist Jan Leder continues to perform and record.

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