Twennynine / Lenny White
Jean-Luc OurlinLeonard White III, better known as Lenny White (born December 19, 1949) is an American jazz funk drummer, who is best known for playing in Chick Corea's Return to Forever.
White was born in New York City. A self-taught, left-handed drummer on a right-handed kit, he began his career in local groups, and playing regularly with Jackie McLean in the late 1960s. In 1969, he first appeared on Miles Davis' historic recording on Bitches' Brew and later in 1970 he played with Freddie Hubbard on Red Clay before joining Corea's Return to Forever and Azteca in 1972. A year later, Azteca dissolved and he became dedicated to RTF. For five years, he recorded a number of albums with Return to Forever including the award winning No Mystery and Romantic Warrior. When the group split up in 1977 White signed with the Nemperor label (via Atlantic) and recorded two albums as leader.
In 1978, he switched to Elektra for his album Best of Friends, before forming the group Twennynine in 1979, with Carlo Vaughn (vocals), Jocelyn Smith (vocals), Skip Anderson (keyboards), Barry Johnson (bass), and Eddy Martinez (guitar). He later became one of the Jamaica Boys, a group also including Marcus Miller (bass) and Dinky Bingham (vocals), and worked with all-star groups Echoes of an Era and Griffith Park.
As drummer Lenny White left the influential jazz/rock act Return to Forever shortly before its decline, he started to successfully test the commercial R&B/pop genre. Twennynine was one of the better bands of the time and enjoyed an R&B hit, "Peanutbutter," from 1979's album Best of Friends. This is the follow-up. For this effort, Tanya Willoughby is added and Skip Anderson takes over the keyboard chores, replacing Don Blackman. Twennynine With Lenny White proves that those worrying about the jazz content here missed out on a lot of intelligent playing. The first track, "Just Right for Me," features a strong vocal from Willoughby, and guitarist Eddie Martinez's fiery guitar leads as well as his rhythm work. The sleek "It's Music, It's Magic" employs the same production values of Quincy Jones's The Dude era and has a great horn chart from Jerry Hey. The cutesy "Kid Stuff" is a little too silly, but honestly, this incarnation of the band certainly could get away with it. Although the group's dance credentials were strong, Twennynine Featuring Lenny White proves they also were adept at ballads. The jaunty "Love and Be Loved," written by Anderson, has the right idiosyncratic touch. The most emotional track of the album, "Back to You" has a great string and horn arrangement from Jorge Del Barrio and it certainly was strong enough to be a single if not a hit. Twennynine With Lenny White, produced by White and the underrated Larry Dunn, spotlights a charismatic and fun band and the effort is one of the strongest of the type.
White has played with Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, Gato Barbieri, Gil Evans, Jaco Pastorius, Miles Davis, and Stan Getz.
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