Leon Ware & Don Grusin - Candlelight (2012)

Leon and Don ran into one another at the 2000 NAAM show held in Los Angeles and began to communicate their musical thoughts. Don had some music that needed lyrics and melody. Leon and he had really never had the experience of working with one another directly, and so the song “Candlelight” began that experience. They worked on a few other new tracks and began discussing how great it would be to expand their collaboration into an album. Leon had long wanted to record a “jazz project” where his voice would be featured instead of his writing and producing.

The results of this effort are heard on their new project. They enlisted some fine musicians to help maintain the intimacy and elegance of their song selection. Brian Bromberg on acoustic bass, Oscar Castro-Neves on acoustic guitar and Walfredo Reyes Jr., and Efrain Toros on percussion. Don Murray’s mixing magic and both he and Jun Murakawa’s sound design also support the warm mood of this effort.