Mondays with Morgan: Mike LeDonne

The following is an interview between jazz journalist Morgan Enos and pianist and B-3 organist Mike LeDonne, one of the undisputed greats on both instruments. His latest album, Wonderful, a collaboration between his Groover Quartet and a gospel choir, was released on February 26 via Cellar Music Group.

“Don’t worry about it.”

That’s Mike LeDonne’s professed attitude, about realising your unborn baby will live with multiple disabilities for their entire life. A realisation he has experienced firsthand, having an adult daughter in that difficult boat: his Mary, who he thinks the universe of.

At 20, Mary cannot dress herself, and remains in diapers. As a journalist with personal knowledge of that potentiality of parenthood, I naturally ask: how could one not worry about that throttling outcome, of a baby who turns out to be compromised in some way?

“Unless they say it’s going to die, don’t worry about it. Because it’d be the greatest experience of your life,” LeDonne tells LondonJazz with a striking lightness. “I am not kidding: I see parents with children way more disabled than Mary, and they get the same thing from them.”

Whether or not you’re in this situation, or can relate to his, to hear LeDonne’s expressions of love is bracingly lovely. He has poured them all into his soul-nourishing new album, Wonderful; Mary graces the cover.

Filling out LeDonne’s Groover Quartet are tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander, guitarist Peter Bernstein, and drummer Joe Farnsworth, as well as special guest alto saxophonist Vincent Herring, and percussionist Danny Sadownick. LeDonne’s organ blends terrifically with a guesting gospel choir.

“I know there’s something greater than me out there,” LeDonne says. “I know whatever’s out there would love that I’m showing this kind of a feeling for my family, and my daughter, and creating an entire recording around that one thought.”

Read on for an interview with LeDonne about all this and more.

UKJazz News: What was the impetus for Wonderful? Have you ever made an album quite like it?

Mike LeDonne: No one has.

I mean, I made a Groover Quartet + Big Band record a couple of years ago. That was a big undertaking, but at least there were other records from history to draw on as an example of what to do. But for this, there are no examples of what to do. So, we really did make this whole thing up from scratch.

The impetus was my bandmates in Milt Jackson’s quartet. They were [drummer] Mickey Roker and [bassist] Bob Cranshaw. Mickey was deeply into listening to gospel music on the road, and Bob grew up in the church. Mickey was always putting his headphones on my head somewhere in Europe and saying, “Check this out.”

I was really dumbfounded, because I grew up on Earth, Wind and Fire, and Sly and the Family Stone, and music like that. Tower of Power…

UKJN: I love Tower of Power.

ML: Yeah, you know, that funky, gospel, offshoot R&B. I love that stuff. And when Mickey played me the very first thing, I said, “Oh my god, here it is. I’ve been waiting and looking for this.”

So then, I just started collecting as much gospel as I could get, and it’s been decades. I’ve just been collecting, listening to, and enjoying it, not to think I’d ever play it.

I have to say, the other impetus for the album is that I’m a pocket crazy musician; I just love pockets. That’s what those gospel tunes have. So, when I hear the choir riffing with the pocket going on, I don’t know who wouldn’t want to jump in there.

The impetus is just sort of a fantasy that I had, that someday, I could get in there.

UKJN: How did it materialise?

ML: A friend of mine has a nonprofit that gives grants. He said, “What would you like to do now, since you did the big band record? What would be another big project?” And I said, “Well, I do have this fantasy of…” blah, blah, blah. And he said, “OK, let’s do it.”

But it was daunting to think about. This was going to be a non-denominational record with the sound of gospel music; how do you do that? How do you take all the religious references out of the music and not ruin it?

I don’t know, maybe I did ruin it for somebody. We’ll see.

UKJN: But “gospel” literally means “good news.” How could one escape that?

ML: Well, I mean, gospel music is always about inspirational things, and making you feel good. And when I listen to gospel music, and I hear the words, yes, I hear where they’re coming from, and it’s wonderful. But a lot of times, I will take those words and make them more personal.

For instance: in the first tune [“Let Us Go”], where [the choir is singing] “Come on, go with me,” I’m thinking, Well, yes, in the original song, they’re asking you to come with them into the house of the lord. But for me, it was representational of my daughter, Mary, who is disabled and nonverbal.

UKJN: Tell me more about that, and her.

ML: I mean, this is where it all ties together. Because, really, the whole record is about love for her, and my wife, but really to shine a light on her. That’s where some of the meaning for these words comes from. So, I was picturing her being in front of this parade that I created here in New York City, called the Disability Pride Parade, saying, “Come on, go with me.” Like, “Let us go; walk with me.”

And for the other parts, where they were singing about the Lord, or whatever, I just put the horns on those parts. That’s what I did through the whole thing; I just kept rethinking the tunes.

How does it relate to me, my family, and my daughter? Because I do have spiritual beliefs. They’re kind of more broad, about something greater than me. I know there’s something greater than me out there. I know whatever’s out there would love that I’m showing this kind of a feeling for my family, and my daughter, and creating an entire recording around that one thought.

Maybe that’s why you like it. Maybe it translates. Maybe it comes out. I hope so.

UKJN: Wonderful was unprecedented in many ways. What was your methodology to pull it off?

ML: When my friend said, “Let’s do it,” that day, I got obsessed. That’s how I am. That’s how I got a Disability Pride Parade to happen. My brain just goes, like, Bam, OK, let’s do it. What does that mean? How do I do it?

I started thinking about how I would even get a choir. Then I thought of my friend, Carolyn Leonhart, who’s a great singer – the daughter of Jay Leonhart, the great jazz bassist. She sings with the background singers for Steely Dan.

I thought, Call Carolyn. Just run it by her. So I did, and she was into it immediately. She was like, Yes, and I know all the people to get. Let’s do it.

Suddenly, it came from a crazy, kind of chaotic idea. It started to hone down into, I could see this working; I could see this happening.

UKJN: “Wonderful” is your first work as a lyricist. Can you talk about that one? In the press release, you stated, “They’re simple words that express what my family means to me.”

ML: If you take those words and think about the creator, it could mean that’s who’s wonderful. For me, it’s my daughter and my wife. Those who are wonderful for my life, right here on Earth.

That song is really also about the daily struggle to fight against ableism, and the pity that comes with it, where people see her and they’re like, “Oh, she’s in a wheelchair. Isn’t that sad?” My friends were actually crying when she was born.

I was like, “Come on, don’t cry. This is the greatest thing that ever happened to me, in my life.” And she really is. Now, she’s almost 20. The point of that song is that she’s wonderful to me.

I mean, I don’t care what you think of her. I want her to know that she’s wonderful to me, no matter what she has to face out here, with the ignorance that exists against people with disabilities. And certainly, against people like my daughter, who is nonverbal and cognitively disabled. I mean, she got the full boat [chuckles].

But she’s so incredible. She’s a strong-willed, hilarious character of a person. So, I’m dying for people to just give up the stereotypes, and get to know her, and see her for the human being that she is.

There are a lot of things that rotate around the magnificent view of life that I have now, thanks to her. The elevation that my whole character took, on the ascent from kind of a selfish, self-absorbed jazz musician, looking for gigs – I don’t care about any of that anymore. That’s the most unimportant thing.

Now, the only important thing is taking care of her, and making sure she’s cool, and trying to make the world better for her. When you do things for people, goodness comes back at you. It really is true. And, look at this record: it was just given to me, basically.