Duets / solos

RELEASE DATE: August 18, 2023

LABEL: La Reserve Records 

During the years and months leading up to the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Natalie Tenenbaum & Eitan Kenner were both living in New York City. The two were circling in sometimes overlapping music scenes yet had never met and did not know each other.

The two connected in August 2020 after discovering each other's playing on Instagram posts. Both artists living in Manhattan, they soon realized that they share a common background, having attended the same high school in Tel Aviv. They also realized that they both had found success in rather unusual career paths; unlike certain other musicians on the New York scene who stick to one musical lane and its afforded opportunities, both pianists enjoyed very versatile careers; although nowadays Kenner is one of the most in-demand jazz musicians on the scene, he had spent several years stepping away from Jazz and working on a prog-rock album which resulted in him performing with Gentle Giant, among others. Natalie, a Juilliard-trained classical pianist and composer, has been busy working as a composer and as an arranger/orchestrator and music director across recording projects, film, TV and Broadway. Another common thread the two discovered is that they both share a musical as well as a spiritual passion being involved with the black Christian church. Kenner states: “My church is the closest thing I have to a family in this country”.

In the midst of an ongoing lockdown, the two began fostering a friendship on Facetime/WhatsApp as Tenenbaum was taking remote video lessons from Kenner on jazz improvisation. During their video exchanges, the two quickly realized that they share a similar musical upbringing and background, and that they had essentially been living somewhat parallel lives; they related to each other's experiences of working as a musician across different facets & genres of the music industry. After years of individually crafting their improvisation, arrangement & composition skills and techniques, both of their playing styles had become all-inclusive and influenced equally by old and new classical (concert) music, jazz of all eras, world & gospel music. Sharing this profound core of common inspirations, musical experience and knowledge made the two connect instantly on a deep musical level. Each video session began with both artists playing a completely "free" improvisation and then going back and forth, picking up where the other left off and drawing inspiration from the other. They exchanged short solo piano impromptu performances- all on FaceTime, and started having more and more of these sessions. They soon connected on a deeper level and started sharing their personal and professional thoughts and goals with each other, communicating daily although never having met in person.

As the world began to come back to some semblance of normalcy, Tenenbaum & Kenner decided to realize their goal of creating a joint recording project which would document them meeting for the very first time in person at an NYC studio and capturing their unique, non-premeditated, live two-piano improvisations. Their shared vision was to create an album that would be recorded on two (sometimes one) acoustic piano; an album that is jazz-centric yet showcases all of their life-long influences and unique dynamic; an album that would feature renditions and arrangements of standards alongside original works and genre-less improvisations. This idea evolved into an exciting artistic process of collaboration, writing together and crafting an album of solo and duo arrangements, improvisations and compositions. Since both artists share a lot of the same influences, this album pays homage to the likes of Chick Corea, Keith Jarret, Bud Powell, and Art Tatum

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