Live At The Piano (Henry House Entertainment)
Cory Henry
Released May 24, 2023
Grammy Nominee for Best Alternative Jazz Album 2024
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Cory Henry’s musicianship speaks for itself, but the producer and multi-instrumentalist thinks it’s time for fans to experience his other talents.
Henry, formerly of the Grammy-winning ensemble Snarky Puppy, is showing new sides of himself with his “Live at the Piano” album and a tour that comes Aug. 10 to City Winery in St. Louis.
“I’m having a good time playing piano,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve spent a lot of time on the piano, not much as an artist.”
Henry’s usual instruments of choice are the organ and the Moog synthesizer.
“People are getting the chance to see me doing something I don’t do,” he says. “I play kick drum and piano. It’s a very intimate experience and very different from the majority of my other performances. I’m looking forward to sharing that.”
He says he hasn’t spent much time on the piano because he doesn’t own one and doesn’t often get a chance to play one.
Some of his favorite albums are piano albums by artists including Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson.
“As an artist, I never came out and made a piano record,” he says. “Most of my albums are organ.”
He changed that with “Live at the Piano,” recorded Feb. 27, his birthday, at Apogee Studios in Los Angeles. He had an audience of family and friends. Recording and mixing were done by Grammy- and Emmy-winning Bob Clearmountain.
Henry, who was born in Brooklyn, started playing the piano as a teenager. But he gravitated toward the organ, which he’d been playing since age 3 “after being around it since I came out the womb. I wanted to learn every part of it.”
“Live at the Piano” features songs he wrote for previous albums, performed live, along with new material.
“It’s nice to hear the songs I had produced either with a band or other people broken down,” he says. “When I was producing, I was fixating on other parts. Now I’m hearing the songwriting perspective on a live stage. I get to play the songs in a different way and stretch them out in a different way. It’s really fun. It shows my songwriting.
“People know me for my musicianship, but I’m showing people I’m a songwriter. I want people to go on that journey with me.”
He’s hoping the live show will get people moving, dancing and bobbing their heads along with the music. “Live at the Piano” is his first album that’s truly a solo effort, Henry says.
“Maybe I wasn’t on the wavelength of making solo music,” he says. “The perfect time is now.”’
“Live at the Piano” follows his 2022 Grammy-nominated album, “Operation Funk.” For that project, he entered the studio with his band, the Funk Apostles, with a single goal in mind: to make songs that would make him dance.
“I love to dance, at least with my band,” he says. “I like Prince and the Revolution, James Brown, Earth, Wind & Fire, Michael Jackson, D’Angelo, Marvin Gaye. I wanted a sound that makes me think about all the heroes I love and write my own songs.”
Looking back at his journey since his 2014 jazz album, “First Steps,” he says he’s proud of what he accomplished with the sounds he pulled off then. He listened to “First Steps” again a few months ago.
“I was trying to hammer out what I love about Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea and some of the jazz legends I love,” Henry says. “I’m proud of the sonics of the record and of the songs I wrote. Those were the things I cared about in that record. It’s all jazz and crazy solo. My evolution has always been how to be a better songwriter or a versatile songwriter.
“I never gave into the idea of being one thing. I feel like I’m everything. And I hope that when it’s all said and done for me, my catalog will show that.”
Among his collaborations, Henry has worked with Latin superstar Rosalía on “Motomami,” which won album of the year in 2022 at the Latin Grammys.
The project came when a buddy called to ask if he was available for studio work. The friend didn’t say who it was for.
“On the way there, I found out it was for Rosalía,” Henry says. “I got there, and she was there. She told me she was a fan of my work and she was open to my ideas as a songwriter and producer. I was very appreciative of that and honored to have been a part of that project.”
He has also worked with Kanye West, Imagine Dragons, Frank Ocean, Lucky Daye and St. Louis native Smino.
Kevin C. Johnson (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Track Listing:
1. Testimony (Cory Henry) 00:52
2. Down Through the Years (Cory Henry / Jasper Williams, Jr. 05:10
3. Dreaming Of (Cory Henry) 06:38
4. Icarus (Cory Henry) 07:17
5. Happy Days (Cory Henry) 06:33
6. Switch (Cory Henry) 07:06
7. Our Affairs (Cory Henry) 09:27
8. No Guns (Cory Henry) 06:36
9. Dedicated (Cory Henry) 04:16
Personnel:
Cory Henry: piano
Recorded live at Apogee Studio
Recorded and Mixed by Bob Clearmountain
