Lenny Price makes mark close to home

By Dave Hoger

Staff Writer

Jackson Citizen Patriot. All rights reserved.

Lenny Price will play in Jackson on Saturday

Lenny Price has a simple philosophy: the louder the noise, the greater the attention.

Lenny Price has another philosophy: make the loud noise in one spot.

That's what the jazz saxophonist has remained in the Detroit area, opting not to try to stay afloat in a national music scene swimming with sax players.

"If you spread your resources out there's not as big an impact," says Price, who made his first big impact five years ago with the release of his first demo tape, "From My Heart."

The tape was distributed only in the Detroit area, where cuts received plenty of radio airplay.  One of Price's original compositions on the tape, the soft jazz number "Double Take," still pops up on Detroit jazz stations — a testament to Price's musical abilities.

That's not to say Price didn't try to get his demo distributed nationally with the backing of a major label.

"I found out there's just too many sax players out there," says Price from his home in Inkster [MI].  "I was tired of hearing 'no' so I put it out myself.  It's a matter of paying dues."

Price, 33, found a self-serving way to pay those dues, too.  He formed his own company, the Price Entertainment Group, and his own independent label, Midshipman, which produced and distributed "From My Heart" and is currently in production on Price's "When Tomorrow Comes."

Independent record labels are no longer the dead-end street they used to be.  "Fortunately in the '90s, the independent music scene is thriving," says Price.  "A lot of great bands have been found that way."

As CEO of his own entertainment company with a "very small label" taking "very small steps," Price finds himself doing much more than making music.  "I'm even the one licking the stamps," he says with a laugh.

While he waits for his label to hit, Price is shopping himself around, you might say, playing clubs mainly in the Detroit and Lansing areas.  Saturday night, Price pops up at Bullinger's Restaurant & Pub, 501 Longfellow, for an 8 p.m. concert.  Tickets are $12 in advance (783-3728) or $14 at the door.

Being that so many influences go into his music — there's heavy strains of jazz mixed with a hint of the blues and even some soft rock — Price himself call it "contemporary jazz or instrumental pop."

"There's a little bit of everything in there," says the soft-spoken Price.  "How do you define Sting?  He crossed a lot of boundaries; hopefully, mine will do the same."