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No. 18 Vol. 11
My Life Publications • 1-800-691-7549
November 2022
Hackettstown Guitarist Mixes Genres to Create his Own Sound
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By Alexander Rivero .D. Lenz fell in love with the sound of the guitar before he ever decided to pick one up. But by the time he did, the famous rifts of heroes Jimmie Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn were practically one with his DNA. Now a gifted guitarist himself, Lenz has made a name for himself by blending the musical genres that have moved him from his earliest years and creating his own contemporary jazz. He has released thirteen highly-acclaimed recordings as a leader to date, with greats such as Randy Brecker, Joel Rosenblatt, Mark Egan, Mike Stern, and Will Lee. He has also been featured in hundreds of television shows around the world, including AMC’s Breaking Bad, MTV’s Catfish, and CBS’s Young Sheldon, to name only a few. But to meet the man is to meet a real fan. Lenz admits that he would never have taken the plunge to move to Los Angeles to study at the esteemed Musicians Institute had he not first fallen in love with the great masters. “I started off as a big Rush nerd early on,” he recalls, “and then I spread my wings a bit by moving on to jazz, Stevie Ray Vaughn on blues guitar, Mike Stern and Pat Matheny, each of whom are still some of my favorite musicians of all time. Those formative musical experiences never leave you. I wasn’t into jazz in school, but I came out converted. So much so that today I consider myself a jazz musician. Deep within me, I’m still part rocker, the reality is that I’m probably somewhere in between, and I appreciate all of it because the ‘rock’ part of me is my backbone, and infuses into the jazz part of me.” It was while in Los Angeles where Lenz got a first taste of the degree of talent that there was in the world outside the friendlier confines of his home region. He describes how he anticipated encountering some skilled musicians at the Musicians Institute, but not to the level he saw first-hand, which
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included not only fellow students and amateurs, but world-class musicians coming in to give master classes, among them Paul Gilbert, Mike Stern (one of his personal heroes and a collaborator with Lenz on his current album, It’s Just a Dream). “I had my mind blown during my time in Los Angeles, quite frankly,” he says. “I was listening and watching some of the greatest active musicians on earth, which was totally new to me. I mean, I was the best guitar player in high school, and then I left to a place as far away as I could find and found myself surrounded with people that could constantly remind me what a professional could do. I was floored.” Lenz came back to New Jersey after graduating and went to college, “an excuse to not have to work and practice guitar for four years,” he says. He graduated with a major in math education and a minor in music, and after that, it was off to the races in terms of figuring out what he could do to launch his artistic career, his goal all along. “I started playing in bands and such, but I’ve been independent for most of the time. I book my own tours, make my own records.
It’s a workload but when it’s something you love, you do it wholeheartedly.” His career has taken him on tours overseas, and to date, he remembers each of them very fondly. One gig in Belgium, he says, sticks out in his memory as a night where the audience and the performers were practically one, the kind of night every performer hopes to have at least once in his lifetime. “It was a beautiful experience,” he recalls. “Compliments from the crowd the whole night, the works. We reached a higher level.” If he could advise up and coming musicians on what to do to better themselves, he stresses the importance of taking the time and effort to truly listen to the greats. “They’re famous for a reason,” he says. “Miles Davis, John Coltrane. Really let them sink in. Jazz is a pretty big term, and there are lots of styles within jazz. So even if you don’t like a particular thing, there’s something else. I like a little more rock element in it, personally.” For more information on B.D. Lenz, please visit his website at www.bdlenz.com or find him on Twitter and Instagram @bdlenz.
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