Article by Shea Stanfield – Arts Columnist for the Foothill Focus.
“To create a more lovable and peaceful world by writing, recording, and performing music from the heart.” From all indications, from his concerts, recording schedule, and feedback from fans, Louis is spot-on his mission.
Louis was literally “born” into a life of music in Yonkers, NY; his father Leo de Lyon, played the piano and was an entertainer working with such greats a Rat Pack’s Dean Martin on his television show. The entertainment industry would keeps Louis’s family on the move during his childhood, beginning in New York, on to California and back again. Louis started his piano training at age 4, sticking with the “less than gentle” teaching style of his Russian piano teacher until he was 13. At that point Louis had enough; he quit the piano and set off on the path, a number of young men of the 1960’s were following, picking up the guitar as his preferred instrument. He counts among his guitar teachers Eric Claption, John Mayall, B.B. King, and Jimi Hendrix, rock and roll and the blues were all the rage. Later, as he entered his young adulthood Louis returned to his piano roots paying close attention to the greats Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and John Coltrane to name just a few.
Upon graduating from high school, Louis was back to the piano full time majoring in Arranging and Composition at SUNY at Stony Brooke. He then transferred to Boston Conservatory and Berklee College of Music. Louis claims, “It was at Berklee that I realized that I wanted to play jazz piano.” This decision would take him on the road for the next 20 years. Now, after playing piano for 61 years, 51+ professionally, Louis considers himself fortunate to have made a career in music, everything from running a music production house in NYC for 13 years, to playing in a number of venues of the business. It was a Southwest tour, a few years ago, that brought him to Sedona, Arizona where he met the “love of his life.” Today, Louis, faincé Christine, and his Steinway B piano now call Sedona home.
The move to Arizona has proven to be very productive. In the last four years Louis continues to play and compose every day, and to his astonishment he has recorded ten albums in that amount of time. He continues to play concerts, touring about five times annually for 2-3 week stretches. Louis’s favorite venues are private home concerts where he enjoys getting to know his audience and welcomes the comfort a home venue offers over large concert halls. When asked about the direction his recordings are taking, the answer is very diverse, Soul Healing Piano Music was recorded live during a healing concert that completely improvised. Departure is the material Louis had composed and went in a more classical direction. Classic Pop Rock Solo Piano is a collection of songs that he put his interpretation on Rock classics. Peaceful Solo Piano Christmas 2 (to be released on November 12) is his interpretation of thirteen traditional Christmas songs and two originals. Each album is an inspiring and very individual entity.
The bottom-line is “music is in Louis Landon’s soul.” Louis has a full local concert schedule. To view information on Louis’s concerts, isit https://louislandon.com/tour-dates.html. Contact Louis Landon at https://louislandon.com/connect.html. Louis Landon’s music can be streamed on Spotify and Pandora Radio.
Solo Pianist for Peace 