Singer traces musical roots back to Bronx
Red Bank's Lenny Starwood records CD of love songs
BY AMY ROSEN Staff Writer

Lenny Starwood

In the newfangled world of clubs and computer-generated electronic music, rap, emo, screamo, heavy metal and popular music where icons like Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi rule, the classic, quiet sounds of easy listening music and love songs may have inadvertently been pushed by the wayside.

But those who remember the days when people flocked to nightclubs to see entertainers like Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra are making an effort to bring back the old scene and make sure those days have not been forgotten.

Lenny Starwood, of Red Bank, is one of those performers. Starwood's new CD, "The Way of Love," has just been released, and it's a blast from the past with songs that include "Our Day Will Come," "The Way of Love," "Brazil," "At Last," "On Broadway" and "You Don't Know Me." And since Starwood is fluent in six languages, most notably Italian and Spanish, the CD also features songs such as "Sabor A Mi" and "Voy Apagar La Luz."

No matter how you look at it, it's about love, and Starwood loves the music of that era and puts his heart into his performances.

Starwood grew up in the Bronx, N.Y., and loved singing and listening to the music of Cole and Sinatra, and also credits his influences as being Mario Lanza, Jerry Vale, Frankie Valli, James Brown and Johnny Mathis, to name a few.

"I love beautiful singing and I sang on street corners and in hallways in the '60s and '70s and later enjoyed the music of Billy Joel, as well as country music," Starwood said. "I studied music at the University of Seattle, had operatic training and took private lessons, but the best training was the on the job, when I sang on stage."

Over the course of his career Starwood has opened for stars such as Pat Cooper, Charlie Callas, Nipsey Russell, Jackie Mason and Freddie Roman. He was the opening act for the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield for a year.

Now when he performs, Starwood travels with a 10- to 12-piece orchestra, conducted by Herb Bernstein, who co-produced "The Way of Love" with him. The CD features the orchestra.

Starwood's travels currently take him to retirement communities in Florida, in addition to clubs and resorts in New York and New Jersey. He has also been appearing quite often on Spanish-American television networks.

Starwood has been called "The Voice of America" because of his three-and-a-half octave range, which allows him to sing anything from light rock to opera.

"I'm caught in between the old and the new. I grew up in the middle of the beautiful stuff and the rock stuff, and even though this CD is about the old love songs, I appreciate it all, and I perform it all," he said.

But Starwood still holds out hope that the tides will once again turn and everything old will be new again.

"The Way of Love" is available at local music stores. The CD may be purchased online at www.Lennystarwood.com.