Randy Klein has carved out a prolific career with a long list of major accomplishments on his resume. He’s a pianist-keyboardist, songwriter, educator, author and founder of Jazzheads, the NYC-based independent music label, to name a few of his many activities. As a cross-genre creative, he’s also proactive in adding new, innovative projects in areas of exploration including jazz, popular and classical music, theatrical works and film scoring. Randy Klein’s extensive contributions to the music world continue with expertise and passion.
Of his work, The revered jazz legend, Dr. Billy Taylor, lauded Klein’s work by stating: “I’m glad that Randy Klein’s musical compositions really focus on his gift for melody. I love his work.”
Kicking off a year of new projects, Klein released “Invictus” on February 11, a contemporary classical work based on the renowned poem by William Ernest Henley. The recording, with music by Klein and Jonathan Long, and sung by Long, is available on all streaming platforms.
Heading more deeply into 2025 is an evening concert presenting songs from Black Swan Blues – the Concept Album. The entire suite of songs will be presented on Monday, May 19 at the Lambs Club in New York City. Recorded by a starry cast of singers, including Karen Mason, Christian Hoff, Lilli Cooper, Aurelia Williams and Jerry Dixon, the album’s blues-infused score and memorable songs, captivates with its story of love, racial injustice and redemption, set in the sultry ambiance of New Orleans, 1963. Performing the songs from Black Swan Blues is another step in the development of the musical, one that will energize its listeners to clamor for a full production.
Polymath Klein is a long-time member of the advanced BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop, The Dramatists Guild, The Recording Academy (formerly the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences) and APME (Association for Popular Music Educators). As a music educator, he conducts clinics on music, songwriting and the business of music. He is an active coach for songwriters at SongU.com., Nashville. As a performer, he has appeared at venues such as Birdland, Klavierhaus, Trumpets, the historic Union of Composers Club (Moscow), Radio City Music Hall (NYC), the Chitlin Circuit, The Playboy Club, The Other Side (The Combat Zone, Boston), Bethlehem Bungalow Colony (Catskills), The Bitter End, The Comic Strip (NYC), Hammersmith Odion (London), The Troubadour (LA), The Metropolitan Opera House and the Mississippi Symphony. This wide variety of experience continues to inform his work, building strength upon strength.
John J. Cooper, Program Director WBGO-FM Newark NJ, says: “Klein uses inventive lyrics with infectious melodies making jazz that belongs in a class with John Pizzarelli and Dave Frishberg. Original with a capital O!” Also coming this Spring is Songs That Speak – a performance piece that features top jazz vocalists performing songs that convey the story and message of Speak,, a uniquely quirky, comedic musical tale with purpose. Speak takes place in the commercial music world, in the early years of branding. Our hero dies in the opening number by throwing himself in front of a Mr. Frosty Freezy Ice Cream truck, but his sacrifice is not for naught. Speak speaks to the need to be heard, and to uncluttered and everlasting love. The Speak score is melodic, rhythmic, multi-genre and built on old-school/new-school sensibilities.
Renowned music critic and writer, Ken Dryden, notes “(Klein’s) inventiveness and lyricism put him in the jazz camp, though he doesn't easily fit into any particular style.”
Continuing the trajectory of the roll out of Klein’s work, this Summer, Jubilee, a folk opera adapted from Margaret Walker’s 1966 novel of the same name, will be presented at Jackson State University (Jackson, MS). Klein has been long-associated with the works of poet and writer Margaret Walker, a prominent force in the African American literary movement in Chicago, known as the Chicago Black Renaissance. His commissioned “Margaret Walker For My People Song Cycle,” was composed by Klein for chorale and solo voice, with themes of social and civil liberties as its backbone. This masterwork has been performed by the Mississippi Symphony with a 120-voice chorale, at museums, schools, libraries, churches, universities and beyond.
Jubilee tells the story of Vyry, Walker’s great-grandmother and her journey from slavery through Emancipation and Reconstruction. Jubilee will have a workshop from June 9 -14, conducted at Jackson State University’s opera department with Opera South as part of the Yale University opera department HBCU collaboration with the Margaret Walker Resource Center. A full concert version of Jubilee is scheduled for summer 2026.
NEA Jazz Master Willard Jenkins says of this work, “One of the most important performance pieces being offered today (that) combines Margaret Walker’s poetry with socially conscious themes with Randy Klein’s musical painting of every word.”
Finally, 2025 will also see the ongoing promotion of the work that makes up Randy Klein’s Songbook—an eclectic collection of songs that have been recorded and released and deserve to be spotlighted anew.
*Who Taught You That? Antoinette Montigue – Bobby Sanabria Big Band *No Randy Klein’s Jazzheads *Go Out and Get Some (Get It Out’cha System) Millie Jackson *Feeling Like A Woman Millie Jackson *Phuck-U Symphony Millie Jackson *Each Ornament Has A Story Ann Kittredge *Fairy Pet Day Cast of Twinkle Tames A Dragon *Ben Franklin Michael Earl *Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days Ticktock Minutes (PBS) *Anything Can Happen Black Swan Blues *Rhyming Tap Rap Savion Glover – Sesame Street *Everything You Long For (Is in New Jersey) Flambé Dreams – Ashley Fox Linton
On June 8 at the Association for Popular Music Education Conference in Memphis, TN, Klein will present a songwriting workshop titled, "The Art of Listening to Songs: Intertwining Culture, History and Emotion." | 
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