American Act Le Sonic’s Gary Lefkowith Scored a Smooth Jazz Chart-Topper at the Age of 73

Based out of Connecticut, American songwriter, producer and promoter Gary Lefkowith knows all about formulas. In the pop world, he’s worked with everyone from Adele to Eminem to Prince to Chubby Checker over the last 40 years. But he studied jazz at Berklee College of Music, as did his smooth jazz act Le Sonic’s co-founder Mike Rogers.

He says over a phone call, “I was writing those compositions [in pop] 40 years ago, but I did it for other people.” When Le Sonic started in the jazz space, however, Lefkowith – now 73 years old – recounts that he vowed to have a Number One record. In February 2022, Le Sonic’s single “Any Moment” with jazz artist Robert Lee ended up topping the Billboard Smooth Jazz National Airplay charts. In October, their single “I’ll Be The One” with vocalist Lauran Beluzo and Lee once again repeated the feat. Most recently, their 2023 single “Riverside Drive” with trumpeter Jim Hynes and saxophonist Scott Kreitzer also made its way up to the fourth spot on the same charts.

With Le Sonic, though, Lefkowith says, “I didn’t think about it enough to try and follow a formula.” They promoted “Any Moment” for about four to five months before it topped the charts. Then, “I’ll Be The One” was the first smooth jazz song with vocals to top the charts in years. On “Riverside Drive,” Rogers and Lefkowith employed a swing beat, and he recalls that a few smooth jazz stations refused to give it airplay. “That’s what kept us at [number] four [on the charts]. But I don’t regret that. In my age, I’m not doing this for that or to follow a formula,” Lefkowith says.

There’s a science to playing the chart game, as the artist confirms given his long years of promoting artists across genres to that every end. With “Any Moment,” their collaborator Robert Lee already had songs on the chart, so it helped to work with a familiar name – one that he had already helped to break into Top 30. Lefkowith adds there are about 15 to 16 “reporting stations” in the U.S. that are crucial for smooth jazz and those are the ones to target.

More than all the music industry experience and knowing which moves to make, Lefkowith says the exciting thing is still about finding that inspiration to write music and especially when it comes spontaneously. “I love that first session that Mike and I have, where we get it all down. After that, it becomes work – polishing it and making sure it’s good,” Lefkowith says. He points to the workhorse artists like The Beatles, perhaps seen in their recent series The Beatles: Get Back, as to how they were “kind of shining a diamond” in terms of discipline in songwriting and production.

Up next, Le Sonic return to work with Lauran Beluzo (“She’s a phenomenal singer,” Lefkowith says) on a song called “Take It Or Leave It.” Beluzo was a discovery made by Rogers, and they’ve even performed together on Le Sonic material. At the end of it, Lefkowith is all praise for Rogers, his best friend of 20 years who’s now also a bandmate in Le Sonic. “It’s an honor for me to work with him and that’s the most important thing,” Lefkowith says.