New York drummer, composer, and theatre artist Tony Lepore grew up in New York City, where jazz was already in the family—his grandfather played guitar in Harlem during the Swing Era. For the next twenty-five years, Lepore built a career in the theatre as a lighting designer, sound designer, stage manager, and composer, working across New York and internationally. He learned early that atmosphere is everything: that the right light cue and the right sound cue, arriving together at the right moment, could crack a room open. That instinct never left him.
In 2006, Lepore was working in the United Arab Emirates as a stage manager, lighting designer, and composer. The Arabic and Persian music he encountered there—its microtonal language, its relationship to space and suspension—went in deep and stayed. It joined everything else he was absorbing on the road: the rhythms, the textures, the way music functions differently in different parts of the world. All of it became part of how he hears.
Jazz was never absent during those years. It was marinating. In the last dozen years, Lepore returned to it seriously, studying drums at the New York Jazz Workshop and writing the compositions that would become Unannounced, his debut as a bandleader.
The six compositions—"Uptown in the Lincoln," “Azara," “Morning Railyard," “Sparito," “Therion and the Dove," and “Axios"—each carry a distinct rhythmic and emotional character. Jazz Conjunctio takes its name from the Jungian concept of conjunctio, the meeting of opposites. On this record, the immediacy of live theatre and the cinematic language of film scoring meet inside a classic jazz quintet.
Unannounced is available for pre-order on Bandcamp, and will be availble on June 8th on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major digital platforms.
In 2006, Lepore was working in the United Arab Emirates as a stage manager, lighting designer, and composer. The Arabic and Persian music he encountered there—its microtonal language, its relationship to space and suspension—went in deep and stayed. It joined everything else he was absorbing on the road: the rhythms, the textures, the way music functions differently in different parts of the world. All of it became part of how he hears.
Jazz was never absent during those years. It was marinating. In the last dozen years, Lepore returned to it seriously, studying drums at the New York Jazz Workshop and writing the compositions that would become Unannounced, his debut as a bandleader.
The Album
Unannounced comprises six original compositions recorded at Atomic Sound in Brooklyn during the Great Blizzard of February 2026. The music is rooted in hard bop and post-bop—classic quintet instrumentation, 32-bar AABA and ABAC forms, the swing feel that pays homage to the traditional lineage—but the compositions carry the weight of specific lived experience. A midnight ride uptown in a Lincoln Town Car. A railyard at dawn, the tracks still cold, the first light coming. A ballad whose melody arrived in a single sitting on the day everything changed. These are not abstract musical exercises. They are dispatches from a life shaped by the stage, the road, and the streets of New York City.The six compositions—"Uptown in the Lincoln," “Azara," “Morning Railyard," “Sparito," “Therion and the Dove," and “Axios"—each carry a distinct rhythmic and emotional character. Jazz Conjunctio takes its name from the Jungian concept of conjunctio, the meeting of opposites. On this record, the immediacy of live theatre and the cinematic language of film scoring meet inside a classic jazz quintet.
The Ensemble
David Ambrosio is among the most respected bassists in the New York jazz community, currently leading his Civil Disobedience project alongside Victor Lewis, with a two-decade discography as a leader. Dave Scott is an NEA grant recipient and faculty member at The New School whose records appear on the SteepleChase label. Adam Kolker has performed and recorded with the Maria Schneider Orchestra, the Village Vanguard Orchestra, and Fred Hersch. Benjamin Barantschik is a Brooklyn-based pianist and film composer whose score for the short film “Waiting for the Light to Change," directed by Linh Tran, won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Slamdance Film Festival.Release Performance at Silvana — June 8, 2026
Tony Lepore's Jazz Conjunctio will perform live at Silvana, 300 West 116th Street in Harlem, New York, on Monday, June 8, 2026 at 8pm. No cover.Unannounced is available for pre-order on Bandcamp, and will be availble on June 8th on Spotify, Apple Music, and all major digital platforms.
