Brooklyn pianist and singer/songwriter Lee Feldman might just be the musically older and wiser kin of the artistically witty Ben Folds, for both are romantics gushing with self-loathing, fear, and pondering love questions. Alas, such despair makes for quick, punchy pop music. Jazz and classically trained, Feldman gracefully steps into the brassy chamber of pop melodies and classic compositions with multi-talented skills for playing bass, drums, clarinet, strings, and accordion. He independently released his debut, Living It All Wrong, in 1996 and had it picked up by PURE a year later. Glowing praise rolled in from the press, but a major label merger involving Universal was a shadow in the wake of his success. Such chaos led to Feldman's decision to start his own label, Bonafide Records, in 1998. Feldman's second effort, The Man in a Jupiter Hat, followed two years later. ~ MacKenzie Wilson