LehCats

LehCats Story

Creatively unique ensemble of musicians that define the terms artistry, teamwork and chemistry starting with the chemistry of the married couple of Karen and Norbert Stachel, the leaders of LehCats. Their versatility is evident, and their ability to deliver and uplift both the music and the listener is invigoratingly obvious.

LehCats is Norbert and Karen Stachels’ last name spelled backwards. They perform original freshly inspired compositions that combine elements of Modern Jazz, Funk, R&B, Middle Eastern, Afro/Latin, and Rock creating a musical potpourri of creative sound.

Saxophonist Stachel grew up in El Cerrito, CA in the 1970s, but he found himself breaking musical bread collaborating and learning from the musicians of the incredible cultural diversity of the entire Bay Area. Stachel was exposed to Gospel, R&B, Soul, Funk, Blues, Klezmer, Roots and Hard Rock, West African, East African, North African, Arabic, Pan Afro/Caribbean, and many other international music forms growing up in the super diverse multi cultural naturally creative breeding ground of the 1970's era Bay Area. Young Stachel also connected with the folks in the Berkeley High jazz program, where he forged a deep creative connection with multi-instrumentalist Peter Apfelbaum and master bassoonist Paul Hanson and played a key role in successive incarnations of the Apfelbaum’s groundbreaking Hieroglyphics Ensemble. Not to mention his tenure as a key soloist on many recordings and performances with Bay Area legends Pete Escovedo and also composer/guitarist Ray Obiedo.

Stachel spent much of his career as a first-call sideman and studio musician, including recording and touring world wide with Prince, Sheila E, Boz Scaggs, Diana Ross, Tony! Toni! Toné!, Roy Hargrove, and Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters. He also spent four years recording and touring with Tower of Power, but since re-basing himself to New York City Stachel has spent the past decade shifting gears to co-leading LehCats with his wife, jazz-and-classical flutist Karen Stachel (née Anderson).

Karen Stachel has deep Bay Area ties herself. Part of the burgeoning acid jazz scene of the early ‘90s, the Karen Anderson Jazztet featured guitarist John Schott and drummer Scott Amendola. Her eclectic resume includes the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, and trumpeter Wallace Roney’s 2014 project “Universe,” a previously unheard suite of music written for Miles Davis in 1968 by Wayne Shorter.

Focusing on their original music, the Stachels have honed their vast and varied experiences into a seamless, melodically charged sound in LehCats.