Daniel Kleefeld Sails into the Wind Friday Night
By James D. Watts Jr., Tulsa World Entertainment Writer

Daniel Kleefeld did not know how much playing the piano meant to him until he had to do without it for a while. “I was part of a mission group when I was younger, and I traveled all over the place,” Kleefeld said.  “I spent a time in California, but the school I attended had no piano… I was going a little crazy, I guess.  As soon as I got to a place that had a piano, I just immediately went to it, sat down and started playing.  It was like all this music had been bottled up inside me, and this was the only way to let it out.”

Kleefeld has been sharing the music inside of him with Tulsa audiences for more than a decade.  He has performed with praise ensembles at local churches, at some of the city’s finest restaurants, and at private functions. However, Kleefeld is working toward doing more concert work, like the performance he will give Friday as part of the Off Utica Friday Night Concert Series presented at First Evangelical Lutheran Church. The concert will also serve as a preview of Kleefeld’s forthcoming CD, “Sail Into the Wind.”  The official release party is scheduled for noon Oct. 7 at Southern Hills, 6644 S. Lewis Ave. Kleefeld released his first CD, “Quiet Resting Places, in 1996.  That recording featured Kleefeld performing his own compositions for solo piano, inspired by passages from the Bible.  The new disc expands on that formula, balancing Kleefeld’s original compositions with his arrangements of classical works and hymns.  It also includes a number of local musicians in guest roles, including saxophonist Grady Nichols, guitarist Jeffery Hiatt-Frink, drummer David Sheridan, flutist Karen Williams and vocalist Alyssa Lane. “With the non-original music, I wanted to have pieces that people could immediately relate to,” Kleefeld said.  “But I also wanted to do something more with each piece.  For example, the words that were written for Bach’s ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’ are wonderful, but it’s rare that they are performed, so I’ve included them.  And the version I do of (Pachelbel’s) ‘Canon in D’ is more of an improvisation over the basic chords of the piece.”`