songwriter – Oren Levine, jazz pianist and songwriter

Tunes on Tuesday: Damn the Budget

Photo of Oren Levine singing into a recording microphone suspended in front of his face. Text at top left reads 'Tunes on Tuesday January 27, 2026 Damn the Budget'

Why this tune? This week’s tune is another daily project in the January song-a-day challenge organized by Kat and Sarah from Songwriting For Music Educators. The inspiration came from a conversation with friends, where several people endorsed the idea of saying “Damn the budget!” occasionally to splurge on a special event or purchase. I couldn’tContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Damn the Budget”

Tunes on Tuesday: Ready To Change

Photo of Oren Levine playing an electric piano and singing in to a microphone suspended above the keyboard. Text at top left reads 'Tunes on Tuesday January 20, 2026 Ready To Change'

Why this tune? This week’s tune is another daily project in the January song-a-day challenge organized by Kat and Sarah from Songwriting For Music Educators. After years as a technology developer and manager, I learned that everyone wants to change, but nobody wants to do anything different. That remained just a grumble until my wifeContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Ready To Change”

Tunes on Tuesday: Pay the Band

Photo of Oren Levine playing an electric piano. A microphone is suspend in front of him. Text at top left reads 'Tunes on Tuesday January 13, 2026 Pay the Band'

Why this tune? This week’s tune is another daily project in the January song-a-day challenge organized by Kat and Sarah from Songwriting For Music Educators. This is a revised and extended version of “Pay the Band,” which I wrote first in 2024. It’s another in my Torah Tunes series, inspired in this case by aContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Pay the Band”

Tunes on Tuesday: On the 10:17

Photo of Oren Levine playing an electric piano and singing. Text at top left reads 'Tunes on Tuesday January 6, 2026; On the 10:17'

Why this tune? For the third year in a row, I’m taking a January song-a-day challenge organized by Kat and Sarah from Songwriting For Music Educators, which offers courses and resources for music educators who want to include songwriting in their work. I’m also taking a couple of online lyric writing workshops. I wrote today’sContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: On the 10:17”

Tunes on Tuesday: Let’s Resolve (2026)

Photo of Oren Levine playing an electric piano and singing. Text at top left reads 'Tunes on Tuesday December 30, 2025 Let's Resolve'

Why this tune? For Tunes on Tuesday this week, I went back to the New Year’s song I wrote originally at the end of 2022, making some changes to the lyrics to clean up the rhymes and make it a bit easier to sing. By “clean up” I mean trying to ensure that all ofContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Let’s Resolve (2026)”

Tunes on Tuesday: Curious Weather

Photo of Oren Levine playing an electric piano and singing. Text at top left reads 'Tunes on Tuesday December 23, 2025 Curious Weather'

Why this tune? This week’s tune started in a lyric writing class with Marcy Heisler, an award-winning writer and performer. She and her writing partner Zina Goldrich are responsible for many musical theater and cabaret works including “Taylor, The Latte Boy,” which you’re likely to hear at cabaret revues across the country. We all cameContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Curious Weather”

Tunes on Tuesday: Lost In the Words

Photo of Oren Levine sitting in front of a microphone positioned over an electric piano. Text at top left reads 'Tunes on Tuesday November 25, 2025 Lost In the Words'

Why this tune? This week’s tune is the first draft of a new song, inspired by a songwriting session with Peter Eldridge hosted by JazzVoice.com. Peter suggested using a rhythm track as a starting point for a new song, recommending the fine selections in the Drumgenius app. I found the phrase “lost in the words” on my song ideasContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Lost In the Words”

Tunes on Tuesday: Bend Don’t Break

Why this tune? Our hearts go out to the people of the Caribbean recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Melissa, the strongest hurricane ever to hit Jamaica and one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record. After the storm, we came across this Facebook post from Josh Morgerman, describing how he found inspiration from aContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Bend Don’t Break”

Tunes on Tuesday: Pot Luck

Photo of Oren Levine playing an upright piano. Text at top left reads 'Tunes on Tuesday September 30, 2025 Pot Luck'

Why this tune? This week’s tune is an obscure bebop head written by Johnny Mandel for Stan Getz in the 1950s, that I came across while searching for some Mandel songs to suggest to singers I work with. It’s nothing like “The Shadow of Your Smile” and other more famous works, but still a funContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Pot Luck”

Tunes on Tuesday: Conversation (duet)

Photo of Oren Levine and Barbara Papendorp performing at District Fringe, July 2025. Text at top center reads 'Tunes on Tuesday September 23, 2025 Conversation (duet)'

Why this tune? I first shared “Conversation” on Tunes on Tuesday in June, performing the second version of a song that I started to write back in February. I shared the post with the team at the “Switched On Pop” podcast and was delighted to get a supportive comment  from them: “Small talk is so hard. ThisContinue reading “Tunes on Tuesday: Conversation (duet)”