How an out-of-tune piano inspired a Delaware artist to host community jam sessions in a Newark Chinese restaurant

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When Juan Zacheas Leonard walked into New Number One Chinese on New London Road to pick up a DoorDash order in the summer of 2023, he wasn’t looking for a piano.

But an aging, out-of-tune instrument tucked into the corner of the Newark, Delaware, restaurant caught his attention.

The restaurant owner told him the order would take about 10 minutes. Leonard — who performs as Zeek — sat down to play while he waited.

He had no way of knowing that those few minutes would reshape, not only his own creative journey, but also transform the restaurant into one of Delaware’s most unexpected gathering places for musicians, artists and music lovers.

What began as a few songs on a neglected piano has evolved into a community jam session that has drawn artists from across the region, attracting the attention of Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Leon Thomas,Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer, and has continued to reach viewers around the world through livestreams.

The piano had been sitting there for years as life unfolded around it. Customers shuffled in and out carrying cartons of fried rice, lo mein and chicken wings. Seasons changed. Dust settled across the instrument’s worn frame. Most people hardly noticed it.

Until an artist came searching for somewhere to play.

Searching for stability

Growing up between Frankford and Dagsboro, Leonard was surrounded by music.

“I started messing around with music when I was four,” he said.

His mother introduced him to the piano, and the church became his first stage.

“My mom actually played the piano, and she bought a … electric Yamaha. And then she showed me like one song, and then I pretty much just took it from there,” he said. “I grew up in church. I was always surrounded by musicians, whether it [was] drummers, bassists, organ players. I had a … love of music in that form.”.

As Leonard grew older, he taught himself how to produce music, experimented with remixes, and immersed himself in the sounds of gospel, R&B and soul. But like many independent artists, he eventually found himself wrestling with a difficult question: Could the creative life bring him the stability he was searching for?

“Actually, the whole reason why I was DoorDashing was because I was about to shift out of music. I was trying to enter the tech world,” he said. “I just got out of a coding bootcamp. And I was DoorDashing while I was looking for a job.”

Around the same time, Leonard also lost access to the acoustic piano he had been regularly playing at the University of Delaware.

“When I walked in, I looked to the left and I seen an old piano in the corner,” Leonard said, recalling the moment at New Number One Chinese. He still had a keyboard at home, “but playing on an actual acoustic is entirely different.To feel the strings vibrating from the mallet that’s hitting from the keys … It’s a whole different experience when you play an actual piano.”

Despite its condition, the piano left an impression on him, Leonard said.

“Even though it was older and it was out of tune, it really stuck with me because it had a sound that wasn’t normal, but it was charming and it was interesting,” he said.

The owner encouraged him to come back.

Where the music grew

Soon playing the restaurant piano became part of Leonard’s regular routine.

In early 2024, a friend encouraged him to record himself playing the old instrument and post the videos online.

The series, “Putting the Chinese restaurant on to jams,” featured Leonard performing R&B, funk and soul covers in the restaurant and interacting with customers. Before long, the videos found an audience online.

Leonard made one thing clear: It was never about building a following; it was about having peace.

As more videos were posted, he invited his friend to join him. In every live stream, viewers suggested adding more instruments and upgrading the sound system, which he initially thought was ridiculous.

“We started bringing speakers. We started to make music. We started to remix music,” he said. “We pretty much treated it as a public studio at that point.”

Word continued to spread of Leonard’s music and the Chinese restaurant where he played. Drummers, bass players, saxophonists and singers began making their way to the restaurant, transforming an ordinary neighborhood takeout spot into an open jam session where no two performances were ever the same.

“Everything is bliss. So it’s not planned. We just show up,” he said. “I may start a groove — and usually it’s like R&B, gospel, funk, soul, somewhere in that vein — and then it takes off, because the drummer may have a way that he wants to add to the groove. We all just feed off of each other, and then we create something. It’s almost like magic.”

Audiences became part of the performance. Some sang along. Others danced. Many pulled out their phones to capture the moment. Customers who stopped in for dinner often stayed long after their food was ready.

“You’ll have some people come in, maybe to order food, and then they’ll forget that they’re in a restaurant because of everything that is happening,” he said. “They may order food and then stick around for maybe 10 to 15 minutes and then leave.”

For Leonard, the biggest change wasn’t the growing audience or the recognition. It was rediscovering the confidence he thought he had lost.

“When I picked up the … DoorDash at the Chinese restaurant, that piano was my reminder of leaning more towards my creative side and not really pushing it all the way to the side,” he said.

“Me being able to bring things to life in a Chinese restaurant with a piano, able to reach a lot of people from across the globe, it definitely built my spirit back up.”

An imperfect piano; a perfect community

As the jam sessions grew, Leonard realized they were becoming something larger than just music.

“The piano being out of tune and not really in good shape … I actually thought it… would actually push more people away from it,” he said.

Instead, the opposite happened.

Leonard said he believes the piano’s imperfections are what made the phenomenon possible. Because the instrument is out of tune, musicians have to adapt to it and to one another, creating a sense of collaboration and shared purpose.

“We can still make it adhesive if we all agree to be in tune with the piano,” he said.

He hopes people leave the restaurant with more than a memorable performance.

“I hope they feel recharged,” he said. “They leave that restaurant feeling great, and they feel like they can do whatever they want to do. No matter what goes on in the world.”

The jam sessions have also introduced Leonard to opportunities he never imagined, connecting him with other artists and collaborators. He has even produced a couple of songs with British singer-songwriter, rapper and producer KWN.

“Honestly, I just hope it grows in a direction where it needs to,” Leonard said. “I’m just following God at this point, because I mean, to me, a year ago, I didn’t really see this happening. But it just happened.”

Leonard said he hopes to continue creating music similar to his jam sessions, curating spaces where strangers become collaborators and where art feels accessible to anyone.