Broadway’s Leslie Odom Jr. shows off songwriting skills

“I wanted to include as much of my life and the people who make me who I am on some level. I wanted to sew them into the tapestry if I could,” he said.

Some of the highlights include the exuberant Broadway-ish “Hummingbird” ( his daughter’s favorite) and the thoughtful and complex “Remember Black,” a sonic tour of the African American contribution to American culture. Then there are the songs that Odom clearly had his wife in mind — “u r my everything” and “Go Crazy.”

Odom said he gingerly asked his spouse to be part of the album. She was always the first person he shared his demos with, but he wasn’t sure if she wanted to sing backup.

“My wife is a star,” he said, laughing. “She’s not the background in my foreground in any way. I didn’t know if she’d be willing to sing background. I just wanted her to know, ‘ It’s not that I think you’re less. It’s just that I want you there.’”

Odom’s favorite song on the album is one he didn’t write. It’s not even a song, really — it’s his grandmother’s contribution. She had memorized Longfellow’s poem in the fourth grade and her grandson would often ask her to recite it for him. He videoed her speaking it earlier this year in a hospital at the end of her life.

“It was the last time my grandmother ever read me that poem. And so I got to include her, too, which is so meaningful to me. That is my favorite track on the album. It kind of stops me dead in my tracks.”

S-Curve Records founder and CEO Steve Greenberg, who is an executive producer and co-wrote two tracks, said Odom had a

CHRISTOPHER SMITH This Nov. 8, 2019photo shows Leslie Odom Jr. posing for a portrait in NewYork for his first album of all-original material, the 13-track “Mr.”