By the age of 17, Leon’s jazz musician parents had all but given up on any hopes of him taking up a musical instrument. Seemingly out of the blue, Leon bought a banjo and immediately began to seek out anyone that could show him how to work it. Fortunately, there were a couple of good banjo players living locally, and sensing his enthusiasm, were both very generous with their time. Less than two years later (and already playing in local pubs and sessions), Leon was taken under the wing of Charlie Gaisford. Charlie was arguably THE banjo guy in and around the recording studios of London throughout the ’70s. If all of that wasn’t fortunate enough, at the age of 22, Leon was introduced to Bela Fleck, and was subsequently invited to take lessons with him at his home in Nashville.
Since then, Leon has been putting all this good fortune (and hard work) to use. He has taken part in numerous ‘transatlantic’ recording and touring projects. These have included some of the biggest names in American traditional music; Viktor Krauss, Tim O’Brien, Stuart Duncan, David Grier and Matt Flinner to name a few.
Beyond proving his Bluegrass credentials, Leon has found himself in a diverse array of other musical settings; occasional live and/or recorded collaborations with Irish traditional music’s Michael McGoldrick, Lunasa, Cara Dillon, We Banjo 3 and Flook, African Kora virtuoso, Sekou Kieta, and English Folk singers, Kate Rusby and Seth Lakeman.
Leon has also enjoyed being part of several major theatre productions for The Royal Shakespeare Company, Birmingham Rep, and The New Vic (search the web hard enough and you’ll find a disturbing picture of him in a powdered wig and tights)
If all of the above name dropping means nothing to you, watch the TV for long enough and you’re bound to hear some banjo on a random commercial or programme, there’s a good chance that’s Leon too!