Leopoldo Fleming

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LEOPOLDO FLEMING
The Leopoldo Fleming Afro Caribbean Jazz Aggregation
was indeed a great success and wonderful experience as the main attraction at a festival in Wilkes-Barre, PA, in May, this time with Dina Viro on piano, Karen Joseph, flutes, Alex Fernandez on double bass, Freddy Harris on steel pan, Emilio Valdez on drums/timbales, Leopoldo himself on congas, percussion, and three female singers - just as his band was also one of the highlights at the Staten Island Jazz Festival, where he also led a workshop, too.
At each of the Leopoldo Fleming Afro Caribbean Jazz Aggregation's gigs at Minton's Playhouse since its reopening in May 06, this band has truly enthused the audience with a variety of intriguing rhythms and beautiful tunes, played with warm and deep artistic intensity - a spiced cornucopia of standards as well as of interesting compositions by Leopoldo himself, everything in new and different arrangements of his.
New York is still his home, but since 2006 Leopoldo has a base in Copenhagen, too.
The coming July Leopoldo can be heard in different constellations at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, and at the Istanbul International Jazz Festival with the Al Schackman group - the former Nina Simone band - in a tribute to Nina Simone, featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater, Stacey Kent and more, before he returns to New York where among other performances once a month he can be heard with the great Lou Caputo Big Band at The Garage.
On the occasion of the historic Memorial Dedication of the new African Burial Ground National Monument in New York on October 5th, at the official ceremony Leopoldo was leader of the 10 piece band of drummers, percussionists, and a flutist, which performance got extensive television news coverage throughout the day. Again, at the ceremonious evening Candlelight Procession from Battery Park to the Burial Ground Leopoldo led another 16 piece drummer/percussion band.
Last December, like previous years Leopoldo went on a successful three weeks tour with the New York Harlem Singers (Spiritual Singers of Harlem) to Korea and Japan.
As a continual tradition, in February each year Leopoldo works with the Shadow Box Theatre.
Autumn 06 kept Leopoldo busy as musical director, composer, and arranger for the new production in NYC of the musical “Queen Coziah”, a Caribbean drama by Eddie Donoghue. The show received standing ovations and is planned to be put on again. The success has also generated ideas of an international tour.
In summer 06, at the Austrian Inntöne Festival Leopoldo was featured as special guest with “The Soul of Harlem” led by Donald Smith. Leopoldo’s tour continued to Denmark, where he played with the A-Team led by Niels-Jorgen Steen, Yasser Morejon Pino’s Cuban jazz band, and at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival with Simon Spang-Hanssen’s Maaneklar XL septet, the Rikke Lie Group featuring Ben Besiakov and Leopoldo, plus a Latin jazz quartet with handpicked Danish and Caribbean musicians, led by Leopoldo himself.
Just before this tour to Europe, Leopoldo’s musical contribution was indeed positively notable at the reopening of the famous Minton’s Playhouse, and at the concert at the Town Hall in NYC, where as a tribute to Nina Simone’s historic 1959 Town Hall performance and recording, Simone (Lisa Stroud), daughter of Nina Simone, in a quite new, young, and different expression was accompanied by some of the musicians of the original Nina Simone band, led by Al Schackman, Leopoldo on percussion being the youngest shoot of that stem.
As a musician, composer, and arranger Leopoldo is a great personality with a rich and multicolored palette of inspiration from his Latin-Afro-Indian roots, his childhood in Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, his many years as highly active on the jazz and beyond music scene of New York, and his international experience from since his youth collaborating and touring with US, Caribbean, and African stars all over Europe, the African continent, South America, the Caribbean, the Orient, and Australia. He goes about well versed and talented in several musical genres - jazz, funk, R&B, Caribbean, Cuban, Brazilian, African, gospel, spirituals. He is a brilliant accompanist, and a fascinating soloist, has a special melodic gift in his playing, and his performances sparkle with surprises, sophistication, grace, and exquisite timing. Throughout his entire career, with his musical charisma Leopoldo has enthused his audience and colleagues, constantly developing, exploring, and pursuing new ideas and inspiration, maintaining his reputation as a world-class performer - a true and great artist, never compromising on the authenticity of rhythms and styles according to his genuine deep knowledge and feeling.
In the September 2007 issue of the AllAboutJazz-New York gazette, the newly released “Afro Indian Blues” with Jim Pepper, Amina Claudine Myers, Anthony Cox, and Leopoldo Fleming is categorized an “Unearthed Gem”. Donald Elfman praises Leopoldo for showing “true versatility and appealing accessibility”
In an AllAboutJazz.com review of the same album, Bill Siegel writes: “...On percussion, Leopoldo Fleming takes a flight with a solo that's absolute, total music - he plays the melody on his drums, not just a riff on the rhythm. You can almost hear the distant echo of Myers' singing below the drums. Don't be fooled towards the end of Fleming's solo. That's not him stepping aside to let Cox slip in a few bars on his bass. Those deep notes are Fleming's fingertips rubbing the skins of his congas..”.
In his liner notes to the Lonnie Liston Smith album “Expansions”, Nat Hentoff writes: “I was in a NY nightclub, and what intrigued me was a musician I had never heard before. He was playing various percussion instruments and extracting extraordinarily fresh, unexpected hues from his instruments with a grace and flawless timing that really made him the star of the show. He was Leopoldo Fleming, and he’s heard here on bongos, as well as on the triangle that starts off “Expansions”, and Hentoff continues: “Leopoldo”, Lonnie said, “has been to Africa and to other countries as a student of the roots of the music. The first time I heard him, I knew I wanted him to play with us.”
From 1987 - 1998 Leopoldo was based in Vienna, Austria, touring worldwide with Nina Simone and having successful collaborations with Viennese guitarist Karl Ratver, Vienna based Dizzy Gillespie alumnus Leo Wright, Jim Pepper, Phone3Phone, Richard Boone, various local artists, and Leopoldo also played with his own aggregations at e.g. the famous "Porgy and Bess".
He has played, recorded, toured with Miriam Makeba, The Symphony of the New World, Harry Belafonte, Monica Zetterlund, The String Reunion, Eartha Kitt, The World Bass Violin Ensemble, Beaver Harris, Novella Nelson, Lonnie Liston Smith, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Sonny Stitt, Richard “Grove” Holmes, “Queen” Esther Marrow, Leon Thomas, Randy Weston (in big band format and in a trio including bassist Ron Carter), Archie Shepp, Bob Cunningham, Kenny Barron, Horace Parlan (now living in Denmark), David Murray, The Boys’ Choir of Harlem, The Spiritual Singers of Harlem, and so many other wonderful artists.
Theater credits also include: The Burt Reynold’s Dinner Theater production of “Cowboy and the Legend” starring Eartha Kitt, the New York Shakespeare Festival’s Public Theater Off-Broadway and Broadway productions of ”The Haggadah”, ”Dispatches”, ”Runaways”, and ”Alice in Wonderland” starring Meryll Streep. Leopoldo composed the original music for The Public Theater’s ”Les Femmes Noires”, ”Sister Sonji”, and ”Black Visions”. Another of his projects with this theater was a workshop presentation of ”Rumbal”, a works-in-progress that he wrote and co-directed. Furthermore Leopoldo was Musical Director for the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s production of LeRoi J.. Imanu Barraka’s) ”Slaveship”, where he worked together with Archie Shepp and Gilbert Moses. He has toured extensively with the New Orleans based Free Southern Theater, and he has also composed the music for episodes of and performed in an educational US television series for children called “Vegetable Soup”.
Annette Blichmann
ALL ABOUT JAZZ profile URL:
http://allaboutjazz.com/leopoldofleming
View my page on South African Jazz Network.ning.com
View my page on New York City Jazz Network
Interview including recorded and live music with Leopoldo Fleming on DR P3 (Danish Radio) July 12, 06 URL:
A charming live interview with Leopoldo Fleming at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival July 2006, on DR, Danish national radio, host: Morten Lindberg alias Master Fatman:
http://www.dr.dk/Musik/Jazz/Temaer/Copenhagen%20Jazz%20Festi val/Interviews/20060707102456.htm

...then go to "Master Fatmans Onsdagsshow" and click on "Master Fatman DR Jazz 12 juli" - move the timer to just before 40 minutes in the one hour program - and you will hear the fine and interesting 20 minutes interview with Leopoldo, where he also plays music from 2 CDs plus two live solos on congas.
DISCOGRAPHY - A small selection of numerous recordings:
Jim Pepper, Amina Claudine Myers, Anthony Cox, Leopoldo Fleming: ”Afro Indian Blues”(Raab, Austria 1991/2006)
Spiritual Singers of Harlem: ”Dry Bones” (Seoul, South Korea 2003)
Robert Kenyatta: ”Cool Blue” (New York, 2001)
Guadalupe Raventos: “Thamgo City” (2000/01)
Jarek Smietana & Gary Bartz: “African Lake” (New York, 2000)
Vieux Diop: “Via Jo” (1995/96/2002)
Vieux Diop: ”Afrika Wassa” (2000)
Spiritual Singers of Harlem: ”Swing Low Sweet Chariot” (Seoul, South Korea 1999)
David Murray: ”Speaking in Tongues” (1999)
Archie Shepp: ”St. Louis Blues” (Schloss Sigharting, Austria, 1998/2004)
Patience Higgins’ Sugar Hill Quartet: ”Live in Harlem” (New York, 1998)
Jarek Smietana & Ricardo Styla: "Kind of Life" (Krakow, Poland 1998)
Per Shqiperine: ”Tira” (1997)
Jozef Dodo Sosoka featuring Leopoldo Fleming, Drums and Percussion Acoustic Music - Live from Vienna (1996)
Vieux Diop: “Via Jo” (1995/96/2002)
Phone3Phone: ”Blue Green Desires” (1995)
Brian Keane: “Common Planet” (Trumbull, CT, and New York 1991/92)
Dave Hubbard: “Labor Of Love” (including Dr. Lonnie Smith) (1985)
“Runaways” – Original Broadway cast – (1978/2003)
Ron Odrich: ”Blackstick” (1978)
“The Runaways” – Original Soundtrack – (1997)
Lonnie Liston Smith: “Reflections of a Golden Dream” (New York, 1976/2004)
Sonny Stitt: ”Stomp Off Let’s Go” (including Louie Bellson) (Flying Dutchman 1976, reissued on CD F D 1-1538)
Richard “Groove” Holmes: “I’m In The Mood For Love” (Flying Dutchman 1975)
Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes: “Expansions” (New York 1974/1995)
Beaver Harris 360 0 Degree Music Experience: “From Ragtime to No Time”, African Drums/No Time (1974)
Michel Sardaby: “Gail” (1974)
Dick Griffin: “The Eight Wonder” (1974)
Melvin van Peebles: “What the ... You Mean I Can’t Sing? (1974)
Camille Yarbrough: “The Iron Pot Cooker” (1971)
Nina Simone, e.g. ”Here Comes the Sun” (1971)
Miriam Makeba, many recordings, e.g.
“The Magnificent Miriam Makeba” (1966)
“Live At Bern’s Salonger” (Stockholm,Sweden 1966)
“Live 1966” (1966)
“In Concert” (1967)
“Click Song” (19..)
“Pata Pata” (19..)
“Live in Sweden” ..... and more
Monica Zetterlund: ”Att Angora en Brygga” and more (1966, reissued on a number of CDs)
Various recordings reissued on compilations, among others:
“Flying Funk” (Bluebird, RCA, Flying Dutchman/Bluebird 2003)
Quebec Cent Ans de Chansons Folkloriques” (2003)
“Jazz On America’s West Coast” (2003)
Miriam Makeba ”In Concert/Pata Pata/Makeba” (2002)
“America’s Newest Praise & Worship, vol. 3” (2002)
“Summer Solstice Vol. 2” (1998)
“Strata-2-East” (1997)
“I Like It” (1996), “Vanguard” (Ace) (1996)
“African Voices” (Songs of Life) (Narada, 1996).
DVD and video:
Nina Simone Live At the Montreal Jazz Festivals 1992 and 2000 (frequently shown on TV around the US).
Nina Simone Live At Montreux 1976, bonus tracks from 1987 and 4 bonus tracks from 1990 with Leopoldo.
Miriam Makeba: Live at Berns Salonger, Stockholm 1966/2003.
Links to music videos and video clips:
Tony Sabbarese: LEOPOLDO FLEMING w. LOU CAPUTO BIG BAND,
The Garage March 18, 2008
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&am p;videoid=30669547
Tony Sabbarese: LEOPOLDO FLEMING solo with LOU CAPUTO BIG BAND,
The Garage February 19, 2008
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&am p;videoid=28749564
All 16 Tony Sabbarese video clips, Lou Caputo Big Band incl. Leopoldo Fleming,
The Garage February 19, 2008
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.showvids&a mp;friendID
=144554853&n=144554853&MyToken=2f75e358-26c1-4f4d-b3 00-360574649e0d
Leopoldo Fleming Drummers Band, African Burial Ground Monument Dedication,
NYC October 5, 2007
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&am p;videoid=20728553
Leopoldo with the Lou Caputo Big Band, The Garage September 25, 2007
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&am p;videoid=20737276
Mixed clips Leopoldo Fleming Afro Caribbean Jazz Aggregation,
Minton's Playhouse September 16, 2006
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&am p;videoid=7853477
Nina Simone: I Put A Spell On You, Montreal Jazz Festival 1992
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&am p;videoid=22164077
Nina Simone: Sea Lion Woman, Montreal Jazz Festival 1992
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OVo54j84OoU
Nina Simone: Pirate Jenny, Montreal Jazz Festival 1992
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ALqRdX1qIvY
Nina Simone: Run Nina + Four Women + I Love(s) You Porgy,
Montreux Jazz festival 1990
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&am p;videoid=31030272
Nina Simone: Ne Me Quitte Pas + Mississippi Goddam, Montreux Jazz Festival 1990
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&am p;videoid=31034040
Nina Simone "?" with Leopoldo Fleming solo, Barcelona 1988
http://youtube.com/watch?v=41-0hgJbmzc
Nina Simone "My Way" with Leopoldo on double time bongos,
Barcelona 1988
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jDa2occbL3Y
Nina Simone "My Baby Just Cares For Me" with introduction of musicians,
Barcelona 1988
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tvS3oFekQZI
Nina Simone "Sea Lion Woman", sole accompaniment by Leopoldo,
Barcelona 1988
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xYFsmk8hkZk
Nina Simone Da Capo: "Sea Lion Woman", sole accompaniment by Leopoldo,
Barcelona 1988
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dq2xRWYIt_g
Nina Simone "Ne Me Quitte Pas"+"Goodbye", Barcelona 1988
http://youtube.com/watch?v=O1NrP0twfa0
Nina Simone "I Put A Spell On You", Montreal 1992
http://youtube.com/watch?v=klIcu7r46Ig
Sivuca (Severino Dias De Oliveira): "Sky And Sea", Swedish TV 1969
http://youtube.com/watch?v=i1As5WXlTkI
Miriam Makeba "Amampondo", with introduction of musicians, Sweden 1966
http://youtube.com/watch?v=TwNk-5enrfM&mode=related& search=
Miriam Makeba "The Click Song", Sweden 1966
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OHxkiXALQjU
Miriam Makeba "Come Back Africa", Sweden 1966
http://youtube.com/watch?v=s0t4Yibsh64&mode=related& search=
Miriam Makeba "Oxgam", Sweden 1966
http://youtube.com/watch?v=W1YKOk9QA8U&mode=related& search=
Miriam Makeba "Pata Pata", Brazil 1968
http://youtube.com/watch?v=85_9mKTg_Do&mode=related& search=
Other links:
Eckhart Derschmidt Jazz Photo Gallery
http://pbase.com/ekke/inntoene06
WBGO 88.3FM
http://wbgo.org
Mintons Playhouse
http://uptownatmintons.com
The Garage
http://www.garagerest.com/
http://www.gothamjazz.com/venues/Garage/
Big Apple Jazz
http://bigapplejazz.com
Congahead
h http://congahead.com/
Scott Friedlander Jazz Photo Gallery
http://allaboutjazz.com/php/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2366 7