TainoLeon - ProfilesArchive

About Me

A voice simultaneously pained and ecstatic, a joyful lament. A "feral growl", said the Phoenix New Times.

I come from the central mountainous spine of the island of Puerto Rico. The first concert that my mom took me to as a child was a Celia Cruz / Gran Combo double header. As of 22 Jul 06 the last concert I attended was Bill Frisell's New Quartet at the Rhythm Room.

Some of the ensembles I've worked with recently: the think horses - here and now
blacksheep choir - a folky-jazzy alternative rock thing
CPR Orchestra - a mambo slash rock slash cumbia slash freejazz thing
Añá - a folkloric Afro-Cuban thing
Wicked Children (see theirSpace)- a nine-piece ensemble with horns that does jazz explorations of the music of Radiohead

I'm about to release an EP on Osunlade's intrepid Yoruba label, with a follow-up album later.

Feel free to drop me a line . . .

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 8/8/2005
Band Website: tainoleon.com
Band Members: ThinkHorses: Theo Belledin - keys & saxes, Adam Clark - drums, John Chapman - contrabass, Emilio Caruso - drums, TainoLeón - voice & guitar
Influences: Infuences come in all shapes and sizes and in no particular order: Peter Riviera, Randy Newman, Aldous Huxley, Mohammed Yousof Asefi, Bill Frisell, Jane Goodall, the Beatles, Salvador Dali, Karen Peris, Joseph Campbell, Miles Davis, Margaret Sanger, Bob Dylan, Jack Gilbert, Maria Rita, Robert Burns, Aretha Franklin, Bob Ross, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Pat Metheny, Isaac Asimov, Frank Zappa, Vermeer of Delft, Van Morrison, Roger Penrose, Regina Spektor, Amadeo Modigliani, David Bowie, Philip Wylie, Rickie Lee Jones, Egon Schiele, Ken Nordeen, John Shelby Spong, Ismael Rivera, James Caroll, David Byrne, Jimmy Carter, Roberta Flack, Carl Sagan, Diego Luzuriaga, Andrew Wyeth, Sophie Scholl, Ray Charles, Martin Luther King Jr, ORang, Juan de la Cruz, Cheo Feliciano, Karen Armstrong, Jaco Pastorius, Thomas Paine, Lhasa de Sela, John Dominic Crossan, Thelonious Monk, Meister Eckhardt, JS Bach, Ana Delia Santiago, Andy Montañez, William Carlos Williams, Caetano Veloso, Robert Price, Mark Hollis, Thomas Jefferson, Mahalia Jackson, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gordon Sumner, Amy Jill Levine, Michael Schenker, Al Franken, Peter Gabriel, Bertrand Russell, Paul Simon, Janet Napolitano, Leonard Cohen, Bill Moyers, Bob Marley, Hokusai, Bismillah Khan, Richard Dawkins, Aaron Copland, Stephen Colbert, James Taylor, ee cummings, Martha Wainwright, Julian Huxley, Prince, Walter Bauer, Harper Lee, Juan Luis Guerra, Rainer Maria Rilke, Patty Griffin, Albert Einstein, Celia Cruz, Lao Tsu, The Rolling Stones, Noam Chomsky, Erik Satie, John Stewart, Langhorne Slim, Steve Hanks, Joe Diorio, Teresa of Calcutta, Patti Smith, Alfred Loisy, John Coltrane, Georgia O'Keefe, Gustav Holst, Ben Franklin, Rubén Blades, Rumi, Osvaldo Golijov, Mark Twain, Janet Rankin, Sam Harris, Heligoland, Stephen Jay Gould, everything else.
Sounds Like: sounds . . . kinda like rickie lee jones had a love child with dr john, celia cruz and peter gabriel, but not really.
Record Label: Yoruba
Type of Label: None