Leon
Blue (yes, that's his real name!)
may just be the finest blues piano
man you've never heard of. Not that
he hasn't had more than his share
of high profile gigs – lengthy
spells with The Ike & Tina Turner
Revue, Lowell Fulson, and Albert Collins
to name just a few - it's just that
he's spent most of his career as a
sideman rather than out front in the
spotlight. But the company he's kept
speaks volumes about his talent, professionalism
and versatility as a musician.
Born in Wichita Falls, Texas in 1931, Leon
was first inspired to play piano in 1940
after hearing records of the pounding boogie-woogie
of Meade Lux Lewis and Albert Ammons, and
also early live performances by fellow Texan
Charles Brown. By 1955, Leon and his three
brothers, all also musicians, had relocated
to Los Angeles and were performing as The
Four Scooters. Before long Leon was making
connections with a who's who of the bustling
L.A. blues scene, and over the next three
decades played and recorded with some of
the biggest names active on the west coast
(and elsewhere), including B.B. King, Albert
King (who says hired and fired him three
different times), Roy Milton, Fats Washington,
Little Joe Blue, and many others. Leon even
played fill-in gig in L.A. with Chicago
blues great Muddy Waters, when Muddy's regular
pianist Pinetop Perkins missed his plane;
he says when Pinetop finally arrived, Muddy
didn't want to hire him back! All of this
in addition to being a regular member of
the Ike & Tina Turner Revue during their
most successful years, from 1964 until 1978.
Although he relocated to Las Vegas in the
early 1990s, he hasn't slowed down bit.
He's continued to tour regularly when his
old friends like Roy Gaines, Sonny Rhodes
or Phillip Walker call, and is frequently
in L.A. for gigs and recording sessions,
tickling the ivories or pounding out a boogie
as needed. But it wasn't until The Mannish
Boys sessions in 2004 that Leon got a chance
to show off his 'secret weapon' on record
for the very first time - a warm and husky
blues voice, that we're sure to hear more
of in the future.
