Bird’s Eye, due out March 8, 2024 via Pyroclastic Records, features a pathfinding new trio with gayageum player DoYeon Kim and drummer/percussionist Lesley Mok.
“[David Leon’s] extroversion feels like a natural part of his musical personality, spiking his agile post-bop with nifty conceptual brio that never gets in the way of his desire to communicate.” – Peter Margasak, The Quietus
“[Bird’s Eye] maintained an easy and fluid connection… [Mok] effortlessly augmented Leon’s… solos and punctuated the texture without overpowering DoYeon Kim, who shredded so hard on the gayagum that she had to actually reassemble her instrument before the set was over.” – Lana Norris, I Care If You Listen
A unique confluence of inspirations and experiences came together to form the music for Bird’s Eye, the breathtaking new album by Miami-born, New York-based saxophonist, reedist and composer David Leon. Curious about his Cuban heritage, Leon began studying with master percussionist Manley “Piri” López, the youngest member of a legendary family of rumberos. At roughly the same time, he formed a new trio with Korean-born gayagum player DoYeon Kim and exploratory percussionist/artist Lesley Mok.
The Bird’s Eye travels by thoroughly unpredictable paths from those intriguing origins. Mention a study of Afro-Cuban folkloric music and the imagination immediately conjures a propulsive, rhythmically-driven sound. What Leon derived from his ongoing investigations was a fascination with the music’s use of counterpart and simultaneity. At the same time, a burgeoning interest in microtonal music resonated with Kim’s training in Korean traditional music, while the profoundly nuanced chemistry forged by the new trio resulted in a much more spacious, subtly intricate soundworld.
“A lot of bands try to move in toward each other’s individual sounds,” Leon says of the trio. “I feel like we’re moving out toward each other instead. DoYeon is able to bring in the traditional music that she wants to expand on, while Lesley often comes from a place of dissonance and stretching time. So it always feels like they’re on the opposite sides of the room from me, in the best way possible. The farther we move in opposite directions, the more vibrant the music becomes.”
The title of the album – which doubles as the name of the trio – suggests that wide-lensed perspective, while also hinting at an integral component of the band’s camaraderie. All three members are passionate about cooking, so rehearsals typically begin an end with a communal meal. Bird’s eye chilis are common in gredients in Thai cuisine, one of Leon’s particular favorites. “Bird’s Eye is a reflection of our time with each other,” he writes in the liner notes, “a period of amalgamation more than combination, more gazpacho than ceviche.”
Leon’s interest in Cuba stemmed from an investigation into his family’s roots, six decades removed from their departure from the island. Through videos online he found Manley López, the youngest member of the legendary family of rumberos known as Los Chinitos, the creators of an experimental style of rumba known as Guarapachangueo. (Leon compares the experience to studying bebop with Charlie Parker’s family.) Leon and Mok began taking lessons virtually during the pandemic, intending a month-long crash course; three years later their lessons continue and have included several treks to López’s home in Mexico City.
While Leon and Mok imbibed the rhythms of rumba deeply, the composer knew that he didn’t want to simply reinterpret the music in a literal sense. Like the dishes they prepare together, the trio’s approach required all of the ingredients to commingle. “The way that time is felt in Korean music is based in breath and gesture in a way that feels magical to me. Cuban music stretches, but it’s all based in the clave. So we experimented with how to stretch time in both of these ways, thinking about pulling notes out of thin air, but with enormous weight. So it started in a Cuban area and went toward Korean music, ultimately taking us somewhere that’s neither.”
Leon and Kim trace terse, spiraling gestures together on the opening track, “You won’t find it by yourself,” punctuated by Mok’s pointillist bursts. “Expressive Jargon I & III” culls a pair from a series of additive pieces that carry the memory of one small idea forward into the next. “Secret Handshake” and “Secret Footshake,” conversely are through-composed duos, with only expressive choices differentiating one performance from the next. “A Night for Counting Stars” features Kim’s recitation of a work by Korean poet Yun Dong-ju. Album closer “Palmetto” hints at a familiar standard, a circuitous link to the jazz tradition.
“We’re all trying to find our place within this huge continuum,” Leon says. “For me, ‘tradition’ has always had something to do with radicalism and championing individual voices and creative thought.”
Bird’s Eye also marks the addition of a rising star on the progressive jazz scene to the Pyroclastic roster, which currently boasts a number of the music’s most revered names. Label founder Kris Davis has served as a mentor for Leon since his arrival in NYC in 2017, first offering guidance as ensemble coach at an improvised music camp and later through The Jazz Gallery’s 2018 Mentoring Series. “David Leon is the real deal: adventurous, fearless, highly skilled, and an artist who values and seeks collaboration with other adventurous artists,” Davis says. “I’m thrilled to be releasing his new album on Pyroclastic. You will be hearing his name often in the years to come!”
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Photo by Alex SK Brown
David Leon
David Leon is a Miami-born saxophonist, woodwinds player and composer living in Brooklyn, New York. Besides Bird’s Eye, he also co-leads the double trio Locomotive with trumpeter Adam O’Farrill and has collaborated with artists including Tomas Fujiwara, Nick Dunston, Dafnis Prieto, Ingrid Laubrock, Russell Hall, Cory Smythe, Weston Olencki, and others. He is a core member of Lisa Hoppe’s Third Reality, Lesley Mok: The Living Collection, Adam O’Farrill’s For These Streets & Bird Blown Out of Latitude, William Brittelle MetaSimulacrum, Vicente Hansen’s Orlando Furioso and others. His debut album, Aire de Agua, has been praised as “a splendid debut from a young saxophone player who… promises to make a name for himself in the creative jazz scene” (JazzTrail). He is a 2024 Jerome Commission artist at Roulette Intermedium.
Pyroclastic Records
Pianist-composer Kris Davis founded Pyroclastic Records in 2016. By supporting artists in the dissemination of their work, Pyroclastic empowers emerging and established artists to continue challenging conventional genre-labeling within their fields. Pyroclastic also seeks to galvanize and grow a creative community, providing opportunities, supporting diversity and expanding the audience for noncommercial art. Its albums often feature artwork by prominent visual artists—Julian Charriére, Dike Blair, Mimi Chakarova, Jim Campbell and Raymond Pettibon among recent examples.
2024 Pyroclastic projects include albums from David Leon, Ches Smith, Josh Modney, Patricia Brennan, Kris Davis and Brandon Seabrook.