A musical whole is always the sums of it's
parts, and for Brant Leeper's music, those parts consist
of a love for the soul in blues, the excitement of jazz,
the transformation of melody and the enjoyment of entertaining
others by sharing a life's passion.
If you were to peek into Brant's record collection,
you would see titles from Thelonious Monk and Johnny "Guitar"
Watson to Billy Preston and Dr. John , from Junior Brown
and Hank Williams to Wild Bill Davis and "Brother" Jack
McDuff.
Keyboardist and bassist Brant Leeper's music
career began in his basement at the age of 13 when a sports
injury left him with a cast and nothing to do after school.
With a piano down there and the sounds of Jerry Lee blasting
from his father's Hi-Fi, he started trying to emulate what
was hearing. He then began combining notes and writing his
own music... a passion that has never left him.
Brant has since been
in the music business for all of his adult life. At the
age of 18, he conned his way into nightclubs to earn money
during college. By 19, he was a published songwriter and
booked and managed a regional blues act "Bluehouse", in
which he performed with bassist Fisher "Fish" Alexander
Jr. and saxophonist Norris "Big Mac" McPherson.
At age 21, Brant moved to the music mecca
Austin, TX. There he played with a number of bands before
being selected by nationally known guitarist/singer W.C.
Clark. Clark tours extensively throughout the U.S. and
Canada. With this band, Brant has shared the bill with blues
icons like B.B.
King, Buddy Guy, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, the Allman Brothers,
Roomful of Blues and Bobby Blue Bland. He has appeared on
numerous TV and radio broadcasts and at many major music
festivals, including the Pocono Blues Fest, Mississippi
Blues Fest, the Telluride Brews and Blues Fest and the Santa
Cruz Blues Fest. He was also Clark's touring merchandise
sales manager. During Brant's tenure with the band, W.C.
Clark has won two Handy Awards (blues industry Grammies)
including Best Blues/Soul Record in 1998.
Brant is also proud to have performed with
blues legend Bo Didley, harmonica great James
Cotton and Johnny Rawls as
well as some of Austin's finest musicians including Tommy
Shannon and Chris Layton of Double Trouble (recording session),
Barry "Frosty" Smith, Toby Anderson, Rob
Roy Parnell, Dave Herrero, Matt
Powell, Derek O'Brien, Mark "Kaz" Kazanoff, Ponty Bone,
Angela Strehli, Fran Christina and Sarah Brown to name a
few.
Brant was also a featured keyboardist with
The
Seth Walker Band during Austin's famed "swing area"
from 1999 to 2001. At this time, he also appeared on Walker's
release Meet Me In The Middle.
In 2001, Brant
joined forces with Houston based front-man Hamilton
Loomis and after a legendary performance at the Santa
Cruz Blues Fest, (Brant's 3rd appearance there,) the
band was signed to a record deal with Blind Pig Records thus beginning Brant's
second national touring act. Brant appears on Loomis' debut
international Blind Pig release Kickin' It and wrote
two cuts: Something's Gonna Come My Way and Better
Man.
In 2004, after almost 9 years of heavy national
touring (and over 1,000,000 miles traveled,) Brant decided
to take a break for a while and relocated to the mountains
of Durango, CO where he started a music coffee shop called
Pure Soul Coffee. But,
he is far from being retired... he still writes, records,
produces and performs an average of 4 nights a week with
local favorites The Swingrays, Sugarhouse, Jeff Solon, Nina Sasaki, Lisa
Blue and Santa Fe's Sister Mary and the Bad Habits.
"The journey has only begun..."
http://www.brantleeper.com/ |