David Leon - Saxophonist

David Leon is a Miami-born saxophonist, woodwinds player, composer, and improviser living in Brooklyn, New York. His work is guided by a persistent search for vitality through autonomy, contradiction, hyperbole, and humor. His work with the saxophone investigates alternate methods for producing a tone, refinement of these techniques, and development of a distinct vocabulary using these sounds; he melds this timbral approach with melodic and rhythmic phrasing from Cuban folkloric traditions, narrative playing, Free Jazz & avant-garde esthetics, and microtonality to reveal a personal conceit.

Most recently, David was named a 2024 Music Composition Fellow by the CINTAS Foundation, an organization supporting Cubans in the arts. He was also awarded a Roulette 2024 Jerome Commission to support the creation of a hybrid work of chamber music and wordless puppet theatre, A Divine Echo, which premiers at Roulette Intermedium in May 2024.

David's current projects include Bird's Eye, a trio with Doyeon Kim and Lesley Mok which will release its first recording this March 8, 2024 on Pyroclastic Records, and Locomotive, a double horns-guitars-percussion trio co-led alongside Adam O’Farrill. His debut album, Aire de Agua (released August 2021 on Out of Your Head Records) has been praised as “a splendid debut from a young saxophone player who, starting with the right foot, promises to make a name for himself in the creative jazz scene” (Felipe Freitas, JazzTrail). He has also released two albums in the Current Obsession series that documents improvisations with current collaborators.

An active sideperson, David has collaborated with artists including Tomas Fujiwara, Nick Dunston, Dafnis Prieto, Ingrid Laubrock, Russell Hall, Cory Smythe, Weston Olencki, Brian Lynch, Garrett Wingfield, and others. He has performed for The Stone, Roulette Intermedium, ::SEEDS::, Barbés, Duck Creek Arts Center, National Sawdust, Spectrum, The Hollywood Bowl, David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, Teatro Nacional de Cuba (Havana), Arsht Center (Miami), DACAMERA (Houston), CENART (Mexico City), and notable jazz venues including The Jazz Gallery, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Birdland, Cornelia Street Cafe, The Appel Room (JALC), Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai, WDNA Jazz Gallery, and The Fish House.

His work has been recognized by Roulette Intermedium, The CINTAS Foundation, The Jazz Gallery, New Music USA, Metropolis Ensemble, Detroit Composer’s Project, Compositum Musicae Novae, the National Youngarts Foundation, and the ASCAP Foundation.