Leopoldo F. Fleming

Leopoldo Fleming Afro-Caribbean Jazz Ensemble

Almost till the end Leopoldo was maintaining his exceptional Leopoldo Fleming Afro-Caribbean Jazz Ensemble, which he founded more than 35 years ago, of a special musical concept which included New York and Caribbean Jazz and Latin greats (some of the mainstays since 2008: Karen Joseph, Dinah Vero, Bryce Sebastien/Kim Clarke, Emilio Valdés, on-and-off Freddie Harris III).

Since July 2016 Leopoldo also had a special set-up of this ensemble in Copenhagen, including Danish and Danish-Cuban Jazz and Latin greats (Ben Besiakov, Kaare Munkholm/Morten Grønvad, Yassér Morejon Pino, Jonas Johansen).

About Leopoldo F. Fleming

As percussionist, composer, arranger, lyricist, band leader, Leopoldo was a great personality with a rich and multicolored palette, inspiration from his Latin-Afro-Indian roots, his childhood in Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, decades as highly active in the jazz and beyond music scene of New York, and his international experience collaborating and touring all over Europe, Africa, South America, the Caribbean, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, with US, Caribbean, and African stars.

Mainly a jazz musician, Leopoldo was well versed in several genres - jazz, funk, R&B, Caribbean, Cuban, Brazilian, African, gospel and spirituals. He was a brilliant accompanist, a fascinating soloist, had a special melodic gift in his playing, and his performances sparkled with surprises, sophistication, grace, and exquisite timing.

Throughout his entire career Leopoldo had constantly developed, explored, and pursued new ideas and inspiration, maintaining his reputation as a world-class performer, never compromising on the authenticity of rhythms and styles according to his genuine deep knowledge and feeling.

At each of the Leopoldo Fleming Afro-Caribbean Jazz Ensemble's performances at venues and festivals, this band truly enthused with intriguing rhythms and beautiful tunes (standards and originals), played with warm and deep artistic intensity, among other as a recurring event at the annual Staten Island Jazz Festival.

For decades since its inception by music director Linda Twine, and until 2013, Leopoldo was a mainstay with The New York Harlem Singers, touring in the Far East each December. Also as a continual tradition for decades, each winter Leopoldo worked with Sandy Robbins and her The Shadow Box Theater in New York.

Since 2007 he was a member of the all-stars Lou Caputo Not So Big Band until sadly Lou Caputo left this world in 2022. He appeared on two albums with the band.

Leopoldo has played, recorded and toured with a cornucopia of great artists such as Miriam Makeba for a number of years since 1965, Nina Simone off and on, as he put it, for 31 years, in 2008, -09 and -10 followed by Sing The Truth tours (a tribute to Nina Simone including original NS band members Al Schackman, Chris White, Paul Robinson and himself + on piano Geri Allen/Jeremy Berlin/Bob Dorough respectively, and featuring among others Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Patti Austin, Lizz Wright, Angélique Kidjo, Simone Kelly and Stacey Kent, going to Istanbul, 10 countries of Europe, Australia and New Zealand) - and more great artists such as Harry Belafonte, Eartha Kitt, Randy Weston (in big band format and a trio including Ron Carter and Abdul Malik), Sonny Stitt, Archie Shepp, Novella Nelson, Lonnie Liston Smith, Queen Esther Marrow, Leo Wright, Monica Zetterlund, Beaver Harris, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Richard Grove Holmes, Leon Thomas, Bob Cunningham, Kenny Barron, Horace Parlan, David Murray, Lou Caputo, Chris White, Symphony of the New World, The String Reunion, The World Bass Violin Ensemble, Boys' Choir of Harlem and a number of local world class musicians in Vienna, Copenhagen and other places of Europe.

To pick out just a few of many bright moments:

Since 2006 he played with bigger and smaller combos of Danish jazz greats in and around Copenhagen, including the Niels-Jørgen Steen's A-Team, the Simon Spang-Hanssen's Måneklar and the Rikke Lie Band, and also led his own gigs. In later years, on more occasions he played with his Danish set-up of his Leopoldo Fleming Afro-Caribbean Jazz Ensemble at the Posthus Teatret in the heart of Copenhagen, e.g. at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival 2016, in April 2017 a special100th anniversary memorial concert for Denmark's sale of the Danish Virgin Islands to the USA, and in October 2019 a concert celebrating Leopoldo's 80th birthday.

November 2008, Leopoldo's special contribution at the memorial concert at the Poisson Rouge (former Village Gate) for Mama Afrika, Miriam Makeba, who had passed one week earlier, and with whom Leopoldo had played, toured, and recorded for years since 1965.

October 2007, on the occasion of the Memorial Dedication of the new African Burial Ground National Monument in lower Manhattan, at the official ceremony Leopoldo led the 10 piece band of drummers, percussionists, and a flutist, which performance got extensive television news coverage throughout the day. At the ceremonious evening Candlelight Procession from Battery Park to the Burial Ground Leopoldo led another 16 piece drummer/percussion band.

Autumn 06 kept Leopoldo busy as musical director, composer, and arranger for Dana Manno's production in NYC of the musical Queen Coziah, a Caribbean drama by Eddie Donoghue. The show received standing ovations.

Re. CD Leopoldo F. Fleming & Christian Gonsior: TRATO COMÚN - Fleming, Gonsior, Dinah Vero, Joel Diamond, Alex Hernández, Emilio Valdés, José Mangual Jr. - Originals of Jazz, Caribbean/Cuban, African styles and inspiration by Fleming & Gonsior respectively, plus one Puerto Rican standard.

Re. CD Afro Indian Blues: In the September 2007 issue of the AllAboutJazz-New York gazette, this Jim Pepper, Amina Claudine Myers, Anthony Cox, Leopoldo Fleming CD is categorized an Unearthed Gem, and Donald Elfman praises Leopoldo for showing true versatility and appealing accessibility.

In an AllAboutJazz.com review of the same album, Bill Siegel writes: '...On percussion, Leopoldo Fleming takes a flight with a solo that's absolute, total music - he plays the melody on his drums, not just a riff on the rhythm. You can almost hear the distant echo of Myers' singing below the drums. Don't be fooled towards the end of Fleming's solo. That's not him stepping aside to let Cox slip in a few bars on his bass. Those deep notes are Fleming's fingertips rubbing the skins of his congas.'

Re. album Lonnie Liston Smith “Expansions”, Nat Hentoff liner notes: “...I was in a NY nightclub, and what intrigued me was a musician I had never heard before. He was playing various percussion instruments and extracting extraordinarily fresh, unexpected hues from his instruments with a grace and flawless timing that really made him the star of the show. He was Leopoldo Fleming.”

Theater credits also include: The Burt Reynold's Dinner Theater production of Cowboy and the Legend starring Eartha Kitt, the New York Shakespeare Festival's Public Theater Off-Broadway and Broadway productions of The Haggadah, Dispatches, Runaways, and Alice in Wonderland, starring Meryll Streep. Leopoldo composed the original music for this theater's Les Femmes Noires, Sister Sonji, and Black Visions. Another of his projects with that same theater was a workshop presentation of Rumba, a works-in-progress that he wrote and co-directed. Furthermore Leopoldo was Musical Director for the Brooklyn Academy of Music's production of LeRoi Jones' (= Imanu Barraka's) Slaveship, where he worked together with Archie Shepp and Gilbert Moses.

He has toured extensively with the New Orleans based Free Southern Theater, and he has also composed the music for episodes of and performed in an educational US television series for children called Vegetable Soup.

Since 1951 Leopoldo's home was New York, however, from 1987 to 98 he had residence in Vienna, Austria, and since 2006 he had a base in Copenhagen, Denmark, too.