Music Career Overview
Hugh Leal of Windsor Ontario has worked for over
thirty-five years, variously as a jazz concert promoter, record producer and
player.
Leal's independent concert promotions started in 1977 and brought to Windsor some of the then-remaining pioneers of 1920's and 30's "hot jazz" such as Wild Bill Davison, Vic Dickenson, Doc Cheatham, Art Hodes, Buddy Tate, Sammy Price, Franz Jackson and Cozy Cole. Later promotions (including five Windsor Jazz Festivals 1992 to 1996) featured artists Tommy Flanagan, Zoot Sims, Mundell Lowe, Ray Bryant, Rob McConnell, Oliver Jones, Bucky Pizzarelli, Peter Appleyard, Ed Bickert….and many others. Leal finished his 30 years of promoting jazz in Windsor in 2007…with the closure of that city's Capitol Theatre.
Record Producer
Leal started his Parkwood Records label with a 1983 LP release of trumpeter Doc Cheatham. That record received accolades in many countries…it was named in lists for "top ten jazz LPs of the year" by The New York Times' jazz critic, Bulletin du Hot Club de France etc. Leal followed with about two dozen more LP and CD releases through 1998. (label sold in 2000). He recorded more well-received albums by Cheatham, Art Hodes, J.C. Heard, Marcus Belgrave, Dick Wellstood, Franz Jackson, Johnny O'Neal and others. Some of these are named as 4 and 5 star rated albums in leading jazz encyclopedias and buying guides. (Penguin, Rolling Stone, Rough Guide, Feather's Bio. Encyclopedia etc.)
Player
Hugh Leal has been active on banjo and rhythm guitar since 1970 when he played frequently all over Detroit in The Red Garter Banjo Band. Since that first professional performing, Leal has continued with weekend playing, leading dixieland combos in Windsor and Detroit for many functions. From 2001 to 2008 Leal toured as guitarist and road manager in trumpeter Marcus Belgrave's Tribute to Louis Armstrong and since 2005 in the same roles with clarinet prodigy Dave Bennett's Tribute to Benny Goodman. Leal has played these concerts in thirty-five states, Canada and Puerto Rico and with a dozen orchestras for symphony "pops", including performances with The Detroit Symphony at Orchestra Hall and Meadowbrook.
