The Squid's Ear Magazine


Leon, David: Bird's Eye (Pyroclastic Records)

An exotic album of improvised music with a wide focus, founded in saxophonist David Leon's interest in Afrocuban folkloric music, expanded through DoYeon Kim's gayagum, a traditional 12-string Korean zither, and punctuated with the exploratory drumming, percussion and glockenspiel of Lesley Mok; assertively unpredictable and continuously intriguing improv.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



David Leon-soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, alto flute, piccolo

DoYeon Kim-gayagum, voice

Lesley Mok-drumset, percussion, glockenspiel


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Includes a foldout with liner notes by David Leon

UPC: 020286246978

Label: Pyroclastic Records
Catalog ID: PR 32
Squidco Product Code: 34851

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Oktaven Audio, in Mt Vernon, New York, on November 15th, 2022, by Ryan Streber.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"I began learning to play Afrocuban folkloric music right around the time I started to write the music for Bird's Eye. These pieces drew from the counterpoint I found so captivating in Cuban music-its vibrant presence, supple beat and fluid groove, the feeling of autonomy in each part. The calls from the Other Side. At the same time, I was becoming increasingly curious about microtonality and the enormous weight that its intervals and resonances seemed to carry. DoYeon's training in Korean traditional music brought a nuanced understanding of how these malleable resonances could function in a folkloric context and beyond; I'd always admired Lesley's wide beat and gestural poetry at the drums, their thoughtful investigation with time and how to bend it.

It became quickly clear that this band could be a vehicle to explore all the musical bits I was curious about at once: a search for the notes between the notes. We rehearsed an enormous amount. We shared even more meals together, an unofficial tenant of our process. Our goal was to learn to intuit some collective macro beyond our individualism, to swoop in/out of gesture together, to blend more than to mix, to form constellations with our sounds. After some thousandth hour of searching and softening, the music began to congeal. Bird's Eye is a reflection of our time with one another-a period of amalgamation more than combination, more gazpacho than ceviche."-David Leon


Includes a foldout with liner notes by David Leon


This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"David Leon is a Cuban-American saxophonist, woodwinds player, and composer/improviser living in Brooklyn, New York. His diverse musical output is guided by an exploration of nuance: in timbre by creatively manipulating saxophone technique, in pitch by tampering with equal temperament and employing microtonality, and in texture possibility through orchestration and improvisation.

As the winner of the 2017 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer's Award, David debuted a new quartet at the Newport Jazz Festival in August of that year. In November 2018, he performed alongside pianist Kris Davis as part of The Jazz Gallery's Mentoring Series. Most recently, David was selected by New Music USA's 2021 Creator Development Fund to further develop his ensemble Bird's Eye - a new trio with Doyeon Kim on kayageum and Lesley Mok on percussion.

Other solo endeavors include Aire De Agua - a quartet which released it's debut recording in August 2021 on Out Of Your Head Records, the Current Obsession series - which documents improvisations with current collaborators, Trio, and the co-led chamber project Sound Underground. An active sideperson, David has collaborated with artists including Dafnis Prieto, Ingrid Laubrock, Francisco Mela, Kris Davis, Justin Vernon, Brian Lynch, Adam O'Farrill, Cory Smythe, Jim Black, Chris Pitsiokos, Arturo O'Farrill, Tomas Fujiwara, Michael Formanek, Matt Mitchell, Henry Fraser, Kalia Vandever, Michael Attias, Tom Rainey, and others.

Born and raised in Miami, Florida, David discovered a love for music in his uncle's collection of global percussion instruments. After starting formal instruction on piano he found the saxophone by chance, and was accepted into the prestigious New World School of the Arts high school to study jazz. He quickly garnered national recognition from the National YoungArts Foundation, the GRAMMY Foundation, the ASCAP Foundation, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Jazz Band of America. His trio #bicmnrosfulmfrenh was recognized as the Best Small Ensemble by Downbeat Magazine's Student Music Awards in 2016.

David graduated with a Bachelor of Music from the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, as a member of the cross-genre Henry Mancini Institute. In addition, David is a two-time alumni of the Kennedy Center's Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program and the Banff Centre in Canada. He has been mentored by Terence Blanchard, Kris Davis, Manley "Piri" Lopez, and Ira Sullivan."

-David Leon Website (https://davidleonsmusic.com/about)
7/1/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

Do Yeon Kim is a Korean composer and gayageym player. Kim incorporates traditional Korean music into her composition and promotes music performed on the gayageum. She was born in Seoul, Korea and currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She studied Contemporary Improvisation at New England Conservatory. She is a member of Jayu Quartet.

-Squidco 7/1/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Lesley Mok is a percussionist and interdisciplinary artist who works in sound, installation, film, and theater. Interested in the ways social conditions shape our beings, Lesley's work focuses on overacting humanness to explore ideas about alienness and privilege. Their work draws from queer and feminist art practices, Chinese philosophy, Caribbean folkloric musical traditions, futurist perspectives, and ancestral knowledge. Their ongoing explorations with composition and improvisation are most notably documented in their ten-piece improvising chamber ensemble, The Living Collection (American Dreams Records). Other recent works include stilled leaf-chatter (2022), bird in its chest (2022), pooling light (2021), but I forced to mind my vision of a sky (2020), and she smashed the enclosure (2020).

In addition to their own work, Lesley can be heard in Myra Melford's Fire and Water, David Leon's Bird's Eye, Anna Webber's Shimmer Wince, the percussion co-operative The Forest, and co-led projects tombstar and vehicle / passenger.

Lesley's work has been recognized by the ASCAP Foundation, Roulette Intermedium, and the Asian American Arts Alliance, and has been performed by International Contemporary Ensemble, Metropolis Ensemble, and JACK Quartet. They have collaborated with Tomeka Reid, Fay Victor, William Parker, Cory Smythe, Jen Shyu, Myra Melford, Isabel Crespo Pardo, edi kwon, Zekkereya El-margharbel, David Leon, Doyeon Kim, Adam O'Farrill, and others."

-Lesley Mok Website (https://www.lesleymok.com/about-1)
7/1/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. You won't find it by yourself 6:43

2. Ay-ya 5:34

3. Nothing Urgent, Just Unfortunate (feat. Doyeon Kim & Lesley Mok) 9:23

4. to speak in flowers 6:53

5. A Night For Counting Stars 8:36

6. Secret Footshake 2:52

7. Expressive Jargon I & III 7:45

8. Infatuation Station 7:02

9. Secret Handshake 3:03

10. Palmetto 6:44

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Trio Recordings
Cultural Musics from Around the World
Recent Releases and Best Sellers

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The Squid's Ear Magazine

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