Bio:
Grammy Award winner Leon Bridges' first strides as a soul inspired R&B artist prompted comparisons to legends like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, but he quickly came into his own as a Top Ten, Grammy Award winning, globally touring artist.
The 28 year old singer, songwriter honed his talent performing in and around his native Fort Worth, Texas, at open mic nights. Leon attracted industry attention when the venerable music and culture site Gorilla-vs-Bear posted uploads of analog recordings produced by Niles City Sound’s Josh Block and Austin Jenkins. Signed to Columbia Records, Bridges' first singles, including a rich ballad written about his mother, appeared in February 2015 with a sound that evoked classic R&B and soul.
His debut album, Coming Home, followed four months later. It debuted at number six on the Billboard 200 and was nominated for two Grammys: Best R&B Album & Best Music Video.
Bridges kept busy with appearances across the world including but not limited to performing at The White House for President Obama, the Library of Congress, the Museum Of Modern Art Film Benefit - A Tribute To Tom Hanks and Tom Ford New York Fashion Week event. He opened for the Rolling Stones in Europe and announced opening dates on the Harry Styles tour in South America. Leon also penned the main track for Concussion starring Will Smith and had a huge sync with his track “River” on Reese Witherspoon’s hit HBO series Big Little Lies.
In 2016 and 2017, Bridges' was active as a performer and collaborator. In addition to extensive tours and festivals, he co-wrote and was featured on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' "Kevin," Nick Waterhouse's "Katchi," and Kacey Musgraves' "Present Without a Bow." Additionally, he recorded "On My Own" with Lecrae and connected twice with Gary Clark, Jr., for Live North America 2016 and on a collaborative cover of Neil Young's "Ohio." Work with Aminé and ODESZA was also out by the end of 2017. Early the following year, Coming Home was certified gold by the RIAA. Shortly thereafter, Bridges released "Bet Ain't Worth the Hand", "Bad Bad News" and “Beyond” the first offerings off his contemporary and stylistically broader second album, Good Thing, released in May 2018. Critics heralded Good Thing for its modern R&B sound, lush production and joyous songwriting. Leon, who has been nominated for four Grammy Awards, took home his first ever win for Best Traditional R&B performance for “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand”.
Contact Information
Management/Booking:
MANAGEMENT
Jonathan Eshak & Zeke Hutchins [email protected]
Recommend Leon Bridges in order to appear here. Click on the grey crosses visible when logged in. Your photo will appear, with a link back to your page:
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; recorded "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
Tap the grey crosses next to the categories on somebody's Matrix Page to recommend that person for that category.
(These crosses are only visible when you are logged in)
The crosses will turn green.
That person/category will appear in your My Curation & Recommendations.
You will appear in that person's Incoming Curation and Recommendations.
By the small world phenomenon (6 degrees of separation in the general population), you will not only be one step from the recommended person, you will tend to some small number of steps from everybody inside the Matrix.
All is closer than we imagine.
Salvador is our base. If you plan to visit Bahia, there are some things you should probably know and you should first visit:
Conceived under a Spiritus Mundi ranging from the quilombos and senzalas of Cachoeira and Santo Amaro to Havana and the provinces of Cuba to the wards of New Orleans to the South Side of Chicago to the sidewalks of Harlem to the townships of South Africa to the villages of Ireland to the Roma camps of France and Belgium to the Vienna of Beethoven to the shtetls of Eastern Europe...*
*...in conversation with Raymundo Sodré, who summed up the irony in this sequence by opining for the ages: "Where there's misery, there's music!" Thus A Massa, anthem for the trod-upon folk of Brazil, which blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south until Sodré was silenced, threatened with death and forced into exile...
And thus a platform whereupon all creators tend to accessible proximity to all other creators, irrespective of degree of fame, location, or the censor.
Matrix Ground Zero is the Recôncavo, bewitching and bewitched, contouring the resplendent Bay of All Saints (end of clip below, before credits), absolute center of terrestrial gravity for the disembarkation of enslaved human beings (and for the sublimity these people created), the bay presided over by Brazil's ineffable Black Rome (seat of the Integrated Global Creative Economy* and where Bule Bule is seated below, around the corner from where we built this matrix as an extension of our record shop).
("Black Rome" is an appellation per Caetano, via Mãe Aninha of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá.)
*Darius Mans holds a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT, and lives between Washington D.C. and Salvador da Bahia.
Between 2000 and 2004 he served as the World Bank’s Country Director for Mozambique and Angola. In that capacity, Darius led a team which generated $150 million in annual lending to Mozambique, including support for public private partnerships in infrastructure which catalyzed over $1 billion in private investment.
Darius was an economist with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, where he worked closely with the U.S. Treasury and the IMF to establish a framework to avoid debt repudiation and to restructure private commercial debt in Brazil and Chile.
He taught Economics at the University of Maryland and was a consultant to KPMG on infrastructure projects in Latin America.
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
EX TERRA BRASILIS
The Small World Phenomenon
Susan Rogers
Alicia Svigals
Julian Lloyd Webber
Clarice Assad
Sodré
Betão Aguiar
Bule Bule
Caetano Veloso
Darius Mans
Sparrow/Pardal Roberts
RÁDIO MATRIX