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He is a trumpeter born in Los Angeles, California, whose
mother was a hairdresser to Pearl Bailey and father was a bass player for
Louis Jordan and Lena Horne. He
started learning the piano, bongos and clarinet when he was five years old
and when his eleventh birthday came the saxophonist Benny Carter gave him
his first trumpet. When he was
15 he joined he became a member of a youth band and with them he received
instruction on composition, arrangement and preparation. He took further studies at the L.A.
Valley College and concentrated on Music Education at California State
University that saw him earning his B.A in the subject. In 1969/1970 he attended an
audition with Maurice White and found himself taken on as an original
member of Earth, Wind & Fire and stayed with them until they were
temporarily dissolved in 1972.
Forming
his own band with Melba Liston, he would then go on to perform with
bandleaders such as Gerald Wilson and Cab Calloway, with groups and
artists such as The Gap
Band
, Lesley Gore, Raymond Jones, Jimmy Smith
and Junior Walker, conduct for Nancy Wilson, become Sylvester and Marvin
Gaye's music director from 1974 to 1976 and perform in the orchestra for
the musical Hair. When
the 1980s came around he still led his own band, the Leslie Drayton
Orchestra which he formed in 1977 and started his own record label,
Esoteric, with which he released his first solo recording Our Music Is
Your Music. He continued
to work with his band which down-sized into Lesley Drayton and Fun in 1984 and
added the singer Barbara Morrison to the line-up but in 1988 was so
dejected when his Midnight Rendezvous was not taken on by Island that
he bought some equipment and left for Colorado to hone his skills in music. He took studies at the University
of Denver and earned a musical composition Masters degree and was struck
down by cancer, which he successfully beat after surgery in 1994. He opened the publishing company
Water Sign Music Productions in Denver and returned to Los Angeles in 1996 where
he continues to work and record and he appeared in the salsa band in the
movie Along Came Polly in 2004. During his career he has released 11 recordings as a
bandleader, which include By Request, Innuendos, Urbanesque and Close
Pursuit and albums with other artists such as Earth, Wind & Fire
and Eternal Dance by Earth Wind & Fire, Here My Dear and
Let's Get It On by Marvin Gaye, The Gap Band, Too Hot to Sleep,
Living Proof and Original Hits by Sylvester, Dot Com Blues
by Jimmy Smith, Nothin' But Soul by Junior Walker & The All
Stars, All the Way Strong and Reggae Ambassadors: 20th
Anniversary Collection by Third World and the soundtrack of Divine
Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. As a teacher he now takes classes at the Santa Monica
College and is a mentor to students who attend sponsored jazz programs.
Baby
Baba Boogie (Lonnie
Simmons/Charlie
Wilson )
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