Talent and contagious high spirits brought the drummer and percussionist Leon Mobley a long way. From child actor in prominent television channel PBS American Television, he left for excurssionar around the world, playing with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Dave Matthews, Michael Jackson and Carlos Santana, Ziggy Marley to open shows and personalities become friends with weight Nelson Mandela. In passing through Brazil for talks music (in the country, he teamed up with Edi Rock / Rational MC's, Flora Matos, Seu Jorge and Tulio Deck, among other things), Leon visited the studio Evoke to infect the team Evoke with its unwavering joy of living. Take a look at photos and learn a little more of the career of this remarkable man.

Leon Mobley at Studio Evoke

When he was 17 years, Leon traveled to Trinidad, an island in the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela, after joining a sufficient quantity of soft drink cans to buy the ticket. This was the first risky then teenager who wanted to travel the world, and also a culture shock that made a difference even more sensitive with which he was familiar: he left Dover, Massachusetts, in the American West, where everyone was white, to a place where most of the population was black. This landmark Leon eventually connect with what would become his life's mission: conctar cum African culture and it dissiminá the world.

In music, he found the universal language to feel at home anywhere: "The song says a lot about you and enables you to communicate with a lot of different people," he says. His musical initiation could not have been better: he began playing in 1967, African drums under the tutelage of seminal Nigerian drummer Babatunde Olatunji - who worked for many years with Santana - with whom he studied for ten years at the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts in Boston. In 1977, Leon went to study under the direction of Senegalese drummer Ibrahim Camara (drummer of the National Ballet of Senegal), as a member of the dance company Bokan-Deye, Leon was building behalf of African music as a drummer. The new status could be confirmed in two memorable moments: when he was invited to play with Letta Mbulu, Caiphus Semenya and Hugh Masekela, artists known worldwide among the best African musicians and called to play for Nelson Mandela when the African leader was released after 27 years of political imprisonment.

Leon Mobley Nelson Madela in February 1990 after the release of Mandela from Victor Verster prison, where he stayed for 27 years, due to its ideology contrary to the racist policy of apartheid

With over 40 years dedicated to African culture, African percussion Leon led to the mainstream contemporary. Among the many artists he worked with, are: Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson, Peter Wolf, Mick Jagger, Quincy Jones, Santana, Michael Jackson, Macy Gray, Trevor Hall, Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Blind Boys of Alabama, Damian Marley, Jason Mraz, Madonna, The Fugees, Stevie Wonder, Gov't Mule, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Timoria, Pierce Fucinni, Airto and Flora Purim. Among the Brazilian names stand out Edi Rock (Chili Peppers), Flora Matos, Seu Jorge Tulio and Deck. Recently, Leon has performed at an event sponsored by Gucci at the United Nations, which raised 5.5 million dollars to charity for UNICEF and Raising Malawi, Madonna's charity.

Bud Leon, mascot Evoke

Leon Mobley is consider a master of African drums and, with his drum takes the roots of rhythm to the world. Currently, he travels with The Innocent Criminals, Ben Harper's band, and works with Damian Marley and the American rapper In Distant Relatives in the project. In addition, he is founder and artistic director and musical project The Lion and West African Djembe Drummers and Dancers. He also teaches at community centers, schools, the University of California at Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Theater in the Parks and Recreation and the Los Angeles High School for the Arts, preserving and disseminating the dance, customs, history and all African culture to the Americans. In his lectures, he presents a fresh new approach to percussion that made him famous - he calls Traditional African American Music - illuminating and bringing out the rhythm of traditional African drum, which is part of the origin of jazz, funk, R & B and Hip Hop.