Leon Lamont (2)

Leon Lamont is a multimedia artist from St. Louis, Missouri. As a DJ, Lamont is an open format DJ. Lamont is best known on the downtown NYC scene as a professional drummer and has played with such artists as Melvin Gibbs, Vernon Reid, Joshua Redman, DJ Logic, John Medeski, Chris Wood, Chocolate Genius, Biz Markie, Anti-Pop Consortium, Apollo Heights, Dead Prez, Martina Topley-Bird, and Genes & Machines to name a few. Known internationally as a producer of experimental electronic music, Lamont is what All Music Guide calls, “the difference between an artist and just another beat monger”. Lamont started his career as a recording artist in the early 90’s, after being discovered by then Rollins Band bassist Melvin Gibbs. During this time, Lamont was the drummer and vocalist for the local St. Louis Rock band T.H.U.G.S. and a live recording of the band’s performance somehow made it’s way to Gibbs in NYC via a fan. After a name change (Treacherous Human Underdogs) and one release (Vice) produced by Melvin Gibbs on the independent, NYC label, Rage Records the group disbanded. Following Treacherous Human Underdogs disbanding, Lamont relocated to New York City and became a favorite drummer among the downtown Experimental Jazz scene’s elite which lead to him doing many gigs at places like the Knitting Factory, Tonic, Wetlands, Irving Plaza and studio recordings with artists like DJ Logic and Vernon Reid. After finishing the first leg of an American tour supporting Medeski, Martin & Wood as the drummer for DJ Logic’s Project Logic band, Lamont returned to New York and signed a solo artist deal with Brooklyn, NY based, independent label, Wordsound Recordings. Lamont produced his first solo effort with engineer/producer Scotty Hard who is known for his work with such artist as Wu-Tang Clan, Lisa Stansfield, Prince Paul, De La Soul and Chris Rock. On his solo release titled Breakbeat Mechanic, Lamont took the unconventional approach of producing an Experimental Drum & Bass record that didn’t use any phrase samples and featured Lamont playing the drums live at 170BPM. In support of the release Breakbeat Mechanic, Lamont performed the pieces live with just a MIDI sequencer and a set of drums as he toured Europe appearing in such places as Berlin, Paris, Switzerland, Austria and Poland.