Leon and the Peoples

Leon & The Peoples is New York City’s hottest up-and-coming ‘reggae-soul’ band. Lead vocals by multi-talented actor and singer/songwriter Leon. They've been performing live all across the nation and developed a loyal fan-base.

Leon, actor and singer/songwriter, starred in Disney’s million dollar movie “Cool Runnings.” Leon has also appeared on television with a re-occurring role on NBC’s “Crossing Jordan,” also on the HBO series “Oz”. Leon’s passion for music was first seen with fans as he portrayed singer David Ruffin in the award winning “The Temptations Mini-Series” and in both “The Little Richard Story” and “The Five Heartbeats”. Leon made his singing debut playing a reggae singer in “The Price of Kissing” in which he sang a reggae rendition of “Daddy’s Home”.

Leon has been on BET’s “106 and Park”, where he headlined the concert in Central Park celebrating the NYC AIDS WALK (2003 – 2005). Leon & The Peoples performed at NYC Summer Stage and The International Music and Arts Festival in New Orleans, LA. and other Reggae festivals from coast to coast. When asked why he dubbed his music "Reggae-Soul" he stated “My music has soul influences, so just saying my music is straight up reggae wouldn’t be accurate,” Leon offers. “It’s basically music for everyone. One good thing with us is that people say it’s hard not to like the album because it doesn’t pinpoint any demographic, its just good music.” Leon doesn't have any direct Caribbean roots. When asked how he got into reggae music he expressed that it is Reggae music that got into him. As a young boy at the age of 11, he heard Bob Marley's “Natty Dread” coming out of a friends window and Leon was hooked. He travels back and forth to Jamaica as an actor so it has become an adopted homeland. Even before he formed Leon & The Peoples, he was involved in reggae music for years, hosting almost every Reggae show imaginable, having friends in the Jamaican music industry, and portraying Jamaicans in some of his movie roles such as Derice Bannock in Cool Runnings . And taking an active role in issues affecting Jamaica. Leon has worked extensively with Upliftment Jamaica, which is a social service organization aimed at providing recreation, education, and health services for St. Thomas.

The Road Less Travled

The Road Less Travled is The Peoples' debut album. The album is unique, refreshing, and exciting.Fact|date=February 2007 Leon has stated that “It was important that we took the time to nurture our sound and perform live as much as possible before recording our first album. The Road Less Traveled is the culmination of years of hard work and harnessing the energy and creative vision of a great team. We put together something very special to share.” The album was produced at Pulse Studios in New York City. Syleena Johnson is featured on the cover of the track “Bottles and Cans” which was originally sung by Angie Stone. Numerous of people dedicated their time and talent to make this album something special. Including Beres Hammond who produced the track “New Day.” Tony Rebel, also put his classic reggae style to the track “Working Man” and Tanto Metro of the duo known as (Tanto Metro and Devante) offered his energy to the R&B classic "Second That Emotion" originally performed by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. The track listing of the album "The Road Less Traveled" can be found here [http://mauricewatts.com/store/leoncd.html Track Listing] . The album has 13 tracks which include the smooth soultry track "Will You Be My Wife" and another cover of the song "Lovely Day."

Personnel

*Leon (Lead Vocals)
*Rupert McKenzie (Bass)
*Gary ‘Ruben’ Steel (Drums)
*Ctarino ‘Eugene’ Medina (Key Board)
*Antonio ‘Alex’ Solynn (Guitar)
*Curtis Bailey (Electric Sax)
*Patrice Anthony (Background Vocals)
*Cathy ‘Alexis’ Layne (Background Vocals)
*Leslie Rochelle (Background Vocals)
*Rohan ‘MixRoh’ Dyer (Engineer/Roadie)
* Victor E. Lewis (Manager)

External links

* [http://www.thepeoples.biz The Peoples Official Website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/leonthepeoples The Peoples Official MySpace Page]
* [http://www.reggae24.com/r24featartist.php Article on The Peoples]
* [http://www.jamaicans.com/music/articles_reggae/RootsRaggaRapRockSoul.shtml Other Article on The Peoples]