Music career
Kendall Wall Band: late 1980s – 1990s
In the late 1980s after filling in many times for guitarist Mike McKenna, Leonard joined as the guitarist for the Kendall Wall Band, providing him the experience of performing with a house band at the Black Swan in Toronto, Ontario. This created the opportunity to perform with some of the well respected in blues music in Canada and Internationally. The Kendall Wall Band arrived at a time when it was a crucial period for blues music in Canada, let alone in the city of Toronto. They provided upcoming musicians the opportunity to perform with a working band then, when International and Canadian blues musicians came to town to play the Black Swan they had the Kendall Wall Band backing them up. Teddy performed with blues musicians from Canadian and International destinations on the short list such as Eddie Shaw, Carey Bell, Fenton Robinson, Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson, Snooky Pryor, Big Jay McNealy, Honkin' Joe Houston, Phil Guy, Morgan Davis, Johnny V Mills and Cash McCall. [4] [5] [6] Notably, Leonard also backed Hubert Sumlin alongside Morgan Davis during this time portion of his career.
Fathead: 1992–2008
In 1992, Leonard became one of the founding members of the Fathead Canadian blues band. In 1995, he received his first award with the Fathead band, the West Coast Blues Award, for Top Canadian Blues Recording. Then in 1997 the band received both the Jazz Report Award, for Blues Group of the Year and the Maple Blues Award for Electric Act of the Year. [7] Leonard is a Maple Blues Award winner as guitarist of the year [8] and a Juno Award winner with the Fathead band for their album, Blues Weather receiving both in 1999 [9] in that same year, the Fathead band won two more awards, the Maple Blues Award for, Electric Act of the Year and the Jazz Report Award for, Blues Group of the Year. The Jazz Report Awards began in the early 1990s, also known as the Canadian Jazz Awards/National Jazz Awards were cancelled in 2010, marking the end of a national award providing recognition throughout the country to the jazz musicians. [10]
In 2001, Leonard joined and has remained a member of The Maple Blues Revue, which was formed by Gary Kendall and Pat Carey. This eleven member group of Canadian blues musicians whom are all multiple Maple Blues Award winners or nominees, perform at the annual Maple Blues Awards Ceremony in Toronto, Ontario and have released one recording, Live at Twisted Pines. [11] [12]
In 2003 he received with the Fathead band the Canadian Indie Award, for Blues Recording of the Year for their song, First Class Riff-Raff. [13]
In 2006, Leonard left the Fathead band and embarked on a career as a freelance musician touring throughout North America and Europe performing with blues musicians such as Paul Reddick, and Pork Belly Futures. [14] [15]
2009–Present
In 2009, Leonard would leave a freelance career and rejoin the Fathead band. [16] Leonard received two more awards in 2010, the first from the Great Lakes Blues Society, the Lifetime Achievement Award recognizing his involvement in Canadian blues music and The Jimmy Lewis Award, presented by the city of London, Ontario, a lifetime achievement award recognizing his long career as a blues musician. In 2012 with the release of a greatest hits album a concert documentary video is included capturing 20 years of the members in the Fathead band, including their guitar ace Leonard. This will be the second documentary Leonard has been interviewed and involved in with the release of the recent documentary video in 2015 outlining the history of the Kendall Wall Band. [17] [18] Along with his tenure with Fathead, he has recorded with Big Daddy G, Rita Chiarelli and Little Mack Simmonds. Leonard continued to perform with the Fathead band until leaving in 2013. [19] [20] In addition to his recorded work, Leonard continues to perform live with notable Canadian Blues acts, including The Hogtown All Stars, Chris Murphy, and The Maple Blues Band. Leonard also serves as lead guitarist for Erin McCallum , and remains in high demand as a freelance player.
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. Considered a virtuoso and one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, Peterson released more than 200 recordings, won eight Grammy Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy, and received numerous other awards and honours. He played thousands of concerts worldwide in a career lasting more than 60 years. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, simply "O.P." by his friends, and informally in the jazz community, "the King of inside swing".
Eric "Garth" Hudson is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist and occasional saxophonist for rock group the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He was a principal architect of the group's sound, described as "the most brilliant organist in the rock world" by Keyboard magazine. With the deaths of Richard Manuel in 1986, Rick Danko in 1999, Levon Helm in 2012, and Robbie Robertson in 2023, Hudson is the last living original member of the Band.
Colin Kendall Linden is a Canadian guitarist, songwriter and record producer. Linden plays acoustic and electric guitar, specializing in slide guitar, country blues, and ragtime fingerpicking, who frequently collaborates with country and folk performers.
Canadian blues is the blues and blues-related music performed by blues bands and performers in Canada. Canadian blues artists include singers, players of the main blues instruments: guitar, harmonica, keyboards, bass and drums, songwriters and music producers. In many cases, blues artists take on multiple roles. For example, the Canadian blues artist Steve Marriner is a singer, harmonica player, guitarist, songwriter and record producer.
David Gogo, is a Canadian blues guitarist, singer-songwriter and bandleader who is currently signed to the independent Cordova Bay Records label. He was formerly signed to EMI Records. Between 1994 and 2014, he released 12 solo albums. As of 2014, his touring band includes a Hammond organ/piano player, an electric bass player and a drummer.
JW-Jones is a Canadian blues guitarist, singer, songwriter and band leader. He is a Juno Award nominee (2015), Billboard magazine Top 10 Selling artist, and winner of the International Blues Challenge for "Best Self-Produced CD Award" for his release 'High Temperature' in 2017 and Best Guitarist in 2020.
Carlos del Junco is a Cuban-Canadian harmonica player.
The Downchild Blues Band is a Canadian blues band, described by one reviewer as "the premier blues band in Canada". The band is still commonly known as the Downchild Blues Band, though the actual band name was shortened to "Downchild" in the early 1980s. The Blues Brothers band was heavily influenced by Downchild Blues Band.
Gary Kendall is a Canadian bassist, vocalist and band leader, best known for his longstanding association with the Downchild Blues Band and co-creator of the Kendall Wall Band.
Steve Strongman is a Canadian blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He has released several full length blues albums, Honey, Blues in Colour, Live at the BarnA Natural Fact, Let Me Prove it to You and No Time Like Now.
Danny Brooks is a blues and Memphis-style R&B musician, singer-songwriter and author now living in Llano, Texas, United States. He performs with a full band as Danny Brooks and The Rockin' Revelators, Danny Brooks & The Austin Brotherhood or Danny Brooks & The Memphis Brothers.
Kirk MacDonald is a Canadian jazz musician and composer. He has been nominated for four Juno Awards, with his album The Atlantic Sessions winning the 1999 Juno Award for Best Mainstream Jazz Album.
Jack de Keyzer is a British-born Canadian blues guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and producer. He has twice won the Juno Award, Canada's highest musical honour, and seven times received Maple Blues Awards, including for Blues Album of the Year in 2000 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. Real Blues Magazine crowned him Live Act Of The Year in 2001, and has twice named him Guitarist of the Year.
Steve Marriner is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and record producer based in Toronto, Ontario. He first garnered attention in the Ottawa blues scene in his early teens as a prodigy blues harp (harmonica) player. He also plays baritone guitar, electric guitar, piano, Hammond organ, upright bass and electric bass. Since 2008, he has been the frontman, singer, one of two guitarists and harmonica player for the Canadian rock'n'roll-blues group MonkeyJunk. The band's album To Behold won the 2012 Juno Award for Blues Album of the Year.
Bill Johnson is a Canadian blues guitarist, singer-songwriter and music educator. After a long career as a sideman and guitarist in the 1990s, he began touring with The Bill Johnson Band. They released their second album, Live, in 2006, which led to Johnson being nominated for Best Guitarist at the Maple Blues Awards. He self-released his third solo album, Still Blue, in 2010, which was nominated for Blues Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2012. Johnson continues to tour and has hosted blues workshops throughout Canada.
Harpdog Brown was a Canadian singer and harmonica player who had been active in Canada's blues scene since 1982. His distinguished musical career was so honoured by the Maple Blues Awards in 2014, for harmonica player of the year, then again in 2015 and for the third time in a row in 2016. He was also nominated for best male vocals and album of the year in 2016. The Maple Blues Awards are Canada's equivalent of The Blues Music Award formerly the W. C. Handy Awards that take place yearly in Memphis, Tennessee. In that same year, he was also honoured with a lifetime membership to the Hamilton Blues Society.
Fathead was a Canadian multiple Juno Award and Maple Blues award-winning blues band, founded by Al Lerman and originally formed with members Mike Fitzpatrick, Ted Leonard, John Mays and Bob Tunnoch.
The Kendall Wall Band originally known as the Kendall Wall Blues Band, was a Canadian blues band formed in September 1983 by award-winning Canadian bassist, vocalist, Gary Kendall and alumnus and collaborator drummer Cash Wall who was the band's co-leader and lead vocalist. Both Wall and Kendall are former members of the Downchild Blues Band which is commonly known as 'the premier blues band in Canada'. The addition of harmonica player Bob 'Cadillac Eddy' Adams and guitarist Richard Smyth, completed the band.
Patrick Leonard Carey is a Canadian baritone and tenor saxophonist, clarinetist, vocalist and is best known for his longstanding association with the Downchild Blues Band.
Donna Grantis is a Canadian guitarist, best known for performing and recording with Prince & 3rdeyegirl. On September 30, 2014, Prince and 3rdeyegirl released their debut album, Plectrumelectrum, which reached #1 on the Billboard Rock chart. The album's title track, "Plectrumelectrum", was originally written by Grantis and later arranged by Prince. Since 2013, Grantis has been a member of Prince's funk supergroup, The New Power Generation. On November 16, 2018, Grantis released two new songs, “Trashformer” and “Violetta,” featuring Hall of Fame Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready, as a limited edition 7” via his vinyl label HockeyTalkter Records. The tracks appear on Grantis’ debut album, Diamonds & Dynamite, released March 22, 2019, via eOne Music. The album and lead track reached #1 on iTunes Canada for top jazz album and top jazz song.
