Gerry Leonard
Gerry Leonard is a Dublin-born guitar player, songwriter, producer and musical director, now based in New York. He has worked with many great artists over the years, such as David Bowie, Laurie Anderson, Roger Waters, Duncan Sheik, Suzanne Vega and Rufus Wainwright. Gerry was guitar player and musical director for David Bowie from 2003 to 2010 including the Reality world tour 2003-2004. He played on Bowie’s albums Heathen, Reality and also co-wrote two tracks on Bowie’s penultimate album, The Next Day. Gerry is currently touring with Suzanne Vega as her guitar player, musical director and producer.
Angie Bowie
A mash-up by Gerry Leonard of Davey Graham & Bert Jansch and David Bowie, for Bert Jansch
Gerry says: “Bert was a trailblazer and a great inspiration. When I had the great honour of working with David Bowie on his penultimate album, The Next Day, David mentioned Bert a number of times and we had talked about doing a song in Bert’s unique playing style. Unfortunately, we never got to realize this idea. So, when I was sent the Around the world in 80 plays for Bert Jansch guitar to perform a piece, I wanted to find a way to honor both Bert and David. I came up with an arrangement where I mashed up a piece Bert made famous – ‘Angie’, and a Bowie song – ‘Jean Genie’. I hope my new arrangement will do just that. I am calling it ‘Angie Bowie’.
When not touring or recording, Gerry leads his own project, Spooky Ghost, which has just released the third ambient guitar EP in its Viral Times series – music composed to help us cope with the lockdown and pandemic – ‘Viral Times Vol 3’.
