Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown’s Message: “Before Your Time”
Grammy-award winning and Billboard-award winning artist Leon “Kid Chocolate” Brown has just delivered music that strikes at the soul with new song and video “Before Your Time,” drenched in that New Orleans vibe and in positivity. From the press release:
After observing the state of humanity during the global lockdown from COVID-19, Brown sought to offer a silver lining shifting the perspective to revel in free time. He observed that this was a time to take leaps towards your life’s dreams as you may never have the opportunity to do so again.
Brown performs here in a stripped-down quartet with Chris Spies (Matador! Soul Sounds), keyboards; Jon Gross, tuba; and Jermal Watson, drums). Brown worked atop the rhythm track loop, with the end result of this remote collaboration mixed by Eddie Roberts after tracking by Spies. Mastering engineer was Doug Krebs at Doub Krebs Mastering. The single is available from Color Red Music.
Kid Chocolate began playing the trumpet when he was nine years old. A young sensation passionate about the music, Kid Chocolate was able to take his musical talents on the road at the age of 15 when he began touring the world performing for festivals, clubs and concert halls. Talent with accolades to prove it, Kid Chocolate has been on the receiving end of such awards as the Offbeat and Big Easy awards, Latin Billboard Award and two additional Grammy nominations. An eclectic ear has led the musical genius to conquer genres from Afro-Caribbean, Blues and traditional/revivalist music representative of New Orleans culture.
On “Before Your Time,” Brown handles the vocals and some lovely trumpet playing and overdubs. There are uncredited background vocals — really good. The basic track with Spies on piano, Watson on that NOLA second-line beat, and bass courtesy of Gross on tuba, is as Crescent City as you can get, jazzy and funky. And the video is a blast; check out Spies with mask playing in his own studio!
Certainly looking forward to more music from Brown, especially with this collaboration!
