Oscar D'León

Venezuelan Oscar D’Leon has a combination of talent for improvisation and for a highly textured vocal tone. He is a top ranking performer in his home country and continues to strengthen his reputation around the world. His joy for entertaining has been a steady thread throughout D’León’s career. In an interview in 1996 for the Chicago Tribune, D’León said: "My message has nothing to do with ecology or politics but, it's simply that people have a good time and remember me as someone who loves them".

Born in the Caracas neighborhood of Etamin, D’León was influenced by Cuban musicians Beny Moré and La Sonora Matancera and New Cork-based Latin performers Eddie Palmieri and Willie Colón. He taught himself to play the bass by listening and playing along to records.

When beginning his career, D’León had to balance time spent singing with a full time job as a taxi driver and factory worker. Shortly after forming a band La Dimensión Latina in 1973, he recorded his first hit "Pensando en ti". Three years later he formed his second group Salsa Mayer.

Fondly known as "El León de la Salsa" (the Lion of Salsa), D’León has toured with very large groups. Besides touring and recording with a nineteen-instrument band, among which were five saxophones, four trombones and four trumpets, D’León toured with a fifteen instrument group in 1996. And after many releases toward the end of the nineties, D’León made a comeback in the new millennium with Double Play.

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