Leon Heale

Australian jazz bassist and vocalist. Leon grew up in South Gippsland, Victoria and played guitar. He moved to Melbourne in the late 1950s and swapped to bass. He took lessons with Lyn Challen and had a residency on Hayman Island with some seasoned professionals. Around this time Leon met Graeme Hall, who introduced him to the jazz work of Bill Evans which he adopted. In the 1960s he spent a lot of time at sea playing in the orchestras on cruise liners (to Athens, Southampton – New York, Las Palmas, Bahamas) along with residencies in London, Ipswich and Scarborough in the U.K, Dacca, and Kuala Lumpur. These contracts required Leon to learn electric bass and singing arranged group vocals. In between these cruises and residencies overseas there was work on ABC series Boomeride, as well as playing with New World Trio – both of these featured folk style music. Leon is a group vocals enthusiast and was in supplementary vocal groups attached to Brian May's ABC Showband weekly recording output including The ABC Singers, The Kevin Hocking Singers. Throughout the 1970s he was also the bass player in jazz bands, The Garry Hyde Four and Garry Hyde Tradition. From the mid-70s Leon played with many well known Australian jazz figures, including James Morrison, Frank Traynor, Bob Barnard, Joe Chindamo, Graeme Hall. In the 2000s Leon’s interest in community orchestras redeveloped and found him playing symphonies and concertos with the Frankston Orchestra, Zelman Orchestra and Maroondah Symphony Orchestra.