Michael Leonhart

A highly versatile trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, and arranger, Michael Leonhart has distinguished himself as both a bandleader and session player with a wide variety of pop, jazz, and hip-hop artists. Leonhart first garnered attention in his teens after winning the 1992 Grammy for Best High School Musician and releasing 1995's Aardvark Poses. He has toured and recorded regularly with Steely Dan since 1996 and worked with artists like Vinicius Cantuaria, El Michels Affair, David Byrne, Yoko Ono, and others. While his roots are in post-bop jazz, he has explored a wide array of sounds, including neo-psychedelic rock and funk as on 2010's Seahorse and the Storyteller. He also leads his large Michael Leonhart Orchestra, with whom he released 2018's The Painted Lady Suite, 2019's Suite Extracts, Vol. 1, and 2022's Normyn Suite.