About "2LE'Y"!
Hi, my name is 2LE’Y which means ever evolving gift(ed)! It fits me perfectly being that I’m constantly learning, growing and expanding! I enjoy challenging and complex situations that I must navigate through on stage in front of people in real-time. It is an entangled process to improvise with an ensemble and provide people with a wonderful experience however, I absolutely love it! Whether I’m singing, acting or playing an instrument, it is a wonderful feeling to see others appreciate my gifts!
I am also an author and songwriter in addition to a musician with many literary projects. Several of these projects are completed and many are still in the works. I have a lifetime of work stored with several friends and family members so in the event that something happens to me, they will have a library of my songs! I've written some jingles, a few scripts and over 300 songs!
I love writing about current events and life. I enjoy putting simple everyday sayings to melodies and then creating music! This is the reason why most of my songs are simple phrases of life. I will be able to share a lot more with other musicians and singers once I get them transcribed. It was a blessing the first time I was able to see my songs on sheet music. I was thrilled to have a group of musicians that did not know me, come together and play my song. I didn’t know I felt so strongly until after the performance was over. The audience listened to the words intensely and then cheered afterwards! IT WAS ELATING TO SAY THE LEAST!
This has been a long time coming! I started on the saxophone back in middle school. I had to play the music I heard in my head because I never really learned to site read music well. I must have sounded all right because the teacher never corrected me. This is the reason why I was not first chair and always 2nd chair. The lady that played first chair would play the piece so I could hear the notes and then I would play the song. The guy in 3rd chair knew I couldn’t read music as well as he could but the 1st chair did not want 3rd chair near her. The teacher kept me in between the 1st chair and the 3rd chair because he did not want to lose his 1st chair. My music reading abilities improved because she (1st chair) would teach me the value of the notes. She got pretty good off the page and I had a GREAT improvisational ear!
Fast forward to college I got a 3-tier scholarship for singing, acting and playing the jazz saxophone! Unfortunately, I only did like one semester, but basically excelling in all three areas. I wish I would have stayed in school and learned more of the basic musical/jazz understanding for better execution of what's in my head, BUT NO REGRETS!!! The teacher did not like something about my playing at the beginning of class! It was the sound that I was getting from my horn, so he gave me a Mark Six Alto saxophone (which got stolen by the way) but the sound was so different! Then later in class he told me take the sax and go do great things because your ear will get you paid! I said to him, “But I can’t read” and he basically said THANK GOD!
That was 1984 but about 3 years before I wrote my first song. “I Dearly Miss You” was written about a girl that did some things to me that turned me out! Then after that many of my songs were created from things I experienced through pain to joy! Moving on... In December of '83 I graduated with a degree in Computer Engineering Technology. Onward in April of '84 I started working at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) as a Telemetry Ground Technician.
My Dad in whom possessed a P.H.D. in math worked there also as a mathematician. He was a professor at F.A.M.U. in Tallahassee, Fl and was sought after by KSC for employment! The reason I bring him up is because he was present in my life, a great influence and my inspiration. Hell, he was Dad in every sense of the word! That’s who my Dad was! He had to save me a lot of times at KSC. I as well as everyone else who were contractors and not employees at N.A.S.A. bowed the knee to N.A.S.A. (LOL) Yes, the movie was all about the women, but my Dad was also a “Hidden Figure.”
My Dad sang at various bars and lounges in Cocoa Beach. I remember my Dad and I eagerly awaiting Stevie Wonder’s “SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE” album to come out it was 2 yrs late. Oh, but when it did, he had us listen and listen and listen to every little thing in each song. I believe this is what taught me the construction of music (and learned the fact that math and music go hand in hand). My siblings and I would all take turns singing on the mic as he would record us in to his 8track tape recorder. We sang Michael, Chaka, Stevie, Black Birds, Parliament, Marvin, Al, Sammy, Frank, Barry, Curtis and so forth. My Dad liked Frank and that's how he went out doing it his way! I remember he made a light cabinet that displayed different colors for each instrument that was playing. One color when the bass would play, another color for the strings, another for the guitar and so forth. This is where I truly believe he taught me about different frequencies. We would watch these lights until we fell off to sleep. I was told to study how instruments communicated and complimented each other in the beauty of the lights and the melody of the music!
Jumping to after running to the Bahamas for 11 days 10 nights. Me and a friend got back to the states in ‘92 and in less than 5 days I moved to Atlanta! Full of the devil and fresh from the streets, I started through a course of events playing the saxophone for a church! By this time I had studied John Coltrane for about a solid 8yrs! I was copying all I thought I heard and people would ask me if that’s who I listen to. YES, I would say and I LOVED it! I figured hell, if I’m not him, at least if I fell on his path even though I’m miles behind him I would sound average! The pastor would give me solos and I would play the heavens open! Then the religious crew latched on to me and they had me break all my connections with the likes of Jimmy and Terry, John Coltrane (by way of CDs) Brian, Wayne, Michael S., Prof. Griff, Betty and so-on. My list of connections was long and they would give me help on my career path. They would all tell me if you walk slowly you will appreciate the destiny. So step by step I'm coming up the rough side! Ultimately, I was let down by these same “church folk” in so many, many, many ways! I knew the difference between God and "church folk". I stayed with HIM even though I went on a pursuit of women, women, women! Well that’s all I’ll say about that, saving the rest for the movie! Lol see you!