Jerry Leake Jerry Leake is the founder of the world-rock-fusion octet Cubist whose three critically acclaimed CD’s feature his diverse talent as a composer, arranger, and performer. Jerry is the co-founder of the world-music ensemble Natraj, and the dub/trance/groove collective Club d’Elf. He is a long-standing member of the Agbekor Drum and Dance Society. Jerry’s 8 CDs explore a spectrum of traditional and contemporary styles, combining the groove of African music with the intricate mathematics of Indian rhythm systems.
Jerry has written eight widely used texts on North Indian, West African, Latin American percussion, and rhythm theory, and 30+ articles for PAS Magazine. His unique “Harmonic Time” method of internalizing musical time, groove and mathematics (stepping, sticking, voice) was featured in a TEDx seminar and has been presented in master classes throughout the east coast and parts of the Midwest.
Jerry is a Professor at Berklee College of Music where he teaches drum set, world percussion, vibes, and rhythm theory. He is also a faculty contributor for VibesWorkshop.com. His 52-part “Legacy Percussion” video series presents the culmination of his academic, performing and teaching approaches that span 40+ years of dedication.
Leake graduated from the Berklee College of Music where he studied jazz vibraphone with Gary Burton and hand percussion with Pablo Landrum. He studied tabla in Pune, India with Rajiv Devasthali, and studies in Boston with Todd Nardin and Koashal Anand. In Chennai, India, Leake studied Carnatic rhythm theory and mridangam with T. K. Ramakrishnan. He is a senior student of Alhaji Dolsi-Naa Abubakari Luna of the Dagomba tradition (northern Ghana) and has studied Ewe music (southern Ghana) with Godwin Agbeli and David Locke, and balafon/djembe with the Coulibaly family in Burkina Faso.
On tabla, Jerry has accompanied Ali Akbar Khan, Steve Gorn, Sharafat Ali Khan, Kumkum Sanyal, Chitravena Ravikiran, George Ruckert, Peter Row, Purnima Sen, and kathak dancer Gretchen Hayden.
B.A., Berklee College of Music. North Indian tabla with Rajiv Devasthali; jazz vibraphone with Gary Burton; African music with Godwin Agbeli, Dolsi-naa Abubakari Lunna; Afro-Cuban percussion with Pablo Landrum.