Leonardo 'Leo' Valvassori is a Canadian

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

cellist The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D3 ...

, and

audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

. Valvassori interned as a member of Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks between 1981 and 1982. After undergoing three years of

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

and cancer treatment, he went on to extend working relationships with singer

Alannah Myles Alannah Myles (née Byles; born December 25, 1958) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who has won both a Grammy and a Juno Award for the song " Black Velvet". The song was a top-ten hit in Canada; it was also a number one hit on the US ''Billboar ...

, Mississippi

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

man Mel Brown (as an original 'Homewrecker') and many Canadian artists and American blues musicians. Since 2006, he has been working with Martha Johnson,

Mark Gane Martha and the Muffins are a Canadian rock band, active from 1977 to the present. Although they only had one major international hit single "Echo Beach" under their original band name, they had a number of hits in their native Canada, and the ...

and

Jocelyne Lanois Jocelyne Chantal Lanois is a Canadian musician, bass player and songwriter from Hull, Quebec, who has been a member of the bands Martha and the Muffins and Crash Vegas. She has also had touring stints as bassplayer with Ani DiFranco and Chris W ...

writing songs and recording. He collaborated on the

Martha and the Muffins Martha and the Muffins are a Canadian rock band, active from 1977 to the present. Although they only had one major international hit single "Echo Beach" under their original band name, they had a number of hits in their native Canada, and the c ...

record '' Delicate'' (released 2010), credited with "bass, keys, guitar, percussion, 'cello, 'cello cloud, key bass, loudhailer, loops, vocals, and bowed bass".

References

External links

Artist page at My Space

Backroom Recordings
Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American cellists American double-bassists Male double-bassists American record producers Musicians Institute alumni 21st-century double-bassists 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century cellists {{Double-bassist-stub