What particularly fascinates you about music? For me, music is timeless. It always reminds me of what life is all about. My greatest goal is always to arrive in the moment - to find and experience the "here and now". Music is something like my "guru"...
Which musician has influenced you personally the most so far? Phew...probably Herbie Hancock.
Which band / soloist have you always wanted to be on stage with? With D'Angelo!
What is your life like outside of music? If I wasn't a musician, I'd probably be a psychologist or a barista in Havana. Or both. I can't do everything at the same time, but I try to integrate these things into my everyday life as much as possible.
1999 . Leo Asal was born into a family of musicians. In 2003 he discovered the drumset for himself and soon wins numerous prizes, such as in 2011 at the "Jugend Musiziert" competition or in 2013 and 2015 at "Jugend Jazzt" in both the ensemble and solo competitions. With his stylistically broad-based playing, the "ZIRP" scholarship holder has already established himself as one of Germany's leading young drummers in the fields of jazz and pop. Various projects and tour concerts have taken Asal to the Staatsschauspielhaus Dresden, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Theater Nordhausen and on tour to Greece, Fuerteventura, Romania and Egypt, among others.
10.2017 . Asal began his bachelor's degree at the Hochschule für Musik in Mainz with Hendrik Smock and is now studying at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln with Jonas Burgwinkel and Alex Vesper. Since then he has received artistic impulses from Jesse Milliner, Claudius Valk and Sebastian Sternal, among others. At various concerts, the "Istanbul Mehmet" endorser already performs with established jazz musicians such as Emil Mangelsdor , Diane Schuur, Dominique DiPiazza and Justin DiCiocco.
2020 . Leo Asal is also active as a composer and bandleader. His EP "Chopsticks EP" with his quartet consisting of Victor Fox (saxophone), Andreas Dittinger (piano) and Charly Härtel (double bass) is released. You can hear original compositions and free improvisations on the threshold between free jazz and avant-garde. Due to the unusually chosen instrumentation of bass and drums, the new duo album ("Ein Tag wie ein anderer") with Charly Härtel also presents itself as exciting and explorative.
The young musician does not limit himself at all. In addition to jazz music, the recipient of the Deutschlandstipendium is equally active in the German and international pop and R'n'B scene. Although these two worlds seem incompatible, it is precisely the contrasts that make up Asal's work. In addition to his activities as a sideman, Leo Asal appears as producer and musical director of the concert and production series Loft Arts. Numerous projects linked to this have since brought him together with rap and R'n'B greats such as Megaloh, OG-Keemo, MAJAN, Monet192, Lary, Teesy, Rola, Kelvyn Colt, Manuellsen and many more.
