Harlan Leonard

HARLAN LEONARD d1983. American jazz bandleader and clarinetist. In 1939, he formed Harlan Leonard and his Rockets which featured a young Myra Taylor. This band quickly became a leading band in Kansas City and toured nationally. Charlie Parker played in this band for five weeks, but he was fired by Leonard for lack of discipline. The band featured arrangements by its piano player Tadd Dameron that bore suggestions of the transition between swing and bebop. The band broke up during WW2 and Leonard left professional music. He worked in banking and for the Internal Revenue Service and died in Los Angeles in 1983