BOSTON (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Teo Leyasmeyer, a respected Boston blues promoter and pianist, died Tuesday afternoon, May 16th, of liver and kidney failure at the age of 59.
Leyasmeyer was born in Germany, and began his long music career as a pianist working as bandleader for blues legends Johnny Copeland and Freddy King.
He was best known as the longtime booker of the House of Blues in Cambridge, Mass., and received high honors from The Blues Foundation in Memphis in 1997, winning the Keeping Blues Alive Award. While other House of Blues clubs around the country were turning toward rock and pop, Leyasmeyer continued to book both emerging roots music talent and veteran blues greats including Otis Rush, Ike Turner, Solomon Burke and the Blind Boys of Alabama.
Warm, generous and big-hearted, Leyasmeyer was known on the Boston music scene as one of the good guys in the sometimes cutthroat music business.
“He went out of his way to help musicians. He was amazing in that way,” Boston talent booker Fred Taylor, who co-produced recent shows with Leyasmeyer at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, told the Boston Herald. “He was an outstanding human being, and a devoted blues musician as well.”
Leyasmeyer left the House of Blues in 2003, and continued to work as a booker and blues pianist. He had been scheduled to play a Caribbean tour this week with the Jeff Pitchell Band.
Mr. Leyasmeyer leaves behind his wife, Hege, and his daughters Nena and Lily. Funeral arrangements have not yet been arranged. A concert to memorialize his life and to raise funds for his family is in the works. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
