The story of "The Colonel"

David "COLONEL" Leis

9/23/51 – 2/26/09

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In 1980 when David was only 29 years old, DOWNBEAT Magazine wrote that David Leis is "equal to or better than John McLaughlin and Allan Holdsworth ".. These are strong accolades for someone who never had a guitar lesson or studied music on any level. It begs the question, where did it come from? This seemed to be the premise of David’s life as he was multi-talented and extremely eclectic.

On September 23, 1951, David was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana to a typical middle-class “Ozzie and Harriet” family. His mother, Lila, was not musically inclined at all. His father, Richard, played piano focusing on old jazz standards from the 1920’s, 30's, 40's and 50's. It’s safe to say there was no music going on in the 1950’s in Fort Wayne, Indiana, so no one really knows how David’s musical foundation was laid. The Leis family moved to Rockford, Illinois in 1965 and it’s also pretty safe to say there were no musical influences in the 1960’s in Rockford, other than what he heard.

At the age of 14 at a high school prom David heard the guitar player in the band fooling around and play a strong jazz riff. 'That was it for me", he said. 'It completely changed my life”. He acquired a $12.00 guitar from a junk store and the rest is history.

By the time David was 14 in 1965, he was playing a very impressive guitar. He met Tom Leary, Steve Ungs, Roger Wylie, Ron Wylie, Bob Baren, Lindsey Myers and Dale Brown. These talented young men formed the band Wheezer Lockinger. They began writing original songs and established a distinctive style, raw power and drive that demanded attention. In 1969 they had 40 original songs under their belt and became the only successful rock band in the area that got gigs NOT doing cover material. The band opened for the likes of Paul Butterfield, The Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac, REO Speedwagon and Humble Pie.

After a four-year run, the Wheezer Lockinger band members went their separate ways. They reunited in 1980 adding Dave Hanson and Dean Reynolds and rocked the house opening for Humble Pie. Wheezer Lockinger was on the first Y95 album in 1983 with a song they wrote called “Get Out Of My Life”. This was the first local Rockford musician’s album.

In 1974, David hooked up with Jimmy Wells and Chip Greenman (from Fuse) and formed Moongerms. They played the Northern Illinois circuit basically playing fusion. David referred to this music as Avant Garbage with a smile on his face but the music was exquisitely intricate and demanded players that had powerful skills and technique. This venue gave David the opportunity to zero in on what became his astonishing jazz style. David’s musical icons were jazz guitarist Joe Pass, Miles Davis and classical pianist Franz Liszt. He performed "free jazz" for many years with The Hal Russell NRG Ensemble which included Mars Williams who later formed the Chicago based group Liquid Soul.

What people may also not know about David was that he was an excellent oil painter particularly of landscape scenes, composed classical music on the piano and was a die - hard 'Trekkie'. He also had a great love for model railroads and created many miniature railroad “scenes” that were incredibly realistic. David had a HUGE heart for animals and was an animal rescuer before it became fashionable; saving abused and neglected dogs, bringing them home and making sure they were adopted.

David’s enormous talent on the guitar, his lightning-fast fingers, incredible musicality and improvisational ability always left his audiences breathless. At one performance an unknown fan stood up and said it quite well.....“I’ll never hear anyone play guitar like that again”. David has successfully overcome his demons with drugs and was drug free the last 10 years of his life. He died from heart complications while he was still playing and composing. He had much more to give us!

The guitar was an extension of David’s body; his music was an extension of his soul.

SHEILA VAYENAS

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