Leon Silva has played saxophone on recordings for Ariana Grande, Mary J. Blige, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Coldplay, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones (a band he was a member of for eight years), and Justin Timberlake, who he is currently on tour with. During a break in the world tour last month (yes, that<\/em> tour, but more on that highly-memed moment later), Silva took a moment to post an Instagram story, showing pride in an achievement that just may rival his aforementioned accomplishments. \u201cThis tour with Justin Timberlake is so phenomenal and so fun,\u201d he says, introducing the video, \u201cthat I almost forgot to post this very, very special moment, 20 years in the making.\u201d With his family looking on, Silva opens the mail and does a triumphant dance to a Barry White song as the camera reveals a diploma with his name on it from Berklee College of Music. As the video concludes, he holds up the piece of paper and does a proud sigh, as a voiceover tells his followers, \u201cit\u2019s never too late; don\u2019t give up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Silva\u2019s Berklee journey began in 1999, on a scholarship to study music education. He left in 2003, about a dozen credits shy of a degree. \u201cI think I had one of the golden ages of Berklee when I was first there,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause this was before Pro Tools and stuff was really getting popping, so we still had a lot of musicians that were really just focused on the craft of learning music. I was there at the tail end of John Mayer. I got there and Rashawn Ross<\/a> was there, Jaleel Shaw<\/a>, Walter Smith<\/a>, who’s teaching there now. I studied under Bill Pierce<\/a>, Walter Beasley<\/a>, George Garzone<\/a>, so that network was amazing. There were some really great cats there when I was there.\u201d After leaving Berklee, Silva taught music in Massachusetts for a while before moving to Los Angeles with a pair of fellow Berklee alums, aiming to become the horn section for a gospel artist. When that gig fell through, Silva, trumpeter Sean Erick, and trombonist Kevin Lloyd Williams Jr. decided to stick together and call themselves the Regiment Horns<\/a>. \u201cWe started hitting the streets, playing all the clubs, just jamming,\u201d Silva says, \u201cand through that we got called in to do some studio sessions. During that time we worked with another cat that was from Berklee named Theron Feemster, who goes by the producer tag Neff-U<\/a>, and he locked us up with Mary J. Blige and Ashanti, and so we caught a lot of records for them, got some Grammy nominations and all that. We were just babies!\u201d The studio gigs kept coming, including some sessions with Justin Timberlake, who liked the Regiment Horns\u2019 sound so much he tapped the trio to go on tour with him. Leon began picking up gigs with other artists when Timberlake wasn\u2019t touring, and found himself on Jimmy Kimmel Live<\/em>, playing with the band Miike Snow, a performance which led to a tenure in the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was walking off the stage, and Dicky Barrett, the announcer for Jimmy Kimmel <\/em>[and singer for the Bosstones] comes up and taps me on the shoulder, and he\u2019s got this real husky voice, man, and he says, \u2018Hey, man, I heard you\u2019re from Brockton, Massachusetts.\u2019 So I was like, \u2018Who the hell is this guy?\u2019 He was like, \u2018I think I have a job for you.\u2019 And then we just got to talking. And yeah, I did that for eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nSilva has played some enormous venues with big acts, so does that mean the club shows with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones were easier? Not at all!<\/strong>
<\/h2>\n\u201cI\u2019m nervous every night,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t care if there\u2019s two people in the audience, or if it\u2019s 30,000. \u2026 I would be in these five-star hotels with the biggest pop star in the world, and then I\u2019d get a break, and I\u2019d go off with the Bosstones, and we were hitting like Motel 6s \u2026 but oh my God! Their fan base was incredible!\u201d\n
\nSilva also had some great times incorporating his family into the mix with the Bosstones.<\/strong>
<\/h2>\n\n\u201cMy daughter came up and played with me one time. She\u2019s a vocalist, and her artist name is L\u00e9a the Leox<\/a>, and she went to Berklee as well. But she came through high school playing trumpet. So we did the Hometown Throwdown [the Bosstones\u2019 annual string of local shows in Boston]. And I was like, \u2018Hey, guys, let\u2019s get her up there!\u2019 So that was such a great moment, and then on Jimmy Kimmel<\/em>, we did the show there, and my son, who was six or seven at the time got onstage with us. He was skanking with us all night long.\u201d\n<\/div><\/p>\n\n\n\n