Josef Leimberg

Los Angeles-based trumpeter and composer Josef Leimberg had a lengthy résumé before he became known to a broader audience through his work on Kendrick Lamar's platinum-certified, Grammy-winning To Pimp a Butterfly. He arrived during the early '90s as a member of the short-lived rap group Mad Kap, King Tee associates who were among the early acts on Loud Records. After one album with that group, Leimberg shifted into session gigs. During the remainder of the '90s and the early 2000s, the artists who featured his work included Volume 10, Busdriver, Freestyle Fellowship, and Snoop Dogg. Leimberg's exposure increased toward the end of the 2000s and into the 2010s with bold additions to Erykah Badu's New Amerykah, Pt. 1, Sa-Ra's Nuclear Evolution: The Age of Love, and Shafiq Husayn's Shafiq En' A-Free-Ka. He also appeared on a crop of Robin Thicke albums. After working with Big K.R.I.T. and Funkadelic, Leimberg co-wrote, co-produced, and appeared on "How Much a Dollar Cost" and "You Ain't Gotta Lie (Momma Said)," two of the deeper highlights on To Pimp a Butterfly. The next year, Leimberg gathered fellow Pimp players Terrace Martin, Kamasi Washington, and Bilal, along with the likes of Jimetta Rose, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, and recorded his first album, Astral Progressions. A progressive fusion of spiritual/cosmic jazz, soul, and hip-hop, it was released in October 2016 on the World Galaxy label.
© Andy Kellman /TiVo