DANA LEONG
New York City, New York, United States | INDIE | AFM
Music
Press
Top 5 Albums: Dana Leong
"Cellos and trombones aren’t exactly instruments that are typically associated with hip-hop, but Dana Leong isn’t one to stay inside the box. The self-described "sonic hybrid architect’s" sophomore full-length album, Anthems of Life, is a unique blend of hip-hop and jazz that’s infused with horns and strings – something I call storns-infused jip-jop. The album’s socially conscious rhymes add depth to Leong’s masterfully woven melodies, creating a collection aurally pleasing tracks." - AsiaExpress
Hip Hop Cello, Just One of the Talents of Dana Leong
"Milk & Jade by Dana Leong are a New York based group with Leong as the head. Currently, they are touring Europe, but will be back in New York in December for a show at the Sister’s Uptown Bookstore. Aside from the fact, that Leong’s combination of instruments and music tastes are unique, perhaps his live performance makes him stand out even more..." - INTUNE Monthly
Up and Coming: Dana Leong
"Fusing jazz and hip-hop in the 00s can be a risky venture. Most of its progenitors have long since moved on to greener sonic pastures, and those that are still doing so (ahem, Guru's Jazzmatazz) are doing so more out of need than want. But Dana Leong is here to rescue you from your jaded cynicism about the US3s and Groove Collectives of the world. Jazz can still be funky and danceable, and hip-hop can most certainly still be artistic and built around--dare we say it--song structure." - MP3.com
Music Without Borders: Don't Fence Him In
"Catch cellist Dana Leong in concert, or check out his YouTube videos, and you won’t hear Romantic concertos or Bach suites. Instead, you’ll find a musician in full hip-hop regalia with a cello, trombone, and laptop computer, surrounded by rappers, drummers, electronic keyboardists, and even dancers. For Leong, who wholeheartedly embraces influences from urban, pop, rock, classical, hip-hop, rap, and jazz, there are no creative limits." - Strings Magazine
Dana Leong Employs Pure and Mutated Cellos to Create Electro-Jazz Rap
"Cellist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, actor and hybrid jazz electronica and hip-hop stylist Dana Leong has worked with Ray Charles, Kanye West, Yoko Ono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Diddy, Wynton Marsalis, and others. Currently fronting Milk & Jade by Dana Leong -another genre-bending project that recently performed sold-out shows in Serbia, Sweden, Germany and Finland -the classically trained Manhattan School of Music alumni creates spellbinding textures by subjecting his cello to amplification, software plug-ins, and other electronic abuse." - EQ Magazine
Saturday Night Live (A Search For New Party Music)
"The catholic taste of Dana Leong and his collaborators was on full display at BAMcafé, with a live Stevie Wonder remix, a cover of indie band Firewater, and plenty of rapping. Equally impressive was the diverse crowd it got moving—a mix of gray curls, flowing caftans, dapper Fonzworth Bentley–style suits, and quite a few zip hoodies. Hands down excellent." - New York Magazine
Peninsula-born Dana Leong brings his jazz/hip-hop band home for the first time
"At age 2, Dana Leong was standing on tippy-toes at his mother's piano in Redwood City. She spotted it right away -- the kid was a natural musician with perfect pitch. She gave him lessons every day beginning at age 3, and soon got him started on cello and trombone. By high school, the boy wonder was playing in stage bands backing Earth Wind and Fire, Ray Charles and Barry White....Leong is "the prototype of what a young contemporary musician can be, which is a master of all genres," adds Fred Berry, the longtime Stanford jazz educator, who has mentored Leong since he was a toddler, and hired him to play in that stage band behind Barry White." - San Jose Mercury News
“Cellos and trombones aren’t exactly instruments that are typically associated with hip-hop, but Dana Leong isn’t one to stay inside the box. Top 5 albums of 2007!”
- AsiaExpress.com
Discography
MILK & JADE
2010 Tateo Sound
MILK & JADE Live in Sweden
2009 Tateo Sound
LIFE AFTER DARK - EP
2009 Tateo Sound
Anthems of Life
2007 Tateo Sound
Leaving New York
2006 Tateo Sound
Photos
Bio
Cellist/Trombonist/Composer DANA LEONG fuses hip-hop, jazz and electronics to create a signature boundless sound.
Often referred to as a "hi-def Yo-Yo Ma," Dana's pioneering fusion of electronic music and ethereal jazz sensualities has garnered critical acclaim and wowed audiences worldwide. Whether as a performer, composer, collaborator, or recording producer, he has worked with top artists including Dafnis Prieto, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Wynton Marsalis, Yoko Ono, and Kanye West, to name a few.
Dana’s genre-bending band MILK & JADE has received worldwide acclaim performing sold out shows at jazz festivals in US, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Finland, Slovenia, Serbia, Austria, Ireland, Mexico, Macau, and China. In 2008, the band served as an American musical ambassador overseas as part of The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad program, produced in conjunction with Jazz at Lincoln Center and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Described as crafting "lines of sublime lyric content" (Chicago Tribune), and "sizzling, highly stylized solos" (Philadelphia Inquirer), Dana was recently commissioned by Apollo Theater to create an evening-length music and video show entitled Life After Dark, which premiered to a sold out house, followed by performances at Joe’s Pub and The Greene Space at WNYC in New York.
On screen, Dana has acted and performed on screen in a number of different settings such as Steven Spielberg's feature film The Terminal, Robin Williams' August Rush, NBC's Law & Order, The Today Show, and with The Roots "Live at Wetlands." Dana has performed for fashion shows including designers Alexander Hercovitch, Dianne von Furstenberg, and most recently Blanc de Chine during the 2010 New York Fashion Night Out. Dana was also chosen as an opening act for Gloria Estefan during the 2010 US Open.
An Asian-American artist of Chinese and Japanese descent, Dana grew up in San Francisco and studied both classical cello and jazz trombone on double scholarships at Manhattan School of Music in New York City. As an official Yamaha artist, Dana gives clinics and workshops around the globe on the use of electronics with cello and trombone, and his unique genre-bending composition techniques.
***ACCOLADES***
"The show was awesome, we had a packed house. They put on a great show."
Dan Sepion, Residential College Director - Washington University, Saint Louis, MO
"GREAT! Everyone loved it. We had students through parents and staff in the audience and all ages loved it. Thanks so much."
Sharon Williamson - Cultural Arts Director - Colby Sawyer College, New London, NH
"The show was great. Near the end of the semester so the students really got a lot out of it."
Len Harmon - Nichols College, Dudley, MA
"Dana and company blew the roof off the place.. a crowd pleaser. We had a balanced representation of the community, students and college staff. Dana did a wonderful job of keeping the audience engaged, our students stayed really tuned in. They were all very easy toe work with and made us all very comfortable to interact with from load-in to load-out. This program was just perfect for our Culture Fest."
Chris Mikkelsen, Director of Student Activities - Normandale Community College, Bloomington, MN
“Dana is an amazing teacher and performer. He is able to show new musical styles to the students in ways they understand, in an exciting but unthreatening and positive way. The students are completely enchanted by him. He is the essence of cool."
Celeste Myall, Belmont University, Nashville, TN
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