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Dana Leong

Described as crafting "lines of sublime lyric content" (Chicago Tribune), and "sizzling, highly stylized solos" (Philadelphia Inquirer), Dana Leong started his impressive career with the rare skill of commanding both the cello and trombone. He has held roles as both a performer and composer with top artists including: the 2006 Grammy-nominated jazz chamber trio led by Paquito D'Rivera (where he fills a chair frequented by Yo-Yo Ma); the 2007 Grammy-nominated Dafnis Prieto Absolute Quintet; and has worked with Ray Charles, Diddy, Kanye West, Wynton Marsalis, Yoko Ono, and more. Following his successful debut release Leaving New York (featuring Grammy Award winners Christian McBride and Paquito D'Rivera), Dana recently completed his latest recording Anthems of Life.

As bandleader/composer, Dana heads The Dana Leong Band featuring Dana (cello/trombone/laptop), Aviv Cohen (drums), Jason Lindner (keyboards), and MC Baba Israel (rap vocals). The group's unique fusion of electronic hip-hop, jazz funk rhythms and rock propulsions is quickly hypnotizing the world. 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, they have toured all of Asia in 2007. Dana, who is of both Chinese and Japanese descent, was chosen, along with his band, from a national pool of applicants to represent American music overseas; serving as one of the country's urban music quartets that best reflects the talent and diversity of musicians from across the United States.

Visit www.danaleong.com for more information.

Gear

Official Yamaha Trombone Artist and Clinician since 2007


Tags

14
Album Review

Vijay Iyer & Mike Ladd: InWhatStrumentals

Read "InWhatStrumentals" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


In 2003 Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd released In What Language?, a hybrid jazz/hip hop response to post-9/11 American paranoia. Inspired by many related injustices, the inflection point was the extended detention, handcuffing and humiliation of a prominent Iranian filmmaker passing through JFK International Airport. Seventeen years later America was mired in multiple unprecedented crises, giving cause to repurpose that album. Iyer and Ladd had the instrumental masters from 2003, and release them here as InWhatStrumentals: Music from In What ...

7
Album Review

Tessa Souter: Picture in Black and White

Read "Picture in Black and White" reviewed by Victor L. Schermer


New York-based vocalist Tessa Souter is becoming treasured among jazz fans and musicians alike. Equally effective in clubs, in concert and on her several fine recordings, she combines the sonority, vocal range and discipline of a classical contralto with subtle and sultry jazz inflections. Everything she sings is well thought out and in good taste. She works with the best instrumentalists and has a consummate grasp of both swing and the modern jazz idiom, as well as folk and world ...

612
Interview

Dana Leong: No Boundaries

Read "Dana Leong: No Boundaries" reviewed by Franz A. Matzner


Whether on the cello, trombone or laptop, whether playing straight-up jazz, classical, or the many hybrid concoctions his work has already produced, Dana Leong seems to acknowledge no boundaries. He has worked with a wide range of players, holds down the cello chair for the Paquito D'Rivera trio, has just released a second album fusing jazz with hip-hop, runs a recording studio, shows up in Hollywood films, and is currently touring as an artistic ambassador with the State Department Rhythm ...

276
Album Review

Dana Leong: Anthems of Life

Read "Anthems of Life" reviewed by Lyn Horton


According to some dictionaries, anthems connote praise and sacredness. In most cases they are songs of celebration. Life, and how we live it creatively and productively, is to be celebrated as praiseworthy and sacred. Multi-instrumentalist and composer, twenty-seven year-old Dana Leong does this effectively, vividly and without hesitation.

On Anthems of Life, Leong has combined his diverse talents into an album replete with groove, blues, dancing rhythms, and serious messages. The “high-stim" characteristics of the recording are something to adapt ...

539
Take Five With...

Take Five With Dana Leong

Read "Take Five With Dana Leong" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Meet Dana Leong: Described as crafting “lines of sublime lyric content" (Chicago Tribune), and “sizzling, highly stylized solos" (Philadelphia Inquirer), Dana started his impressive career with the rare skill of commanding both the cello and trombone. He has held roles as both a performer and composer with top artists including: the 2006 Grammy-nominated jazz chamber trio led by Paquito D'Rivera (where he fills a chair frequented by Yo-Yo Ma); the 2007 Grammy-nominated Dafnis Prieto Absolute Quintet; and ...

154
Album Review

Dana Leong Quintet: Leaving New York

Read "Leaving New York" reviewed by Tom Greenland


"Earth living birth rhythm... it grows and grows, in studios and shows, amassing energy, momentum, it rolls from New York to the whole globe. These words, excerpted from Baba Isarael's “Poem, the opening cut on cellist/trombonist Dana Leong's debut recording Leaving New York, aptly foreshadow the music to follow: an effervescent, ebullient explosion of jazz energy. Dana Leong is a phenomenon: a creative and eclectic cellist, a gifted melodist and composer, and a wonderfully expressive trombonist. Leong's ...

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192

Performance / Tour

Musician/Composer Dana Leong Defies Gravity with Project Bandaloop

Musician/Composer Dana Leong Defies Gravity with Project Bandaloop

Source: AMT Public Relations

Musician/Composer DANA LEONG Premieres a Gravity-Defying New Work for Contemporary Dance Company Project Bandaloop September 30, October 1 & 2 at 8:30 p.m. FREE. @ Orange County Performing Arts Center, Segerstrom Hall 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA COSTA MESA, CA—The Orange County Performing Arts Center's 2010-2011 Dance Series will begin with three breathtaking FREE performances by one of America's finest contemporary dance companies, San Francisco-based Project Bandaloop. The company will perform two works by the company's ...

159

Performance / Tour

Musician/Composer Dana Leong Returns to California This Week for a Regional Tour

Musician/Composer Dana Leong Returns to California This Week for a Regional Tour

Source: AMT Public Relations

Musician/Composer Dana Leong Returns to California for a Regional Tour Including a World Premiere with Project Bandaloop DANA LEONG 2010 CALIFORNIA TOUR 8.11 :: 8PM MILK & JADE by Dana Leong @ Yoshi's Oakland (Oakland) 8.13 :: 8PM MILK & JADE by Dana Leong @ San Jose Jazz Festival (San Jose) 8.14 :: 7:30PM MILK & JADE by Dana Leong @ Levitt Pavilion MacArthur Park (LA) 9.30-10.02 :: 9PM Dana Leong Premieres Work with Project Bandaloop @ Orange County Performing ...

157

Performance / Tour

"Milk & Jade" by Cellist/Composer Dana Leong Celebrates CD Release Concert This Friday 3/5

"Milk & Jade" by Cellist/Composer Dana Leong Celebrates CD Release Concert This Friday 3/5

Source: AMT Public Relations

Milk & Jade by Dana Leong Performs New Works Off of Its Self-Titled Debut Album “From the cello to the trombone to the laptop, his musical versatility has conquered the elite of the critics." --Vogue Italia Friday, March 5th @ 7:30PM Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway (95th Street); Train 1/2/3 to 96th Street Tickets: $25; Day of Show $30; Members $20 Contact Symphony Space at 212.864.5400 or visit symphonyspace.org New York City -- Milk & Jade by ...

105

Interview

Multi-Instrumentalist Dana Leong Interviewed at AAJ

Multi-Instrumentalist Dana Leong Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

Whether on the cello, trombone or laptop, whether playing straight-up jazz, classical, or the many hybrid concoctions his work has already produced, Dana Leong seems to acknowledge no boundaries. He has worked with a wide range of players, holds down the cello chair for the Paquito D'Rivera trio, has just released a second album fusing jazz with hip-hop, runs a recording studio, shows up in Hollywood films, and is currently touring as an artistic ambassador with the State Department Rhythm ...

147

Performance / Tour

Jazz Cellist/Trombonist Dana Leong Launches New Album and Worldwide Tour

Jazz Cellist/Trombonist Dana Leong Launches New Album and Worldwide Tour

Source: AMT Public Relations

Jazz Cellist/Trombonist Dana Leong Launches New Album and Worldwide Tour with a Special Concert at The Knitting Factory “Top 10 Performances of the Year in New York City." --All About Jazz (2005) New York City--- Dana Leong, an international jazz artist known for his genius mastery of the cello and trombone, brings his signature style of rock-hop, nu-jazz and plain old funk music to The Knitting Factory (74 Leonard Street), Wednesday, November 14th @ 7:00pm. Premiering original multi-genre compositions off ...

71

Performance / Tour

Wu Li featuring Dana Leong Sept. 6 at Bar Nine

Wu Li featuring Dana Leong Sept. 6 at Bar Nine

Source: All About Jazz

Join New York quantum-core innovators Wu Li at Bar Nine this Wednesday, September 6th at 8:30 PM. This month the band features multi-instrumentalist Dana Leong on cello and effects.

As always, they will be bringing live loops, haunting melodies and the best in improvised grooves. This truly is music to travel time.

Join Wu Li every first Wednesday at Hell's Kitchen's premiere live music venue...

Bar Nine Wednesday 9/6 8:30 PM 9th Ave. between ...

142

Performance / Tour

Dana Leong CD Release Party March 2nd Jazz Gallery

Dana Leong CD Release Party March 2nd Jazz Gallery

Source: All About Jazz

Dana Leong Quintet MARCH 2nd THURSDAY CD Release Party & Performances @ The Jazz Gallery 290 Hudson St. two performances 9PM & 10:30PM $12 reserve now 212-242-1063 Dana Leong Quintet Dana Leong - cello, trombone Alon Yavnai - piano, organ Ernesto Simpson - drums Christian Howes - violin Alan Grubner - viola The Chicago Tribune Says -

59

Event

Dana Leong Quintet Blue Note Debut Friday Jan 20th

Dana Leong Quintet Blue Note Debut Friday Jan 20th

Source: All About Jazz

Dana Leong Quinet @ The Blue Note Late Night Groove Series $8 12:30 Midnight 131 W. 3rd St New York, NY 10012 212-475-8592

Featuring: Dana Leong: cello, trombone Billy Contreares & Alan Grubner: violins Jason Lindner: keyboards Daniel Freedman: drums Plus Special Guests!

Dana Leong's quintet promises to provide a night of innovative music and unprecedented sound. His compositions have ...

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Event

Dana Leong

Dana Leong

Source: All About Jazz


"The songs find their origins in hip-hop, but this is no surprise. It is actually comforting that an artist of this generation has instilled his poetry with universal vision; a vision that permeates the state of art, music, race and the world to life them up and bring them to an attention that is broad, and not simply for a select few."
- All About Jazz

"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...If the federal government's stamp approval doesn't cut it for you, take ours: Dana Leong is one to watch."
- MP3.com

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Primary Instrument

Cello

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

InWhatStrumentals

Pi Recordings
2020

buy

Anthems of Life

Tateo Sound
2007

buy

Leaving New York

Tateo Sound
2006

buy

Waltz for Moe

From: Panamericana Suite
By Dana Leong

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