This past Friday night, Marco Benevento and Joey Russo (whoa!) teamed up for their only Duo date of 2010 with an intimate acoustic performance at the Highline Ballroom in NYC.
Since becoming temporarily obsessed with Brooklyn’s Fang Island precisely two days ago, I’ve stumbled on some of the most passionate descriptions and comments about this band: “It’s exactly what Wyld
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue: You know the old wedding tradition where the bride incorporates a symbol from each of these categories to provide her with a link to the past, the optimism of the future, a reminder of where she came from and an emblem of purity.
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[All photos by Mat Szwajkos]
Well, nobody’s getting married today, but this seems fitting for Dana Leong, the cellist, trombonist, composer and centerpiece of MILK & JADE, who is rapidly evolving into one of today’s groundbreaking musicians. Leong truly pushes boundaries and does something, dare we say it, new. Steeped in a classical and jazz background, Long takes his past musical training, his influences in hip hop from his California youth, deft compositional skills, and clever wordplay and weaves it all into authentic and complex hip-hop/funk/jazz/classical/improvisational music. Fans of jazz, classical, hip hop, and world music are paying attention, as Dana Leong doesn’t cater to any particular style, other than his own instincts; it’s music in its purest form.
Fresh off the release of his latest knockout album, MILK & JADE, we caught up with Dana when he took some time to chat with us via email from backstage at FELA! on Broadway where he has been filling in for the musical director of the show.
Ryan Dembinsky: Let’s start at the very beginning. I always like to hear about musicians’ childhoods. What were you like as a kid?
Dana Leong: As a kid, I was a wild misfit, a ball of energy, volatile when prompted with sugar, but constantly eager to learn. I took apart pretty much every electronic piece of gear I could get my hands on. Eventually, my elder brother and I called it what it is, “clobbering”.
RD: For whatever reason, it seems most bowed string musicians tend to focus on one format, be it classical, bluegrass, jazz, etc, so that’s really cool that you make the effort to bridge so many gaps. How did you develop a taste for such a diverse palette of tastes across genres?
DL: I always tell up-and-comers to “follow artists who inspire them, listen to the music they feel wholeheartedly and to create music they love.” I often remind myself to “taste my own medicine.” I am a fan of melody, strong beat and lyrics with a message, in other words “it’s gotta sound and feel GREAT!!” Another important factor is that you should surround yourself with musicians whom with you enjoy making music. By doing exactly this, I have been able to play and be enriched by so many styles of great music (funk, hip hop, rock, latin, jazz, classical).
READ ON for more of Ryan’s chat with Dana Leong…
Back in 2008, around the time the lovable Gemma Hayes released The Hollow of Morning, I remember taking a stroll over to the Mercury Lounge on a weeknight by myself
No matter how much you listen to a band, read their interviews or whittle your workday away on their message boards, there’s something about reading a biography, especially an autobiography, that takes your knowledge to an entirely new level. When written well, hearing the story from the horse’s mouth makes it feel like you were there from the beginning and gives real insight to who these people really are, how they interact, what they really care about and, of course, how they came up with the music you love.
As someone who has read a fair amount of music bios over the years, spanning the gamut from Ben Fong-Torres’ Gram Parsons biography Hickory Wind to Alice Cooper’s autobiography Golf Monster, I can say with easy honesty, that Anthony Kiedis’ Scar Tissue (with Larry Sloman) is without question the best I’ve ever read. In fact, it’s probably the quickest read of any book of any book I’ve ever read. The pages turn themselves. A lot of this comes from the fact that Kiedis’ life is nothing short of fascinating, but it’s also due to the fact that the writing is fluid and wildly honest, giving open accounts of his addictions, failed attempts at love, and personal dynamics within one of our generation’s few cutting edge big bands.
So many times throughout the course of this journey, Anthony reveals interesting factoids, anecdotes, and philosophies, so I thought I’d share some of the more compelling ones below. Heads up for anyone who may still read the book as this is your SPOILER ALERT, but this list is just the tip of the iceberg, so I wouldn’t worry about it.
The Secret to Aging Gracefully – Back when the Chili Peppers recorded Freaky Styley, they packed up and moved the band to Detroit to record and live with George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic. Of all the valuable philosophies and life lessons the band learned from the hairy funk architect, the one that sticks out most is his recipe for aging gracefully, despite years and years of extremely hard partying. What’s the secret? Prune juice.
READ ON for more life lessons from Anthony Kiedis…
This week’s theme is a little looser than most Friday Mix Tapes, as it’s a collection of fun party time music from all over the map, as opposed to a
With all the interplay that goes on at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival between artists, it should come as no surprise that festival newcomers Mumford & Sons fit right in at
It’s no secret that musicians in the jam scene have a tendency to come up with some pretty random monikers when it comes time to name the band. Just the
Widespread Panic @ Radio City Music Hall, July 23
Widespread Panic met a bit of a harsh reality in performing at the storied Radio City Music Hall for the first time since July 21, 2007. In stark contrast to their last visit – which was packed with excited folks bouncing off the rafters – the band played to spotty attendance and a largely unenthusiastic crowd. Probably a third of the first mezzanine contained vacant seats and it just got progressively worse as you went up from there. As a result, the energy of the performance ebbed and flowed.
[All photos by Adam Kaufman]
The band played tight throughout the night, but with three new songs that the crowd met with stillness and curiosity as opposed to open arms, the excitement lacked significantly at times. The first set opened with a Heroes > Pleas > Imitation Leather Shoes segment that allowed the band to find both their chops and the lay of the land, but it really wasn’t until the John Bell-led Airplane – a bittersweet crowd-pleaser, as it’s a quintessential song of the late Michael Houser – that the crowd warmed, particularly for the funky JoJo Hermann-led clavinet section.
Beyond Airplane, the band kept it textbook for the remainder of the first set, but the Protein Drink/Sewing Machine closer finished the stanza on a high note. Sewing Machine also got the JoJo treatment, providing a theme for the evening, anytime JoJo’s sound got out front in the mix, the band shined. Otherwise, they felt a bit uninspired, which you can’t fault them for, as the NYC crowd brought their “B” game on this night.
READ ON for more of Ryan’s thoughts on last night’s show…
Back in 2006, after an 11-year hiatus since the passing of front man Shannon Hoon due to accidental overdose, Blind Melon – one of a short list of jambands to hit
