We are accepting tax-deductible donations to support Life After Dark recording and performance projects. Your generous contribution of any amount will help Dana and his community of artists in New York continue to make great art that responds to our ever-changing, ever more global experience.
2. Complete the form. Be sure to type "Dana Leong" under "Notes/Comments".
3. Click "Submit" and follow the simple PayPal instructions.
Dana Leong and Life After Dark are receiving fiscal sponsorship for The Center for Creative Resources, Inc., a 501(c)3 not-for-profit public charity. All donations are tax deductible, as allowed by law.
What would happen if you could pick your favorite artists and throw them into a flavorful pot of unexpected sights and sounds? Life After Dark by multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer Dana Leong provides an inside look into the creative process of artists from vastly differing musical and ethnic arenas handpicked by Leong.
LIFE AFTER DARK by Dana Leong
TUESDAY AUGUST 4, 2009 @9:30PM JOE'S PUB 425 LAFAYETTE STREET NYCMap it!
Conceived and composed by Dana Leong
Video by Johnny Moreno
Dana Leong, cello/trombone/laptop Aviv Cohen, drums Core Rhythm, spoken word/MC Yumi Kurosawa, Japanese Koto Adam Platt, keyboards Max Pollak, Rumba Tap Val Inc, Turntablist
Composer, trombonist and cellist Dana Leong fuses hip-hop, jazz and electronics to create a signature boundless sound. As a composer, performer, and recording producer, Dana's pioneering collage of musical styles has garnered critical acclaim and wowed audiences around the world. He has collaborated with top jazz artists including Paquito D'Rivera, Christian McBride, Dafnis Prieto, and Henry Threadgill; and has worked with such diverse artists as Ray Charles, Barry White, Kanye West, Wynton Marsalis, Bjork, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yoko Ono and Lila Downs. An Asian-American artist of Chinese and Japanese descent, Dana studied classical cello and jazz trombone at the Manhattan School of Music. 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 and collaboration techniques.
Aviv Cohen, drums
Aviv Cohen is a New York-based drummer currently active in various music scenes. Aviv was born in 1983 and began playing the drums at the age of fourteen in his native Israel. He graduated from the Jerusalem School for the Arts, and later from the Rimon College of Music in Israel. Aviv moved to New York City in 2005 and quickly established himself as a much-in-demand player through his formidable technique, deep groove, and an individual, decidedly international approach that makes him sound at ease within various musical vocabularies -- from straight-up jazz to hip-hop, rock, drum-and-bass, and electronica. Aviv is the co-leader of Monstep, a modern, electronica-infused groove project from Israel that has found an increasingly international audience, especially after the release of its 2007 debut album, "The What and the Why." Aviv has also recorded and/or performed with, among others, Yoni Rechter, Avishai Cohen, Jason Lindner, Christian Howes, Husnu Senlendirici and Sam Barsh. He also leads his own group in NYC.
Core Rhythm, MC
Super Emcee and Producer CORE RHYTHM took New York City by storm with his fierce debut, "Nat Turner Reloaded" (Voted #6 on the rapreviews.com Top 10 list of 2006) and in a few short years has become a force in the New York independent hip hop scene. Characterized by powerful thought-provoking lyrics and earth-shattering beats, Core is carving out his own niche. He has performed on the same bill with hip hop legends such as O.C., The Juggaknots, C Rayz Walz, Wordsworth and many others and has collaborated in the studio with artists such as Grandmixer DXT.
Yumi Kurosawa began performing in worldwide in concert tours to Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Russia, and United States. In 2002, Kurosawa moved to New York in pursuit of new innovative collaborations with artists and musicians. Most recently, she performed in HANA ICHIMOMME at Bank Street Theater, NYC; at the Asian Pacific Rim University annual meeting ceremony in Tokyo, Japan; Pulse Jazz Composers: Sihr Halal Concert at Roulette, NYC; the Muse concert at The Juilliard School; Yumi Kurosawa Koto Recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall; and the Meredith Monk 40th Anniversary Concert at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. Kurosawa has won First Prize in National Koto competition for students in Japan.
Adam Platt began playing the piano at the age of four, and by ten was the youngest winner ever of the solo piano competition at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. Invited back to Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival as a guest artist at age 12, he became the pianist for the Montana State University Big Band and remained in that position for the three years prior to entering high school. Adam has attended New England Conservatory and Berklee College of Music, and has studied with Michael Cain, Bob Brookmeyer, Bob Moses and Joanne Brackeen amongst many others over the years. Adam has been teaching since 2003 with a studio of over 50 students in Boston, MA. He taught master classes for all grade levels in of the public schools in Bozeman, Montana, and joined the faculty at the renowned Stanford Jazz Workshop at Stanford University in July of 2007 and 2008. He also plays and teaches at Jazz at Lincoln Center's "WeBop!" program for the very young. Adam now lives in Brooklyn New York and performs with his band Dance Fight as well as The Prigs, Dana Leong, and Wuli amongst many others. Adam has recorded three albums of Jazz and original music and is currently finishing Dance Fight's debut album, which is due to be released in the summer of 2009.
Max Pollak, named one of “25 to Watch in 2007” by Dance Magazine, is one of the most prestigious names on the international tap scene today and recognized worldwide as the first person to blend American Rhythm Tap with authentic Afro-Cuban music and dance to create “RumbaTap” – a unique body percussion/tap concept. (Imagine if Fred Astaire got grit and was swept up by Cuban Orishas!) As a soloist he has performed with tap legends Jimmy Slyde, Gregory Hines and Buster Brown as well as jazz icons Ray Brown, Phil Woods and Danilo Perez; and recorded with Cyro Baptista, the Paul Carlon Octet and members of the Tito Puente Orchestra. In 2001 he produced the first ever Cuban Tap Festival, playing with some of the greats of Cuban music including Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Clave Y Guaguanco and Chucho Valdes. In 1999 Pollak formed RumbaTap , a music/dance ensemble, named after the style of dance he had created. The company began touring extensively throughout Cuba, Europe, Japan and the United States, last year performing to a capacity crowd at New York City's Central Park SummerStage. Max Pollak is the 2008 recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Choreography.
Haitian electronic music composer/percussionist/turntablist, Val-Inc evokes the musical esoteric realms of the creative subconscious and self defined as "Afro-Electronica®". She incorporates her African Haitian Musical traditions into the present and beyond, combining acoustics with electronics and the archaic with the post-modern. She works with a diverse array of artists like Steve Coleman as a turntablist/composer, Tracie D. Morris as a percussionist and Anthony Braxton as a recording engineer. She is the recipient of the Van Lier Grant, Meet the Composer Grant and her latest project "ON" was supported in part by the New York State Music Fund. Her "Afro-Electronica" installations have been showcased in New York City at the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Village Vanguard and internationally at SaalFelden Music Festival in Austria, Stanser Musiktage in Switzerland, Jazz a la Villette in France, and the Biennale di Venezia Museum in Italy.
Design Team:
Miriam Nilofa Crowe, Lighting Designer
Miriam Nilofa Crowe is a New York-based lighting designer for theater, dance and music. She currently designs regularly for Grammy-nominated and Latin Grammy-winner Lila Downs, Ko-Ryo Dance Theater, Nerve Ensemble, and The Drilling Company. Some favorite recent projects include A Touch of the Poet (Friendly Fire), Séance (Active Eye), Flags (Firefly Theater @ 59E59), Woman in Waiting (Farber Foundry), Beowulf (Lincoln Center Festival), The $trip and Phenomenon (Nerve Ensemble), Frag (TALR), The Designated Mourner (Cleveland Public Theater – sets, lights & costumes), and The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Yale Rep). She has lit concerts by musicians as diverse as Hugh Masakela, Gidon Kremer, Tito Puente, Abdullah Ibrahim, Rufus Wainwright, DJ Spooky, Beth Orton and the Bang on a Can Marathon at venues such as BAM, Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Fillmore, City Center, Town Hall, and the Hollywood Bowl. She has a BA in English from Yale College ‘96 and an MFA in Design from the Yale School of Drama '05.
Christopher Ernst, Associate Media Artist
Christopher Ernst is an American filmmaker and media artist whose practice stretches across several different genres of moving image media. He is a founding member of the film and video art collective Octopus, an international ensemble of moving image artists whose goal is to challenge the boundaries between gallery and cinema. Recent North American exhibitions include Vox Populi gallery in Philadelphia, PA; a public installation in the TTC Subway System as part of the Toronto Urban Film Festival, and Brooklyn Arts Alternative. Recent international exhibitions include Galerie M in Berlin; Teatro dell'Accademia in Rome, as part of the Abstracta Festival; Les Voûtes in Paris, as part of Festival Antenna; and the Red House Center for Culture and Debate in Sofia, Bulgaria. Christopher is currently part-time faculty at the New School Department of Media Studies & Film and lives in Brooklyn.
Johnny Moreno, Video Artist
Johnny Moreno is a filmmaker and video artist based in New York City. His visual work spans from narrative and experimental short form pieces to Music Documentary, Music Photography and Music Video. Moreno has had the opportunity to tour with Grammy-nominated and Latin Grammy-winner Lila Downs, designing concert projections, creating music videos and just having a great time. He currently works alongside some of New York's emerging Latin and Jazz musicians. He has worked for HBO Films, MTV Networks and he has made the rounds On and Off-Broadway as a designer, assistant director, associate producer for venues such as Soho Rep, MTC, The Classical Theater of Harlem, La Jolla Playhouse and Roundabout Theater Company. He is a proud member of "The Lake Lucille Project" an ongoing collaborative exploring the works of Chekhov and other major Playwrights. With the LLP he has just completed ‘Uncle Vanya', a short film with Director Brian Mertes and continues in-depth documentary work with New York's most notable actors and actresses.
LIFE AFTER DARK @ APOLLO THEATER - APRIL 17 and 18, 2009
What would happen if you could pick your favorite artists and throw them into a flavorful pot of unexpected sights and sounds? Life After Dark by multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer Dana Leong provides an inside look into the creative process of artists from vastly differing musical and ethnic arenas handpicked by Leong.
Inspired by artist-on-artist interviews and his passion to bring wider attention to deserving artists within his musical community, Leong transforms what began as a series of collaborative recording projects in his Harlem studio, into a one-of-a-kind live multimedia concert experience. Witness the birth of borderless collaborations sonically and through projected visuals, and discover the essence of each artist and what they bring to the mix.
APOLLO THEATER SALON SERIES presents
LIFE AFTER DARK by Dana Leong Work-in-Progress
FRI APRIL 17 & SAT APRIL 18, 2009 @7:30PM APOLLO THEATER
253 WEST 125TH STREET NYC between 7th and 8th Map it! Buy Tickets!
Featuring 7 soloists and 1 VJ
Conceived and composed by Dana Leong
Video by Johnny Moreno
Lights by Miriam Crowe
Dana Leong, cello/trombone/laptop Aviv Cohen, drums Core Rhythm, spoken word/MC Yumi Kurosawa, Japanese Koto Adam Platt, keyboards Max Pollak, Latin Jazz tap dancer Val Inc, DJ/Soundscape Artist
Christopher Ernst, Associate Media Artist
Co-Produced by Rika Iino (Sozo Media)
About Salon Series
The Apollo's Salon Series is held on the intimate Soundstage, offering a glimpse into the creative process and featuring works-in-progress by artists who are working out of the mainstream and are innovators in their particular genres. Past Salon Series events include a music/theater/martial arts ballet commissioned from creator-composer Fred Ho, DJ Spooky, jazz musician Russell Gunn, and theater artist Dael Orlandersmith. The Anniversary Season will begin in March 2009 with a two-part opening event featuring conversations between artists and audiences as well as a late night jam session. Subsequent performances will feature artists such as Will Power, Jessica Care Moore, Dana Leong, and Melvin Van Peebles bringing new works to perform and discuss. Curated by Laura Greer.
