Grammy Musician Dana Leong’s Top 10 Albums of All Time

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Hey all, Grammy musician producer Dana Leong here. In today’s video I’m sharing my top 10 albums of all time! Let’s go.

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First off, I want to thank my God sister Janell Umemoto, the former art director for Mademoiselle Magazine at Condé Nast New York City for forwarding this idea. Honestly, I’ve been thinking about this over for a year in the back of my mind.

Some of you may know, last year I landed in Japan to work on the launching of the most insane music studio man cave ever known to man, “Studio Comme a Tu”, I’ll drop a link in the description. However, due to the pandemic, it became a much longer project which elongated from a 3 week trip to well over a year. Believe it or not, as soon as the world went into lockdown, my first instinct was to pull out my dusty old ‘TODO’ document from the past 10 years which included old videos, unfinished songs, fitness goals, a cook book and a whole lot more and finish it all! Thus, as surprising as it sounds, though I’ve been isolated for an unbelievable amount of time in the mountains, I’ve haven’t had any dull moments where I didn’t have something to do! Thus, I regret the delays on getting to this video. However, the upside is that our video production had time to get much better and I also had more time to think about the music choices. Without further delay, let’s dive in!

#10
Boys ii Men – II

This album not only has a nostalgic and sentimental value to me, as you may know, there are scientific studies that have proven that the music you listen to in your formative years literally shapes who you are and stays with you in the deepest part of your brain’s memory.

But, some of our closest friends may know that when I was in high school I was actually in the National Grammy Band that went to New York City to perform at the Grammy Week and we got to play this amazing music with Boys II Men.

#9
Notorious BIG, Life After Death

What can I say about Notorious BIG (Biggie) that hasn’t already been said? Incredible voice, cadence, storytelling, just dripping with attitude 24/7. If I had more than 10 slots, I’d put more of his albums but for concentration sake, I picked double CD album.

#8
Surfaces – Where the Light Is

In 2020, when literally everyone needed a reason to smile, this one helped us all. Just a generally feel good album. Greetings to SoundCloud for suggesting this one. I can’t believe how many amazing new artists I’ve uncovered going through SoundCloud. SoundCloud, if you’re seeing this, let’s create.

#7
DMX – It’s Dark and Hell is Hot

The legendary artist and brother Justin Bua always says, sometimes you need a bit of “Fighting” energy to get you through. I listened to this album so many times blaring out of my sportscar, in my college dorm room and even the last year while I was training hard through blizzards, mountains and snowfields this winter. Neal Brennan recently said, “This music is insane! It makes you want to run outside and kill someone.” Obviously he was joking, but I can seriously say that this is one of the few albums that I can let play from the beginning to the end and feel awakened by the beats and DMX’s explosive vocals, poetic styles, odd rhythms and super animated rap style. Rest in Peace DMX.

Now don’t hate me for this and hear my explanation before you decide if you like this album or not. Ask yourself, what do TuPac, Willie Nelson, Biggie, DMX, James Brown, Bill Cosby, Paul McCartney and a huge list of other artists all have in common? No this is not a setup for a joke. They all are legendary artists who have had run in’s with the law! Now, I do not support crime of any kind, but I certainly have to agree with Jerry Seinfeld and so many other comedians that say, they can in fact separate the artist from the art they create. That being said #6, for me? “R. Kelly 12 Play!” There are so many albums I’d like to mention on this list and it was a crazy challenge to just choose 10 and maybe I’ll have to make a 2nd video, let’s see…

However, when this “12 Play” came out, you gotta understand, it was the peak of R&B Pop and the height of artist careers like Mariah (Carey), Whitney (Houston), Usher, Jodeci, Keith Sweat, Brandy, Aaliyah, Babyface, Jill Scott.. the list goes on and on. All I can say, is the songs produced with KORG tritons and SSL Mixing boards still sound great today. Now that we live in the era where songs like “WAP” are being featured on national television, “12 Play” may not be as shocking, but you gotta roll the tape back and remember this was ya boy, ‘DZ’ at maybe 12-13 years old hearing these gospel pop tracks with unthinkably provocative lyrics. Get ya groove on. Enough said.

#5
Allan Rayman “Hotel Rayman”

It’s been long time since I’ve heard someone who has displayed a truly unique take on hip-hop/pop styles. This guy has the beats, the guitars, the whisky voice and the album concept where every song contributes to a whole story. Compliments to Allan Rayman. #CashVegas

#4
James Blake self-titled album “James Blake”

Kanye West calls this guy, the best singer alive. So angelic, and when he performs live, it’s the same insane level as the recordings. What more can I say? Blake reminds me of the Chapelle bit where he brought his son to see Kevin Hart do standup comedy an arena and described his envy in such an endearing way.

I love you James Blake, I hate you James Blake! I see the perfect balance of performance, an expert grasp on music production and a perfect amount of simplicity that is absolutely addictive to the listener.

Now there’s been an entire category of amazing live recorded albums in the world and I wish I could mention them all. However, for the sake of showing you guys something that you may have never heard from an artist everyone knows, my #3 has gotta be Mary J. Blige “The Tour”. Mary J Blige’s music is already very catchy for huge audiences, but this album is an even higher level adding an incredible live band, great arrangements of her biggest hits and the energy of an arena concert. This is top level music!

Last year I made a duet video tribute with this artist and you may have already seen it and realized what a deep impact and influence this guy had on my creative career. I also think by now you can see that I’ve decided to focus on music which I discovered during my adolescence and I hope that this not only gives you a closer look into where some of my deepest musical inspirations come from, but also expose you to some tracks that you won’t see on a playlist of top pop songs today. This man had so much influence on my life as a musician who improvises, that I was inspired to do an improvisatory section of my high school graduation concert and literally wrote stacks of sheet music, transcribing his music. Also one of the few artists whose CD’s I bought multiple times, just to give to some of the people in my closest friends and family circle. My #2 is Keith Jarrett Trio,” Tokyo 96.” When I was in music college in New York City, this CD came out and literally every student bought a copy. The level of telepathy between the musicians and the amount of spontaneous and magical moments are perfection. Also the balance of melody, harmony and rhythm heard in this album is something I have strived to create in my own music since the first time I heard it.

Keith Jarrett is for sure a strange guy, a perfectionist and demands absolute silence from the audience. But without a doubt, when you hear him play, you recognize something great is going on.

Finally, coming in at the #1 spot is the “Köln Concert” by none other than Keith Jarrett, again!

I told you this guy was a big inspiration for me, so much that he’s the only artist I put two times on my top 10 list. The “Köln Concert“ is perhaps the most famous of Keith Jarrett’s fully improvised solo piano concerts. I can describe this recording as a spiritual event as the tone of the piano and the melodies coming out of this man’s performance are legendary. As you know, I am passionate about discovering the healing benefits of music, but what I have not come out to say publicly, is that this album has been with me since I was about 16 years old and has helped me, in many ways feel closure of chapters in life. Maybe it will also for you? Let me know. There are a lot of questions around how this album was created and why it is different than Keith’s other albums, and I’m sure you can find those stories online. But, for me, I always like to keep in mind how Keith goes through a multi-day meditation leading up to these kinds of spontaneous concerts and how we all are capable of greatness that can change the universe if we stay mindful and place powerful intention behind all of our actions.

For those of you who have stuck around till the end of this vlog, a big THANK YOU! I realize you could be watching/reading almost anything at all, especially now, with so much content coming online every day. If you’ve made it to the end of this video and you enjoyed the content, drop a comment with the secret phrase “infinity!” to let us know you made it all the way to the end.

If you’ve found at least one new enjoyable album out of this, then my job is done.

Also, wondering, what are your top 10 albums? Can you separate the artist from the artist’s crazy lifestyle?

Leave a comment. Don’t forget to hit the like, subscribe, share especially if you enjoy this content. It helps with the algorithm so we stay visible on this platform and it’s absolutely FREE.

Until the next my friends. Peace!