Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Dana Leong: Anthems of Life

276

Dana Leong: Anthems of Life

By

View read count
Dana Leong: Anthems of Life
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 to, but who shies away from the excitement of the bright lights of Times Square?

The lyrics of the ten songs are as captivating as the electronic and acoustic vibrations that accompany them. 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 lift them up and bring them to an attention that is broad, and not simply for a select few.

Samples that stress the attraction of the sound abound from Leong's laptop. The programming choices wrap themselves around the words that are sung. Leong chooses to play both trombone and cello in perfect locations, which are both celebratory and programmatic; the two instruments act vocally, like vocalist MC Baba Israel. The drums are acoustic and provide a pleasurable pacemaker.

From the very beginning of the recording onward, it is clear that music is considered the key to survival because it is a labor of love; it opens the minds and hearts of all those who partake. Leong exercises his knowledge of music outside of popular culture, for there are reflections of Kurt Weill in "Another Perfect Catastrophe," reggae in "Get Up," full-blown R&B in "Black & White," liturgical in "Opus One: Why I Cry," and jazz in "Live Vibe." These different types of music move throughout all the songs because they are part of Leong's vocabulary.

The most powerful and clearly spoken song is "One Life." It charges with hope, longing, desire and striving to overcome life's tragedies. A crescendo that never really reaches its complete height becomes the dynamic that contrasts the words, accompanied by repeatedly strummed chord phrases, which imply a gentle innocence. The crescendo embraces the expression of love, need and the reality that there is only one time we go around.

The profundity and variety within his music emphasizes what Leong values: "The hoops that I jump through, people with conviction, ancestry, love, friends, the future, embarrassment, comedy, foolishness, & meditation." These are the words of no ordinary musician; rather they come from an exceptional young one.

Track Listing

Bonified; Another Perfect Catastrophe; BigUp; Opus One (Why I Cry); One Life; Free Drinks for 50 (Interlude); Get Up; Live Vibe; 2971 AD; Inner Visions; Black & White.

Personnel

Dana Leong: cello with effects, trombone, electric bass, keyboards, drums, vocals, trumpet, computer sound design; Aviv Cohen: drums; Jason Lindner: keyboards; MC Baba Israel: rap vocals.

Album information

Title: Anthems of Life | Year Released: 2007 | Record Label: Tateo Sound

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.