Album Notes

MILK & JADE by Dana Leong, has a sizzling musical chemistry that combines live grooves, electronically charged tracks, poetic rhyming and impeccable artistry. Bandleader Leong uses a laptop both onstage and in the studio to create soundscapes of electronic beats and to manipulate the sound of instruments through real time processing. The result is a unique fusion of computerized instrumental hip-hop funk rhythms and rock propulsions.

In 2007, the band was selected for 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. Designed to foster cultural exchange in areas with limited access to American music and culture, the tour included concert dates in eight South East Asian countries, culminating in a homecoming concert at Dizzy’s Coca-Cola Club in New York City in April 2008.

New York magazine praised the band’s recent performance at BAMcafé as “hands down excellent,” describing its diverse audience as “a mix of gray curls, flowing caftans, dapper Fonzworth Bentley–style suits, and quite a few zip hoodies.” A popular addition to the festival and college music circuit, MILK & JADE by Dana Leong has performed at UCLA, Franklin & Marshall College (PA), the Rochester Summer Arts Fest and the Huntington Arts Festival in New York, Manhattan’s famed Knitting Factory, and at the National Geographic Society in Washington, DC. During the 08-09 season, the group appeared at The Duke Ellington Jazz Festival and at festivals worldwide including Serbia, Sweden, Italy, Germany, Finland, Slovenia and Austria.