Carlmont High Alum Dana Leong Performs in Belmont

After headlining concerts in more than 35 countries,  alum Dana Leong returned Friday for his first concert appearance in Belmont.

Leong’s band, the jazz quartet Milk & Jade by Dana Leong, played to a sold out audience at the Carlmont Performing Arts Center.  

Leong, who plays the cello and trombone, and composes the music for the hip-hop infused jazz quartet, said he wanted to treat the crowd to “something that reinvents a familiar and fun sound.”

Carlmont Instrumental Music Director John DaBaldo said Leong’s fresh take on music is something he wanted his instrumental music students to experience.

“Dana is one of those rare musicians that combine styles,” DaBaldo said. “I want to expose my kids to as many types of music as possible.”

The Carlmont band members who joined community members and their parents during Friday’s performance got to hear the many musical genre’s that have influenced Leong throughout his life.

Playing from a set list that allowed Leong to switch between the trombone and his cello, Leong and his band entertained the crowd for 90 minutes.

Milk and Jade’s hip-hop jazz rendition of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” featured Leong playing a rousing trombone solo.

The Leong-composed “Hold the Doors” had the band’s MC/rapper, iLLspokiNN, call for crowd participation as he led the audience in a call and response chant of the song’s title and chorus.

Following a standing ovation from the audience at the end of the show, Milk and Jade by Dana Leong returned to the stage for a one song encore and closed the show with their song “Opus One (Why I Cry),” on which Leong plays the cello.  

At age 1, Leong began playing his mother’s piano. At 5 years old he was discovered to have perfect pitch. By the time Leong reached , where DaBaldo taught music at the time, he was already playing both the trombone and cello.

Leong said that while he loved music as a youngster, he never saw being a musician as a career option. All that changed, however, when one of Leong’s mentors, Fred Berry, a jazz educator at Stanford University, provided him with the opportunity to play as a stage musician for musical acts playing in the Bay Area.

By the time Leong finished high school, he had played numerous shows, including ones for Whitney Houston; Earth, Wind, and Fire; Barry White; and Ray Charles.  

“At that point, I saw it as a possibility,” Leong said of a career in music.  

After Carlmont, Leong attended the Manhattan School of Music as a double scholarship student, studying classical cello and jazz trombone.

The Manhattan School of Music’s great reputation is warranted, Leong said, but being in New York City also helped him grow as a musician.

Leong said life in New York exposed him to a broad range of international cultures. He was exposed to different languages, food, and, of course, music.

Since arriving in New York, Leong has played numerous genres of music with musicians from all over the world, including ones from South America, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and West Africa. 

Leong, who lives in Harlem, said he was excited to come back to Carlmont. He missed his 10 year class reunion because he was staging the show “Life After Dark” at the Apollo Theater. He saw Friday’s concert as a good chance to return to his roots.

“I’m just happy to come back,” Leong said.

While a student at Carlmont High, Leong said he listened to everyone from John Coltrane and Keith Jarret to Notorious B.I.G. and Dr. Dre.

“I had a pretty broad range of things I was listening to,” said Leong.

If there's any advice that Leong has for young musicians, it's to be observant about the world of music and to pay attention to the artists they love and respect.

Of his life as a globe-trotting musician, Leong said, “It’s fun to be able to wake up and do something different every day.”