Music
Chicagoan of the Year: Dana Hall
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| Photo taken from allaboutjazz.com |
Chicagoans are a proud people. We are proud of our ability to withstand extreme shifts in weather, our influential architecture, our broad shoulders. And each year, the Chicago Tribune assembles a list of people Chicagoans should be especially proud of, in categories spanning the humanities. This year, Chicago, be happy you can lay claim on drummer Dana Hall, the recently named 2009 Chicagoan of the Year for Jazz.
The Conduit caught up with Hall during a two-night stint at the Green Mill celebrating Into the Light, Hall’s debut recording as bandleader.
“Being named Chicagoan of the Year is both humbling and inspiring,” Hall remarked. “It means I have work to do next year. It moves ‘What’s next?’ to the forefront—what can I do that remains in the spirit of progress?”
Hall played to a packed house last weekend with the musicians who recorded Into the Light. Despite appearing fully engaged with the audience, flashing big smiles and looking out into the crowd, he admits the crowd is the last thing on his mind.
“I just think about the music. I know the crowd is there, but I’m completely absorbed by the musical moment.”
While drummer as a front man seems a bit oxymoronic, Hall views his role “like a tour guide, pointing out interesting sounds, making commentary on what the other musicians are doing.” In performance, Hall uses his instrument as a way to “move the other musicians into a certain direction.”
First drawn to music from listening to bands like Van Halen, the fluidity of Jazz ultimately won Hall over. “[With Jazz] you’re participating in art at the highest level. You don’t have a strict end goal; rather, it demands that you be more nuanced within a structure. You have to have the command of your instrument to develop a genre.”
As Assistant Professor of Jazz at the University of Illinois – Urbana, Hall encourages his students to “find a transparency in music” and reminds them that virtuosity does not diminish artistry. “Put in the work,” he says, a mantra he seems to live by.
Though it seems his life is crammed with nothing but music, Hall noted that his compositions are inspired by a plethora of non-musical influences, especially visual art and poetry. One composition on Into the Light—“The Path to Love”—was inspired by a book of the same name by Deepak Chopra. “The way we hear and feel language,” Hall explains, “can be translated into musical sound.”
Of his debut as a bandleader, Hall has this to say:
“[Into the Light] represents my most complete statement as an artist to date - a recording of my compositions and arrangements, shaped in the vision and created with my friends in a collaborative and supportive environment. It represents my opportunity to expose folks to sides of me as an artist that they may not have seen or known about - me as a bandleader, conceptualizer, composer, and arranger.”
Among his list of accolades, Hall holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago, has played with a long list of Jazz heavyweights, and teaches and mentors musicians all over the country and globe. Chicagoan of the Year is one of many already earned and many sure to come.
The Pertinent Info:
Into the Light is available on iTunes, eMusic, Amazon.com and other online retailers, the Origin Records website, directly from Hall via his website (www.danahallmusic.com) and in-person performances, and at several local retailers in Chicago.
Upcoming performances:
Pops for Champagne February 13th & 20th @ 9:00pm
The Green Mill February 26th @ 9:00pm
