Q&A: (daKAH )

Question: What happens when you get more than 60 L.A.-based musicians playing hip-hop in the context of a classical symphony orchestra with the spontaneity of a jazz group? Answer: daKAH - a hybrid ensemble of strings, brass, woodwinds, MCs and DJs, among others.

Conceived by its conductor and primary composer Geoff Gallegos a.k.a. "Double G," daKAH and its music fuse the grooves and swing of Duke Ellington's songs, the compositional influence of Charles Mingus and Igor Stravinsky, and the dynamism of hip-hop with the wide palette of sounds common to classical instrumentation.

Not only does daKAH consist of woodwinds (alto to baritone saxophones and a bassoon), brass (trumpets and trombones), cellos, violas and violins, but also a harp, two guitars, bass, percussion, drums, keys, turntables, singers and MCs.

Gallegos was born in Hawaii and grew up in Colorado from the age of 5. He moved to Los Angeles as a young adult to pursue his dream of living in the big city, and becoming a studio player, performing and writing music within the context of film scores.

Gallegos, who is also a baritone saxophonist and attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, had thought of creating a hip-hop orchestra for many years but the idea only solidified during his apprenticeship with the director of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Prior to delving into the classical music world, Gallegos grew up on jazz, hip-hop and funk as a woodwind player. He has been deeply inspired by jazz groups like Groove Collective and hip-hop groups like the Roots, GangStar, The Pharcyde and Public Enemy.

Gallegos worked with the symphony during the day and would hang out at the club So What in Denver at night where he would bring his saxophone and play with the DJs in a hip-hop setting. He was soon playing classical melodies inside hip-hop rhythms and the rest is history.

In 1999, daKAH debuted in Los Angeles with 23 musicians with the co-founding assistance of bassist Kaveh Rastegar who helped Gallegos book its first few gigs.

Since then, daKAH has grown to 63 players who have traveled outside L.A. and toured various U.S. cities such as New Orleans for this year's jazz festival, Austin for the South By Southwest music conference, Chicago, Las Vegas and San Francisco, which is quite a feat considering it costs upward of $80,000 to $90,000 (hotels, food, airfare and daily allowances) to move the orchestra.

The Beach Reporter talked with Gallegos and talked about the band, which has a new album out, a remixed version of an original album entitled "Unfinished Symphony" out on Kufala Recordings.

The Beach Reporter: As the founder of daKAH, how did the idea of creating a hip-hop orchestra come about?

Gallegos: Well, from concept to reality took a long time. The ensemble debuted in 1999 when a couple of us made some phone calls to friends and we asked 23 musicians to commit to two gigs. It was kind of those things that we would try out. A trombone player, Dan Osterman, and myself wrote out some arrangements, so the musicians all showed up at the club and it went pretty well. We asked if we book another gig will everyone show up and they said 'Yes,' so it's been going pretty much like that since then. As far as the concept, I grew up playing the saxophone, and I have always played a lot of jazz and funk, but not a whole lot of classical just because there aren't a lot of saxophone parts written for a traditional orchestra. I was really into classic music and I learned a lot as a composer, and so it seemed like a no-brainer to combine it.

As far as the songwriting process, are songs created through a classical map or are they created through an improvisational jam session like a jazz ensemble?
The music is all orchestrated, it's all written out on sheet music, which is ironic because there are some people in the group who don't read music. So it really lends itself to a really cool sound and that is where the jazz composition comes in because with jazz composition you write out the sheet music and it'll have sections where it's letters instead of dots and those letters correspond to chords. So, one part, for example, I'll say that we are playing an E-minor groove and then it gives the player a little room of how they are going to walk through the changes. Sometimes if I have a specific idea, I'll write it down or sing it to them. There is definitely input from the musician but in terms of the compositional process, I pretty much lay that one down.

Because you have so many musical influences, how does that work when it seems like anything can go? Is it hard to get that focus?

Yes, absolutely. I think one of the things as an artist who becomes more mature at some point you have to find out what you are trying to do, and where your record is going to be put in the record store. So there is definitely a direction in the music of daKAH and that direction is dance, which is a big term anyway. So I listen to a lot of hip-hop records I like and find out what I like about them, and that influences me as far as writing the stuff for daKAH. For daKAH, I really want to have everything we play be something we can bounce your head to.

What is it about classical music that drew you in enough to create a kind of music inspired by it?

The sounds of the instruments, the way they all blend together - the woodwinds, strings and brass create such an incredible combination. There are all kinds of different things you can do with it. I'm also really interested in film scores and I love how composers use the sounds of an orchestra to evoke certain emotions. As a saxophone musician, I really got a free jazz, hip-hop and funk education, but with classical I really had to research it because I wasn't just able to throw myself into an ensemble and play as a sax player. It's the same way for a violin player who usually just plays classical music. That's what is kind of cool about daKAH. We have violinists who are really learning about hip-hop, and then we've got the MCs and DJs who are learning about classical music, so it's a really cool exchange of information.

How would you define hip-hop?

I don't think I can, I feel like it's indefinable. I mean you know where it's at in a record store, but what really attracted me to hip-hop is when I heard Public Enemy and what they were saying - I felt like the whole genre could be a real forum for challenge and debate. The "Stolen Moments: Red, Hot + Cool" album that came out was the single biggest influence for the concept of daKAH - when they started combining the jazz people with the hip-hop people and it was all done using a live band.