Somewhere in the late 1990s, coveted within the drenches of Los Angeles, a 31-piece hip-hop orchestra was born, and was called daKAH Symphonic Hip-Hop Orchestra. The company blends turntables, rappers, singers with hip-hop, funk, jazz, and symphonic beats to create a sound so unique and fresh that classical music aficionados praise the group. Folk music critic Kim Ruehl referred to daKAH as “Los Angeles’ hidden treasure.
“These rare folks touch on so many different genres, and cross so many different cultural divides that their work becomes universal,” continued Ruehl for About.com. “It’s in this universality that it becomes accessible and identifiable to anyone and everyone … ostensibly, there’s no way it can’t be considered the music of the masses.”
What began as a group of less than 20 members, quickly escalated into a full-blown orchestra with over sixty professional musicians.
“A Los Angeles-based musical ensemble called the daKAH Hip-Hop Orchestra is breaking new musical ground,” reporter Fawnee Evnochides told NPR in 2004. “The group presents hip-hop in symphonic form, with a wide variety of musicians from various segments of the Southern California music scene.”
daKAH was asked to perform in this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival during the closing night ceremony. The festival begins early October, and the group is making every effort to show up.
Conductor and founder of the group, Geoff “Double G” Gallegos, was featured in a documentary entitled Hip-Hop Maestro, which will be screened at the festival. According to Jim Welte of Mill Valley’s Patch.com, the group has to raise at least $7,500 and bring in 31 people – the maximum number allowed to attend the show – in order to perform in the festival.
The film’s director, Christine Lee, wants to see the group stay at the festival long enough to “play a show at a local school, as Gallegos continually reaches out to public schools to connect young people with the band’s unique blend of classical, jazz and hip-hop music,” reported Welte.
“When I went to see daKAH, I was just blown away,” Lee told Welte. “There were all these young kids playing with a very high level of musicianship, connecting classical with hip-hop. I immediately fell in love with them.”
“daKAH, for all its numbers of participants, does not have an over-extended sound,” praises L.A.-local music critic Kim Ruehl. “Their rhymes are sharp and intelligent, their accompaniment is fierce and precise, and their overall aesthetic is truly astounding.”
