We recently connected with Dan Leibel and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Dan, thanks for joining us today. What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Society needs to cultivate spaces that give artists the freedom to experiment and expand their definitions of what is possible without commercial motivation being the heart of the presentation. While it’s great to listen to a guitarist like John Mayer (just for example) and easy to see that others like and respect his work, I would encourage people to discover who John Mayer’s favorite musicians are. Who is it that inspires him? If you dig into that, maybe you’ll discover Charles Altura, a Grammy nominated jazz guitarist that tours internationally with Terence Blanchard and others. After that maybe you’ll discover Jeremy Dutton, a jazz drummer who works with Altura and some of the top jazz artists today such as Joel Ross and Vijay Ayer. Both of these players have been featured at Giant Ledge. It’s some of our proudest work! The same idea applies to art. If you love Andy Warhol, perhaps you might take the time to dig into his life and work. You may discover an artist like the late Richard Giglio – whose work has also been featured at Giant Ledge. Knowledge is power. Knowledge gives you license to carve out your own personal taste. With the internet and social media, it is so easy to get more information. Who are inspiring the artistic taste-makers of today? These are questions that I think help to gauge where art is heading, what the top quality looks or sounds like and who will be relevant in the next ten to twenty years. If society has a better understanding of the art landscape, the artists that truly push their boundaries might be rewarded more than they are now.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Giant Ledge Production Company curates intimate presentations of art by some of the top musicians, visual artists and story-tellers in the world.
We partner with art galleries and music theaters throughout New York City, including NuBlu, Flux Studios and 17 Frost Gallery to bring our audiences works that they won’t find anywhere else. Our goal is to work closely with the artists we book so that they can present the work that they are most inspired by. At our core, we present our audiences with the most raw, humanizing and artistic expressions of the people that we feature in an intimate do-it-yourself fashion. We’re grateful to have worked with Grammy award winners and nominees, friends of Andy Warhol, New York Times acclaimed poets and photographers, professors of art from NYU, the New School and more to present their work in an engaging way to the folks that follow and attend our shows.
What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
The most meaningful project I’ve ever worked on, and continue to work on, is the development of GIant Ledge Production Co. When Giant Ledge Productio
The confidence to do this came from many hours of what I would call “experiential research.” While I was working other jobs prior to founding Giant Ledge, my passion for art, music and story-telling motivated me to steep myself in the rich artistic offerings of Manhattan and Brooklyn. After work I would go to jazz clubs in the city – from the Village Vanguard to the now defunct Cornelia Street Cafe – to familiarize myself with top musicians in the jazz scene. I would often go alone and pay close attention to the players on stage, learn about their influences through anecdotes or mid-act banter, and chat them up after the show if I wasn’t being a burden.
I simultaneously worked as a volunteer intern at Superchief Gallery in Ridgewood at the time. Once a week I’d make an hour-long commute to the gallery and spend my time chatting with the experienced artists and curators that roamed its halls and corners. I learned so much. The dedication to earning these experiences made this work incredibly meaningful to me, and it translated into actually knowing a thing or two before reaching out and plunging into projects with the very artists I’d admired as a consumer and volunteer. People could sense the baseline passion in my outreach, which I believe opened many doors for Giant Ledge.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
This story is as much a nod and credit to the performers that are about to be mentioned as it is about the resiliency of Giant Ledge.
We booked a fantastic quartet of young jazz musicians in the New York City and international music scene for our inaugural show. The group included Kalia Vandever as band leader on Trombone, Sasha Berliner on Vibraphone, Tyrone Allen on Bass and Connor Parks on Drums.
The weather was awful and it had been raining all day before the show. To my chagrin, the gallery we were working in flooded midday. Fortunately we were able to deal with the mess before our audiences and performers arrived, but it made for a stressful day leading up to our first ever public presentation.
Fast forward a few hours. Doors open for the show, audiences filter in (we had a packed house!) and the band is all set to dig in. They play for about 20 minutes and then I notice water starting to trickle from the back of the gallery towards the stage area. Our very first show is in jeopardy of being flooded out. The band leader notices the water and gives me a look. I was anticipating this. At this point, now everyone can see the water encroaching on our performance.
I sprung into action. This was our first impression on our audiences and members of the band. I promptly acknowledged the need for the players to pause and made a quick announcement to the crowd. I collected towels and blankets as calmly as possible and laid them on the flooding areas, mitigating the flow of the water and clearing out wetness from the proximity of music equipment and seating. Fortunately I had been able to game plan for this after the occurrence of the midday flood. Much to the band’s credit, they were complete professionals about it. They did not complain or stop the set short. The audience was terrific as well. Instead, they all saw the logistical issues occurring in real time and had the patience for us to resolve them before completing the set. Ultimately it was a success. Challenges will arise, and how you respond to them sets the tone for how people react. We are grateful for the mental fortitude of our performers and audiences that night. In hindsight it’s a great story to remind myself that a calm response to a big problem can sometimes make the difference between salvaging things or ending up in a complete mess.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.GiantLedge.com
- Instagram: @Giant.Ledge
- Facebook: Giant Ledge Production Co.
- Other: Email us directly: [email protected]
Image Credits
Images feature Zoh Amba (sax), Billy Martin (drums), and painters Charlie Dimascio, Kiko Bordeos and Addison Bale.