Hip-hop Violinist Paul Dateh May Get the Last Laugh
A couple of months ago, a pair of teenage violinists named Gareth and Alex posted a video to YouTube, in which they play jazzy improvisations over a recording of "Remember the Name," a hip-hop track by the band Fort Minor. In the description box to the right of the video screen, Gareth and Alex provide a simple, four-word explanation for the video: "We worship Paul Dateh."
"I thought that was the craziest thing I've ever seen," laughs violinist Dateh (pronounced like Dante, but without the n). The LA-based musician suspects that his worshippers discovered him through a smoking-hot YouTube video (which has gotten more than 1.7 million hits in less than a year) in which he performs with hip-hop turntablist inka one. "I never knew if I'd have any direct impact on anyone who played violin," Dateh says, "but it's a great feeling because, honestly, that's exactly what I want. I want other musicians to be able to experiment with the instruments they play. The way I see it, your instrument is an extension of your own voice, and whether you play the guitar, the drums, or the violin, you should be allowed to, you know, speak your mind."
Dateh has been speaking his mind since switching from classical music to jazz back in school, dropping that bomb on his first day of attending USC's Thornton School of Music. This was after studying classical violin for nearly 15 years, and winning accolades from a number of top violinists and teachers, most of whom did not react to Dateh's defection with enthusiasm.
"I was disowned, shunned, I was outright dismissed," he recalls. "It was really shocking. I thought, music is music is music, and as long as you have a passion for what you're doing, it will be respected. When the people from my pre-college musical school found out that I'd become a jazz major, a lot of my teachers just smirked and said I was throwing my talent away and would never amount to anything. My classical friends whom I'd grown up with suddenly felt we no longer had anything in common and wouldn't have anything more to do with me.
"It was a very disappointing time, to say the least."
Dateh felt similarly received among the long-time jazz players he encountered at his new school. "They didn't like me either," he says, "They'd say, 'How could you ever know how to swing, how will you ever be able to play with feeling if you come from the classical world where it's all about precision and repetition?' There's a lot of prejudice and weird ideas on both sides of that fence, and there I was, right in the middle of all that."
Adding another complication to the whole fish-out-of-water experience was Dateh's simultaneous development of his own singing voice. That's right, he's a singing hip-hop, jazz violinist, one who writes his own songs.
"I just love to sing," he says, "and actually, I have to thank my classical training for this, because growing up I was taught that to understand music, every musician should know how to sing. So singing is something I enjoy very much, and it's become a part of my musical life."
Through his website and YouTube performances, Dateh has made some significant industry connections, resulting in a number of hybrid projects, including collaborations with DJ Johnny Juice of Public Enemy. Soon, he'll be launching his first European tour, and a day or two after this interview, he was set to begin work on his first CD, one his online fans have been demanding for a long time through sweet-talking postings on Dateh's video-supported website ( pauldateh.com).
The new album, Dateh says, will include demonstrations of everything he does.
"I really want to showcase my love for the violin," he says. "I want to make sure that the violin has a prominent role in this album, because it is and has been a really important part of my musical life. Also, I really enjoy singing and songwriting, so I'm going to try and make that as big a part of the project as I can."
The best news is that, as a classically trained musician with eclectic tastes and mad skills, he no longer feels alone.
"More and more [alternative] violinists are finding their way into mainstream culture," he says. "If you look on YouTube, there are plenty of other people experimenting with classical instruments and pop music. There is a whole community of people who are making new things with old tools. It's exciting to be a part of that movement."
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