When you ask people on the Canadian Reggae music scene about Danny Maestro you usually hear words like professional, good engineer, competent, friendly and nice guy. At most reggae stage shows in Ontario you will most likely find him sitting in front of the mixing board or standing close by observing and learning more about his craft.<\/p>\n
Danny Maestro migrated from Kingston, Jamaica with his family to the USA in 1976. Fourteen years later Brampton, Canada became his new home. Immediately after settling in his new home, he built his recording studio and sought out local talents, building on a dream which started in New Jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cMi have di crown\u201d by Terminal DG was the first recording completed at his Bullet Proof Recording studio and released on his Bullet Proof record label. Soon after his roster grew and he was producing music with artists like the Original Lord Sassafras, Sugar Man and Dezzie Ranks to name a few. His reputation grew immensely and visiting artists from Jamaica requested his service. \u201cDuring that time Bullet Proof Studio was the main stop for dubplates and other music productions\u201d, he said. \u201cI even start producing songs with Pinchers, Frankie Paul and Terri Ganzie and a lot more international artist\u201d.<\/p>\n
Today Danny Maestro\u2019s production and engineering credits read like the work of a true Maestro. It includes the remix of the philosopher kings \u201cHurt To Love You.\u201d He mixed the Jay Douglas World Stimulation album which includes Tanya Mullings 2010 Juno nominated song \u201cBreaking Up.\u201d He followed with chart topping hits in Europe and North America including \u201cTings A Gwaan\u201d by Chuckleberry, \u201cEeanie Meanie Miney Moe\u201d with Janhoy and \u201cFarmer by trendsetting superstar Carla Marshall.<\/p>\n
In 2010 Danny Maestro released his most awarded work to date, a compilation album titled \u201cNew Tek Riddim\u201d under his new D\u2019 Maestro Music Productions label. The album includes songs by Nana McLean, Carla Marshall, Frankie Paul, Influential, Lutan Fyah, Tinga Stewart with Princess Jamela, Tasha T, Steele, Tony Anthony, Nadera & Terminal DG. The project received Canada\u2019s biggest musical accolade with a Juno Award win for Reggae Recording of the year with Elaine Lil\u2019 Bit Shepherd\u2019s song called \u201cLikkle But Mi Tallawah\u201d.<\/p>\n
Danny Maestro also produced songs on three other Juno winning albums, Lenn Hammond\u2019s chart topping self-titled album \u201cLenn Hammond, Carla Marshall\u2019s \u201cFarmer\u201d and Frankie Wilmot\u2019s \u201cVision\u201d album. Along with all those accolades Danny Maestro has won the Producer of the Year award on two occasions, at the Canadian Reggae Music Award in 1995 and the Reggae Music Achievement Award in 2011.<\/p>\n
One wonders how Danny find time to do so much work in the studio and then as a live music sound engineer. \u201cI love music engineering in every form, so I always make time to do both studio and live work when the opportunity arises,\u201d Maestro says.<\/p>\n
Engineer David \u201cDjango\u201d Griffiths introduced him to mixing a live show in the mid-nineties and he hasn\u2019t looked back since. \u201cI remember my first time mixing a band, it was with a band called Fujahtive, he said, \u201cI was nervous, but I knew I couldn\u2019t mess up, but it turned out well in the end.\u201d A few months later, he did his first solo gig mixing a show with Monster Shock Crew and Fantan Mojah from Jamaica. Today Danny Maestro is one of the most requested reggae music sound Engineer in Canada. He now plies his trade with \u2018Red Sound and Lighting\u2019 and can be seen behind the mixing board at shows like Grace Jerk Festival, CNE Reggae Series and Jambana. Since the lockdown caused by the Covid pandemic, he has been tweaking the keys behind the scenes of most of the live stream Canadian reggae productions.<\/p>\n
Danny Maestro is known for quizzing other engineers, wanting to learn as much as he can about his craft. He is currently participating in a master class lesson with Engineer Jason \u2018Redz\u2019 Reynolds who is known for his work with Shaggy, Julie Black and the Marley Brothers. He is also working on an album with the female reggae band Rezolution. Not one to sit on his laurels, it will be interesting to see what the Maestro does next.<\/p>\n
Follow Danny Maestro on social media<\/p>\n
Instagram: @dmaestroproductions<\/p>\n
Facebook: @DannyMaestro<\/p>\n
Twitter: @dmaestrodanny<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When you ask people on the Canadian Reggae music scene about Danny Maestro you usually hear words like professional, good engineer, competent, friendly and nice guy. At most reggae stage shows in Ontario you will most likely find him sitting in front of the mixing board or standing close by observing and learning more about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[240,239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canadian-news","category-international-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1088,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1086\/revisions\/1088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}