Just Dance Tonight, Phaze 1: Walter Millsap, Matt Haze, Jae Deal

Opening the countdown to Just Dance on the Tonight Show, the TV performance by Lady Gaga in January 2009, here is the first post with details on the live band members who accompanied Lady Gaga at that performance. This television show was Gaga's first time ever performing with a live band!

The musical director of the performance is Walter Millsap, for whom this was his first assignment working with Gaga. Millsap is primarily known as a producer and is presently working with Mindless Behavior. In an online interview, Millsap said that after the Tonighst Show performance, "it got bizarre... We got American Idol and Dancing with the Stars, and then we headed overseas, where she was doing massive shows. I was mixing, putting music together, playing. She had the idea of bringing in her friends to play in the band, because she wanted to pump up the image thing a little bit, so I helped put that together." Millsap's mention of Gaga's friends refers to her band on the 2009 world tour with Nico, Tommy, Andreas, and Brian. Millsap is on twitter.

The guitarist at the show is Matt Haze (Roberts). Matt studied music, focusing on jazz, at the University of Southern California, where he also founded the New West Guitar Quartet. He then worked with many artists in all kinds of different genres ranging from pop to r&b and jazz, such as Solange Knowles, Katharine McPhee, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, and Jesse McCartney. He has founded his own project, Generation Maze, a rock band that features cello and piano. Most recently, he worked with SoMo and with his new band ElectroFunk. Matt mentioned the Gaga show in a facebook post. He is online via his website, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and instagram. 

The bass keyboardist on the show is Jae Deal. Jae hails from Baltimore, Maryland, where he studied mathematics at the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and became well versed in bass guitar and keys, especially in the world of gospel. After moving to LA, he began working for a great many artists in pop and r&b, including Diane Warren, Queen Latifah, Ne-Yo, Jessica Simpson, Elton John, Jill Scot, Snoop Dogg, and Janet Jackson. He also performed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and md'ed for Kirk Franklin’s Youth Ministry at Faithful Central Bible Church. Jae has a wiki and can be followed on twitter and instagram.

 

See prior post for video & audio of Just Dance on The Tonight Show.

More info on the rest of the band is here!