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Danny Green

Over the past decade, jazz pianist and Origin Records recording artist Danny Green has earned recognition as a bandleader and as a composer with a gift for spinning supple, absorbing narratives. Green’s growing portfolio of vibrant sounds – an enchanting mix of jazz, classical, and Brazilian rhythms – has captured the attention of critics around the world, including DownBeat Magazine, Jazziz, San Diego Union Tribune, the Boston Globe, and Public Radio International. It’s no small wonder that Green has earned two San Diego Music awards for Best Jazz Album and an additional award for Best Jazz Artist. His long-time trio includes bassist Justin Grinnell and drummer Julien Cantelm, noteworthy musicians in their own right, and together they have developed a nearly psychic connection as they perform Green’s original compositions and jazz standards. Green takes listeners on a journey that is equal parts introspective and exuberant, and always compelling.



Green’s talents have taken him from the Blue Note in New York City to the Blue Whale in Los Angeles, and his work has been featured in DownBeat Magazine, Jazziz, the San Diego Union Tribune, The Boston Globe, NPR, and JazzEd. According to JazzReview.com, “Danny Green is what evolution in jazz is all about, expressing the traits of those that came before him, with a style and panache that is all his own…an individual who expresses what is inside of him.”


Green revealed his unique talents on his 2009 debut recording With You In Mind. The album received extensive airplay around the globe, rose to #18 on the Jazz Week Charts, and won “Best Jazz Album” at the 2009 San Diego Music Awards. In 2012, Green teamed up with Tapestry Records to release A Thousand Ways Home, featuring Justin Grinnell on bass, Julien Cantelm on drums, and Tripp Sprague on sax, as well as a talented cast of guest artists inducing guitarists Chico Pinheiro, Peter Sprague, and Dusty Brough, Brazilian vocalist Claudia Villela, and mandolinist Eva Scow. A Thousand Ways Home received numerous rave reviews nationwide, rose to #17 on the Jazz Week Charts, was voted into KSDS Jazz 88.3’s “Top Ten Jazz Releases of 2012,” and was nominated “Best Jazz Album” at the 2013 San Diego Music Awards. In 2014, the Danny Green Trio, comprised of Green, Grinnell, and Cantelm, released the highly-acclaimed album After The Calm on Origin/OA2 Records. Featuring ten of Green’s compositions, the album received much praise from the press and nationwide radio play, and won “Best Jazz Album” at the 2015 San Diego Music Awards and was nominated for “Album of the Year.”



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1
Radio & Podcasts

Danny Green Interview

Read "Danny Green Interview" reviewed by Patrick Burnette


Lockdown can't stop the boys from interviewing interesting musicians (it's not like we did it in person before . . .) This time. pianist, composer and educator Danny Green visits our slightly demented neck of the woods to discuss his latest project (a group called LP and the Vinyl with a vocalist covering . . . gasp . . . rock and pop tunes as well as jazz standards) as well as three albums that influenced his approach to music ...

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Album Review

LP And The Vinyl: Heard And Seen

Read "Heard And Seen" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Vocalist Leonard Patton can be heard and seen often in the San Diego County, California area, making his joyful noise. Often, he appears in the company of the Danny Green Trio, one of the jazz world's premier piano trios. The live shows are exhilarating affairs, with Patton--covering everything from Stevie Wonder to Michael Jackson to David Bowie to the Great American Songbook--displaying a seemingly effortless ability to put a song across with a bursting-with-life elan. On Heard and ...

10
Live Review

Danny Green Trio Plus Strings at Heckscher Park

Read "Danny Green Trio Plus Strings at Heckscher Park" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Danny Green Trio Plus Strings Chapin Rainbow Stage, Heckscher Park Huntington Summer Arts Festival Huntington, NY August 3, 2018 While Long Island's Huntington Summer Arts Festival doesn't hold status as a jazz feast per se, the music most certainly plays a significant role on its calendar. The not-so-distant past has seen everybody from drummer Roy Haynes to pianist Vijay Iyer to vocalist Jane Monheit grace the Chapin Rainbow Stage, and the lineup for ...

11
Live Review

Danny Green Trio at the Lily Pad

Read "Danny Green Trio at the Lily Pad" reviewed by Doug Hall


Danny Green Trio The Lily Pad CD Release concert Cambridge, MA June 16, 2018 Acclaimed San Diego pianist and composer Danny Green and his trio, Justin Grinnell and Julien Cantelm performed a set supporting their CD release One Day It Will (2018), at the Lily Pad in Cambridge, Ma. Sat June 16th. The intimate setting of this small venue in the heart of a Cambridge neighborhood offered the perfect setting for the lyrically charged ...

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Album Review

Danny Green Trio Plus Strings: One Day It Will

Read "One Day It Will" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Charlie Parker, alto saxophonist/bebop pioneer, got the ball rolling on the adding of strings to jazz. This went down in the late 1947 through 1950, on a pair of releases on Mercury Records introducing the sound of the Yardbird backed by a symphony orchestra. These sets were later compiled by Verve Records and issued in 1995 as Charlie Parker with Strings. That offering is a masterpiece of the genre it spawned: Chet Baker with Strings, (Columbia Records, 1954); Clifford Brown ...

8
Album Review

Danny Green Trio: Altered Narratives

Read "Altered Narratives" reviewed by Mark Corroto


The old adage, that you know you're a jazz musician when you realize that there are actually two 9 o'clocks in a day, has been replaced with the revelation that jazz is a musical omnivore. It can consume every style of music from classical to pop as sustenance for a performance. Pianist Danny Green's proves that argument with his trio recording Altered States.The pianist was classically trained before delving into rock, ska, then Brazilian musics. His influences inform ...

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Album Review

Danny Green Trio: Altered Narratives

Read "Altered Narratives" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Pianist Danny Green took a big step up in the piano trio rankings with 2014's After The Calm (OA2 Records). The San Diego-based group focused in on a distinctive and beautiful set of Green originals and recorded them with a continuity of mood and an ebullient brio--like three guys who knew what they were doing in an art that demands nuance and delicacy sitting beside--in time's flow--a rise and fall of robustness of approach that just might evolve, when the ...

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3

Performance / Tour

Danny Green And His Trio In Five California Shows – April 7-26

Danny Green And His Trio In Five California Shows – April 7-26

Source: Braithwaite & Katz Communications

Pianist/composer Danny Green and his trio—featuring bassist Justin Grinnell and drummer Julien Cantelm— perform in five California cities as part of a ten-city tour celebrating their new OA2 recording Altered Narratives. Upcoming Tour Thurs., 4/7 at Café Pink House, 14577 Big Basin Way, Saratoga, CA Also featuring guest saxophonist Harvey Wainapel Two sets: 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. $15 Fri., 4/8 at the Red Poppy, 2698 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA Two ...

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Award / Grant

Danny Green Wins Best Jazz Album in 2009 San Diego Music Awards

Danny Green Wins Best Jazz Album in 2009 San Diego Music Awards

Source: Michael Ricci

With You In Mind, Green's Debut Solo Release, named “Best Jazz Album of the Year" by the San Diego Music Foundation San Diego, CA -- San Diego-based independent record label, Pacific Coast Jazz (PCJ), is proud to report its artist, Danny Green, won “Best Jazz Album of the Year" from the San Diego Music Foundation in their 19th annual awards ceremony, last night at Viejas Concerts in the Park, San Diego, CA. With You in Mind is Green's debut solo ...

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Performance / Tour

Danny Green "With You in Mind" CD Release Party at Anthology

Danny Green "With You in Mind" CD Release Party at Anthology

Source: Sound Visions Media

With You In Mind Considered A Brilliant Musical Statement San Diego, CA - Called “a brilliant musical statement” by jazz critics nationally, pianist Danny Green celebrates his debut release, With You In Mind and brings his unique blend of jazz and world music rhythms music to Anthology on Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 7:30 PM. The band features Justin Grinnel (bass), Dylan Savage (drums), Tripp Sprague (sax) and special guest guitarist, Peter Sprague. Tickets start at $15 and can be ...

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Recording

Danny Green Debuts CD, "With You in Mind" as #1 Most Added on Jazz Week

Danny Green Debuts CD, "With You in Mind" as #1 Most Added on Jazz Week

Source: Sound Visions Media

San Diego, CA - Danny Green's debut CD, With You In Mind" seems to be getting quite the attention for this new pianist sprouting up in the jazz world. The CD was released on January 20th and besides his superb reviews Danny's radio debut Charted at #18 on his first week along with #1 most added to play lists. Danny is thrilled to be a part of the Pacific Coast Jazz label artists roster because of their genuine love of ...

100

Recording

Pacific Coast Jazz adds Danny Green's Debut CD "With You in Mind"

Pacific Coast Jazz adds Danny Green's Debut CD "With You in Mind"

Source: Sound Visions Media

San Diego, CA – October 9, 2008 - San Diego-based independent record label, Pacific Coast Jazz (PCJ), announces the addition of San Diego-based Brazilian jazz pianist, Danny Green, to their roster of distinctive artists. Green’s own independent label, Alante Recordings, will now be an associate label under the Pacific Coast Jazz umbrella.

This affiliation anticipates the release of Green’s first solo release With You In Mind, slated for a street date of January 20, 2009. “The quality of Danny’s work ...

“Green’s eloquent eclecticism – a gift that includes writing anything from celebratory blues to meditative reflections to composing for a string quartet – illuminates his sparkling new trio release, Altered Narratives.” – WNPR

“Danny Green: a writer of gorgeous and engaging tunes, and a first rate pianist leading a distinctively interactive trio.” Dan McClenaghan, All About Jazz

“The Trio displays admiral cohesion. The pieces often flow, and there can be a natural, unforced quality to Green’s writing.” – DownBeat Magazine

“A terrific piano man on the keys for sure, it’s probably his talents on the compositional side that makes this artist stand out for the music he produces is as engaging and intriguing as if penned by a veteran icon of jazz.” Edward Blanco, All About Jazz

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Primary Instrument

Piano

Location

San Diego

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Credentials/Background

B.A. in Piano Performance, UCSD Master's in Music - Jazz Studies, SDSU Jazz/Brazilian/Latin Jazz and classical piano lessons

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Heard And Seen

OA2 Records
2020

buy

One Day It Will

OA2 Records
2018

buy

Altered Narratives

OA2 Records
2016

buy

After the Calm

OA2 Records
2015

buy

After The Calm

OA2 Records
2014

buy

A Thousand Ways Home

Tapestry Records
2012

buy

The Lonely Band

From: Heard And Seen
By Danny Green

One Day It Will

From: One Day It Will
By Danny Green

As the Parrot Flies

From: One Day It Will
By Danny Green

Time Lapse To Fall

From: One Day It Will
By Danny Green

Katabasis

From: Altered Narratives
By Danny Green

Two Ways About It

From: After The Calm
By Danny Green

End Of The Block

From: After The Calm
By Danny Green

Unwind

From: A Thousand Ways Home
By Danny Green

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