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Dan Willis

Dan Willis, one of New York City’s most active and versatile woodwind specialists, performs regularly across a wide spectrum of music from Jazz to New Music. He is currently a member of composer, David Chesky's “Area 31,” which Classics Today defines as, "A new modern downtown Manhattan chamber ensemble of all young star virtuosos." And, recently, Dan served as a featured performer on traditional Armenian folk double-reed instruments, the Dukuk and the Zurna, at the New York premiere of “Strophes,” a work composed and conducted by Yakov Koslov. Both of these endeavors attest to the rich vocabulary within Dan’s musical language.

In addition to his work in the classical genre, he has toured Japan and the U.S. with Michael Brecker's Grammy winning Ensemble 'Quindectet', toured with Don Henley, and performed at Madison Square Garden with Clay Aiken. Dan is also a member of the Grammy nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble and recently recorded on the Duduk as a featured artist for the new Rob Thomas solo CD single “All That I Am.”(Grammy nominated) As a much sought after woodwind doubler, Dan has played on ten Broadway Cast Recordings and is currently performing in the hit Broadway Musical, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.” (Grammy nominated)

Mr. Willis’ work can also be heard on T.V jingles for E-Bay, Snapple and Hershey's, as well as “Monday Night Football,“ Nick Jr.'s, “The Backyardigans,'“ and ESPN’s Roger Maris documentary. On the big screen, Dan has contributed to the film scores for Joe Gould's Secret and the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival's critically acclaimed, The American Ruling Class and has performed as a featured extra in the motion picture, Mona Lisa Smiles. Dan is also a frequent collaborator to the Baby Einstein Classical Music Educational Series performing on Flute, Oboe, English Horn and Clarinet.

A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Dan studied the Oboe with Dr. Richard Killmer, Jazz with Bill Dobbins and Ramon Ricker, and arranging with Rayburn Wright.

Mr. Willis has just completed his third solo CD, 'Velvet Gentlemen' (OmniTone) 2006 where Dan recorded seven different instruments including the Suona and the Zurna.

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Radio & Podcasts

Dan Willis, Paul Dunmall, Amok Amor & Treesearch

Read "Dan Willis, Paul Dunmall, Amok Amor & Treesearch" reviewed by Maurice Hogue


Many jazz musicians in Poland consider playing and/or recording the music of Poland's father of jazz, Krzysztof Komeda, a rite of passage. A similar feeling exists with most jazz musicians anywhere about the music of Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and more. This episode features some recordings that follow that path. Saxophonist Dan Willis tackles Monk on his new latest release, while Miguel Zenon fronts a European band in an Ornette-inspired set. Canadian drummer Ivan Bamford and his Eyevin ...

2
Album Review

Dan Willis and Velvet Gentlemen: The Satie Project II

Read "The Satie Project II" reviewed by Maurizio Zerbo


Più che un mero omaggio a Erik Satie, Dan Willis opera una superba ristrutturazione delle già rivoluzionarie partiture originali mediante l'aggiunta di parti composte per l'occasione. Il musicista statunitense si conferma così autorevole esponente contemporaneo di una musicalità trasversale, aperta alle contaminazioni. È sufficiente l'ascolto del brano di apertura, “Gnossienne # 7," per rendersi conto di quanto poco convenzionale sia questo progetto. Le originarie partiture per pianoforte vengono arricchite da un sostrato contemporaneo, che pesca nei brillanti ...

6
Extended Analysis

Dan Willis and Velvet Gentlemen: The Satie Project II

Read "Dan Willis and Velvet Gentlemen: The Satie Project II" reviewed by Dave Wayne


The music of Eric Satie may well be some of the most malleable and adaptable works ever composed. This could be partly due to the fact that Satie himself stood well outside of the musical mainstream of his time, thus his compositions are comparatively unencumbered by the stylistic baggage of his era. Satie was avant-garde before the term was coined, and is considered by many to be a precursor to the Minimalists and to the 20th Century Serialist composers such ...

275
Album Review

Dan Willis and Velvet Gentlemen: The Satie Project

Read "The Satie Project" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose


French composer Erik Satie (1866--1925), a contemporary of Claude Debussy, was often scorned and, had it not been for his friend, Debussy would have been largely ignored as well by his generation. Debussy not only supported Satie, but championed his work as well, and saw to it that some very forward thinking pieces, such as the “Gymnopedie," were publically performed, too. Satie experimented with dissonance and, more importantly, he often used avant-garde harmonic changes in his pieces as well. In ...

486
Interview

Dan Willis: The Voice of a Tone Poet

Read "Dan Willis: The Voice of a Tone Poet" reviewed by Raul d'Gama Rose


There is an ancient Latin aphorism that was often central to a debate among philosophers discussing art. The debate itself began earlier than the time of Augustan Rome, and over time raged on, occupying the philosophers of Greece as much as it occupied the classicists. It addressed the question of whether poetry was a gift of nature or a product of conscious art or training. The aphorism came from 16th Century Venetian writer Coelius Rhodigenus, who wrote a chapter in ...

321
Interview

Dan Willis: No Longer a Divided Artist

Read "Dan Willis: No Longer a Divided Artist" reviewed by Paul Olson


You'll have to look long and hard to find a better tenor saxophonist than Dan Willis.You'll have to look long and hard to find a better oboeist than Dan Willis.Dan Willis is a wonderful soprano saxophonist. He's a terrific English horn player. His bass clarinet and piccolo playing is fine. He's more than competent with more obscure ethnic instruments such as zirna and dudek.Perhaps most importantly, Dan Willis is a great composer. But instruments, ...

116
Album Review

Dan Willis: Velvet Gentlemen

Read "Velvet Gentlemen" reviewed by Jim Santella


Taking its title from a pet nickname that was applied to composer Erik Satie by children in his neighborhood, Velvet Gentlemen features multi-instrumentalist Dan Willis with a modern mainstream sextet, freely interpreting eleven original pieces. The band covers a lot of territory. The leader plays eleven woodwind instruments on the session, including tenor and soprano saxophones, as well as oboe, bass clarinet and English horn. He's joined by guitarist Pete McCann, trumpeter Chuck MacKinnon, bassist Kermit Driscoll, pianist Ron Oswanski ...

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2

Recording

"The Monk Project" By Saxophonist Dan Willis & Velvet Gentlemen Due July 17 From Belle Avenue Records

"The Monk Project" By Saxophonist Dan Willis & Velvet Gentlemen Due July 17 From Belle Avenue Records

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity

Dan Willis puts his idiosyncratic spin on the tunes of the godfather of jazz idiosyncrasy with the July 17 release of The Monk Project (Belle Avenue). The saxophonist/multi-reedist’s fourth album with his ensemble Velvet Gentlemen—guitarist Pete McCann, keyboardist Ron Oswanski, bassist Evan Gregor, and drummer John Mettam (with special guests bassist Kermit Driscoll and drummer Ian Froman)—is an intriguing and highly exploratory set of performances that, like Thelonious Monk’s compositions, could never be mistaken for the work of anyone else. ...

93

Interview

Multi-Reedman Dan Willis Interviewed at All About Jazz...and More!

Multi-Reedman Dan Willis Interviewed at All About Jazz...and More!

Source: All About Jazz

For the past several years, multi-reedman Dan Willis—as prone to play Armenian duduk as he is a saxophone or clarinet—has been exploring the music of renegade classical composer Erik Satie, first with his 2006 Omni-Tone release, Velvet Gentlemen, and now, with his 2010 Daywood Drive follow-up, The Satie Project. In both cases he finds the perfect nexus of reverence for Satie's in some cases near-iconic pieces ("Gymnopedies," for example, which have been brought into the jazz world previously by Jacques ...

116

Interview

Dan Willis Interviewed at AAJ

Dan Willis Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

You'll have to look long and hard to find a better tenor saxophonist than Dan Willis.

You'll have to look long and hard to find a better oboeist than Dan Willis.

Dan Willis is a wonderful soprano saxophone player. He's a terrific English horn player. His bass clarinet and piccolo playing is fine. He's more than competent with more obscure ethnic instruments such as zirna and dudek.

Perhaps most importantly, Dan Willis is a great composer. But instruments, and the ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Satie Project II

Daywood Drive Records
2014

buy

The Satie Project

Daywood Drive Records
2010

buy

Hand To Mouth

A-Records
2001

buy

Second Gymnopedie

From: The Satie Project
By Dan Willis

Videos

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