Born: July 23, 1964 Primary Instrument: Piano
Pianist Dan Furman doesn't want jazz to have to imitate the past. “We all grew up listening to rock and roll, pop, funk and whatever else made it on the radio. When I play a standard, I try to bring something from today's world into the interpretation.”
Furman began playing piano and writing music at the age of 6 in Old Hickory, Tennessee (just outside of Nashville). He went on to study composition and jazz piano at Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. At Oberlin he fronted and wrote for the “Skymonks,” an original “free” jazz group. Following school, he spent a year in South America studying Latin music and playing with bands in Lima, Peru. After a 10-year hiatus from music, he moved to Atlanta, GA in 1997 and began playing with jazz and Latin groups around the city and state.
In Atlanta, he founded World Mambo Mission , one of the city's leading Latin Jazz and salsa groups, and was a member and composer in Ficciones , a trombone-oriented original Latin jazz group led by Gary Vosbein. The groups produced several CDs and played in both the Atlanta Jazz Festival and the Montreaux Music Festival. While in Atlanta he also became widely sought after as an accompanist for singers. In 2000 he formed the Primordial Jazz Funktet , a 5-6-piece jazz group that performs his original compositions and arrangements over funk, hip-hop and other grooves. The Funktet now plays around the New York City area and released a new CD, “We Are Here,” in early 2009. The CD is available on iTunes and will soon be at CDBaby.
Since moving to New York in April of 2003, Dan has performed at many venues around the city, including The Metropolitan Room, Cleopatra's Needle, K'av'eh'az, 55 Bar, and many others. He is a regular vocal accompanist at the Singers Forum on 24th Street. He currently resides in Brooklyn. Dan is also writing a new musical, “Impossible But True,” based on the story of Rip Van Winkle. Clips will be posted on his website as the project progresses.
