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Dylan Jack

Dylan Jack is a percussionist and composer participating in multiple genres within the Boston music scene. As a performer, Jack divides his attention between playing as a sideman with some of the city’s top improvisors including Charlie Kohlhase, Jeb Bishop, Bill Lowe, Eric Hofbauer, etc and leading his main creative outlet, the Dylan Jack Quartet. 

In 2016 Jack started the Dylan Jack Quartet, an ensemble focusing on original music. Combining intricately composed segments that utilize odd meters and phrasing with free improvisations, the music is described as “… bristling with rhythmic intelligence and rich in dynamic contrast and ebb and flow. (David Adler)” In September of 2017, they released their first album, Diagrams, which received favorable reviews from the jazz press. In June of 2020, they released their second record The Tale of the Twelve-Foot Man in on the Creative Nation Music label. Jack also co-leads the duo Hofbauer-Jack with premier Boston guitarist, Eric Hofbauer. 

As an educator, Jack teaches percussion extensively to students of all ages and abilities. He is also involved in academia as a professor of the History of Jazz at Emerson College in Boston, MA.  In 2013 he authored and self-published a drum-set method book, Meters and Accents, in collaboration with Marv Dahlgren (co-author of 4-Way Coordination). The material focuses on polyrhythmic and polymetric rhythms utilizing accents and all four limbs to create multiple layers to be used in any style of drumming. An aesthetic which can be heard in Jack’s original music and improvisations.

Jack received his Bachelors degree in Percussion Performance from the McNally Smith College of Music in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and holds a Masters of Music in Modern American Music from the Longy School of Music of Bard College.


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4
Album Review

Dylan Jack Quartet: Eine Quartett des Grauens

Read "Eine Quartett des Grauens" reviewed by Geno Thackara


Often--or at least usually, or sometimes? Let's say sometimes--the classics are classics for a reason. Any horror buff has their own ideas where to go for some creepy-crawlies and jump scares, but they'll probably all agree (on some level) that the most old-school classics set down the blueprint before moving pictures were even matched up with sounds. As Halloweeny films go, Dylan Jack and friends recognize 1922's silent-cinema staple Nosferatu as one of the true old guard, with a world-of-its-own ...

2
Album Review

Dylan Jack Quartet: The Tale of the Twelve-Foot Man

Read "The Tale of the Twelve-Foot Man" reviewed by Vincenzo Roggero


Rispetto al quartetto che aveva brillantemente debuttato nel 2017 con Diagrams vi è l'avvicendamento del clarinettista Todd Brunel con il trombettista Jerry Sabatini ma la scrittura messa in campo dal batterista leader mantiene, in The Tale of the Twelve-Foot Man, la medesima sofisticata bellezza, con una interessante evoluzione delle dinamiche e degli impasti sonori. Dylan Jack, figura attiva in vari ambiti della scena musicale bostoniana, si intende a meraviglia con i suoi compagni di viaggio, forte delle ...

2
Album Review

Dylan Jack Quartet: The Tale of the Twelve-Foot Man

Read "The Tale of the Twelve-Foot Man" reviewed by Troy Dostert


Drummer Dylan Jack has long been a fixture on the Boston jazz scene and, with assorted partnerships including fellow Bostonians Charlie Kohlhase, Jeb Bishop and Bill Lowe, he has kept very busy. But, of late, his most fruitful collaboration may be his recordings with guitarist Eric Hofbauer. The two released the first-rate Remains of Echoes in 2019 (Creative Nation Music), a wide-ranging effort to reinterpret pieces from the jazz tradition and beyond, from Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus to Sting ...

3
Album Review

Eric Hofbauer and Dylan Jack: Remains of Echoes

Read "Remains of Echoes" reviewed by Troy Dostert


Always attuned to unusual choices that keep his listeners guessing, guitarist Eric Hofbauer knows no bounds when it comes to his repertoire. One is as likely to hear a Cyndi Lauper or Nirvana cover as something by Thelonious Monk or Charlie Parker. And his stylistic approach on the guitar is similarly idiosyncratic, with a gutbucket blues as likely to spill forth as something more spikily avant-garde. This unpredictable creativity is once again on display on Remains of Echoes, an enticing ...

1
Album Review

Dylan Jack: Diagrams

Read "Diagrams" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Il giovane batterista Dylan Jack, nativo del Massachusetts, ci presenta in questo album il suo quartetto e non si può dire che l'incontro non sia interessante: le geometrie del gruppo sono nette, chiare, il suo eloquio, e lo stesso equilibrio fra i vari strumenti, altrettanto, peraltro in un contesto che sa prendersi i suoi rischi, senza salti nel buio ma neppure limitandosi al semplice compitino in bella calligrafia. Si parte brillanti (tutti i brani si devono al ...

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"...the music shifts and darts, changing direction with glee. Yet, one is rewarded time and again by hearing how this quartet works and plays together, really listening and responding to each other, not just "blowing" over the changes." - Step Tempest

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Eine Quartett des...

Self Produced
2023

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The Tale of the...

Creative Nation Music
2020

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Remains of Echoes

Creative Nation Music
2019

buy

Diagrams

Creative Nation Music
2017

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