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Dan Cray

Pianist Dan Cray, a finalist at the 2003 Montreux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition and the 2004 American Pianists Association Cole Porter Fellowship Competition, is one of the best young independent jazz artists working today. Jazz Radio Berlin has hailed him as a "key figure when it comes to escorting jazz into the new millennium," while the Indianapolis Star enthused that his playing had "both the depth and the playfulness characteristic of jazz piano at its best."

While living in Chicago, Dan has performed at galas for U.S. Senator Barack Obama, Mayor Richard Daley, and Governor Jim Edgar, and he plays regularly at the city's premier jazz clubs and special events. He currently leads a TRIO featuring bassist Clark Sommers and drummer Greg Wyser-Pratte. Dan has also performed with a number of other established jazz musicians and ensembles, including Ira Sullivan, Eddie Johnson, Eric Schneider, George Fludas, Orbert Davis, Kimberly Gordon, Hinda Hoffman, Kurt Elling, Ari Brown and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra.

Dan graduated from Northwestern University, where he studied with Donald Isaak and Michael Kocour. Dan has released three albums with his trio: Who Cares (2001), No One (Blujazz 2003), and Save Us (Blujazz 2005). The Trio can also be heard on realeases by vocalist Marc Courtney Johnson, saxophonist John Goldman, and vocalist Erin McDougald.

About the Dan Cray Trio

The Dan Cray Trio is unique in that it relies on a collaborative effort rather than the singular vision that is more typically found in a piano trio. This in turn has allowed the group to rise above the pick-up band mentality that has come to dominate the jazz landscape. Because each musician is equally invested in the development of the music, the Trio is able to match the intensity and clarity of purpose that define the best jazz artists. Their innovative arrangements and group dynamic have led Cadence Magazine to rate them "as interesting, if not more, than the celebrated Bad Plus." The Trio's music has been featured on the hit television show Gossip Girl, Michael Keaton's new movie "The Merry Gentleman," and the radio program Eight Forty-Eight with host Steve Edwards on Chicago's NPR station WBEZ. They've performed at the Chicago Jazz Festival and at venues around the country to critical success, and can be seen regularly around Chicago with the city's top vocalists and instrumentalists. The Trio has also been able to transfer this focus into tangible success, as their last 2 CDs ("No One" and "Save Us") spent over 10 weeks on the National and College Jazz Charts, while Chicago's NPR station WBEZ named each among the year's best in 2003 and 2005 respectively.

Dan Cray: Outside In

Read "Outside In" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 9, 2016

Encounters with the wonders of nature have a way of snapping everything into perspective and tamping down humanly worries and concerns. Too often we spend time absorbed and obsessed with working from the inside out, projecting ourselves into the world. But sometimes it's better to simply go the other way and let the beauty that exists on the outside infiltrate and influence the human spirit and direction. Pianist Dan Cray's second release on the Origin imprint, strongly informed by a ...

Album Review

Dan Cray: Meridies

Read "Meridies" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
May 1, 2012

There is nothing iconoclastic about pianist Dan Cray. He derives his piano style more from Tommy Flanagan and Hank Jones than Matthew Shipp or Ran Blake. He has been driving a trio through four previous recordings: Who Cares (Cray Sounds, 2001); No One (Blujazz productions, 2003); Save Us! (Blujazz productions, 2005); and Over Here Over Heard (Crawdad, 2008). Cray has also provided movie music for actor Michael Keaton's The Merry Gentleman (2009) and appeared on the television show Gossip Girls.

Album Review

Dan Cray: Meridies

Read "Meridies" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 27, 2012

Change is never easy, but it's often the key to growing as a person and an artist. Pianist Dan Cray has released a series of well-received CDs and carved out a comfortable musical existence with his trio in Chicago, but he understood that a change of scenery and a jump into jazz's deep end would do him good. Cray made the move to New York City in 2009, but Meridies is the first outing released under his ...

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Album Review

Dan Cray Trio: Over Here Over Heard

Read "Over Here Over Heard" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard

by Jakob Baekgaard
January 17, 2009

For some time, pianist Dan Cray and his cohorts--bassist Clark Sommers and drummer Greg Wyser-Pratte--have been perfecting the language of the trio on a number of fine releases. Over Here Over Heard is the fourth album from this audacious working unit, which continues to find new magic in old tunes while throwing in some fresh sounds for good measure.

The album was recorded live at Pops For Champagne Chicago, which gives it a nice intimacy, and things kicks ...

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Album Review

Dan Cray Trio: Over Here Over Heard

Read "Over Here Over Heard" reviewed by Woodrow Wilkins

by Woodrow Wilkins
October 24, 2008

Often, when a trio plays jazz, it covers classics or performs original material written by the leader--usually the pianist. On Over Here Over Heard, the Dan Cray Trio does both and pleases a live audience in the process.The trio brings some varied credentials. Cray was a finalist in the 2003 Montreux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition. His associations have included Kurt Elling and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, and he has released three studio albums with his trio, the ...

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Album Review

The Dan Cray Trio: Save Us!

Read "Save Us!" reviewed by Jim Santella

by Jim Santella
December 5, 2005

Jazz's modern mainstream has to preserve tradition while exploring unique approaches. It's got to grow. A lot of folks translate the concept of uniqueness into something “far out" and “hip" and “never before attempted." But stretching the boundaries of jazz to its limits has drawbacks. Some push too far and become alienated. Some water down the jazz with outside sources that prove discomforting. Many of today's innovators simply sell out. If they turn away from the core music that brought ...

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Album Review

Dan Cray: Who Cares

by Dan McClenaghan
August 15, 2002

For those of you with a tendency to judge a CD by its cover, this one can fool you. Young pianist Dan Cray in a slouching wall lean, a downcast expression, a grim set to his mouth. The fellow looks every bit the picture of timidity and dejection. How's a guy like that going to pull off one of the toughest jazz tricks: the piano/bass/drums affair. (and o.k., they were trying, successfully, to evoke the mood of the CDs title).

Recording

"Meridies," 5th CD by Pianist/Composer Dan Cray, Due March 20 on Origin Records

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity
March 5, 2012

Pianist/composer Dan Cray's first four CDs—trio recordings featuring his Chicago-based threesome of bassist Clark Sommers and drummer Greg Wyser-Pratte—built their repertoires around enticing cover versions of standards and jazz classics. Now with Cray's bold new disc, Meridies, due out March 20 on Origin Records, the Chicago-area native has expanded his trio—here with Sommers and drummer Mark Ferber—to a quartet that includes the well-regarded young tenor saxophonist Noah Preminger. And the program now spotlights mostly Cray originals, with only two covers. ...
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