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Danilo Pérez

Grammy award winner Danilo Pérez is among the most influential and dynamic musicians of our time. In just over a decade, his distinctive blend of Pan-American jazz (covering the music of the Americas, folkloric and world music) has attracted critical acclaim and loyal audiences. Danilo’s abundant talents and joyous enthusiasm make his concerts both memorable and inspiring. Whether leading his own ensembles or touring with renowned jazz masters (Wayne Shorter, Roy Haynes, Steve Lacy), Danilo is making a decidedly fresh imprint on contemporary music, guided, as always, by his love for jazz.

He has led his own groups since the early ‘90s, and as bandleader has earned three Grammy® nominations for his ebullient and innovative recordings. Motherland, was nominated for two Grammy® Awards for “Best Latin Jazz Album,” and also garnered his third win for “Best Jazz Album” from the prestigious Boston Music Awards. Motherland was named (as were his previous four releases) among the best albums of the year by such publications as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, San Diego Tribune, Billboard and JazzTimes. In 2002, he received a nomination from the Jazz Journalists Association for “Pianist of the Year.”

Born in Panama in 1965, Danilo started his musical studies at just three years of age with his father, a bandleader and singer. By age 10, he was studying the European classical piano repertoire at the National Conservatory in Panama. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in electronics, he moved to the United States to enroll at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and, after changing his major to music, transferred to the prestigious Berklee College of Music. From 1985-88, while completing his studies in jazz composition, he performed with Jon Hendricks, Terence Blanchard,Claudio Roditi and Paquito D'Rivera, and produced the critically-acclaimed Reunion album (Messidor) featuring D'Rivera and Arturo Sandoval: in 1994, Danilo also appeared on Sandoval's Grammy®-winning album, Danzon. Since the late ‘80s, he has toured and/or recorded with Wayne Shorter, Steve Lacy, Jack DeJohnette, Charlie Haden, Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano, Tito Puente, Wynton Marsalis, John Patitucci, Tom Harrell, Gary Burton, and Roy Haynes. ” Roy Haynes Trio (Verve 2000) was named one of the best albums of the year by Gary Giddins, critic for The Village Voice: “(This CD) displayed Danilo’s skills perfectly – glinting technique, an expressive melodic gift, and unerring time...”

Danilo first attracted the spotlight as the youngest member of Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nations Orchestra (1989-1992). This pivotal tenure solidified his command of the eclectic, post-bop Latin style, and brought him to the forefront on Gillespie’s Grammy® Award-winning recording, Live At The Royal Festival Hall (Enja), an appearance at the Kennedy Center, and worldwide touring.

In 1993, Danilo turned his focus to his own ensembles and recording projects. A bold, ingenious bandleader, he moved into the spotlight once again, this time for his own RCA/Novus CDs - Danilo Pérez (1993) and The Journey (1994). The Journey placed prominently in several Top Ten Albums of 1994 lists. DownBeat gave it 4 1/2 stars and listed it among the best CDs of the ‘90s; it also received a Jazziz Critics Choice Award. In 1995, Danilo became the first Latin member of Wynton Marsalis’ band, and the first jazz musician to perform with the Panamanian Symphony Orchestra, which featured an expanded 80-piece orchestral version of “The Journey.” He also released two recordings for impulse!—PanaMonk (1996) and Central Avenue (1998) – and won his first Grammy® nomination for “Best Jazz Album” for the latter; The New York Times praised PanaMonk as "a masterpiece of jazz synthesis." These four CDs accumulated numerous awards and Top Ten citations, firmly establishing Danilo’s leadership role in a new generation of jazz artists.

Danilo also is part of the Wayne Shorter Quartet which won a Grammy in 2006 with their record Beyond The Sound Barrier. The new Wayne Shorter Quartet was voted “Best Small Ensemble of the Year” by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2002 and 2004. He is featured on Shorter’s Verve releases, Alegria and Footprints Live!, which received Five Stars from DownBeat. Shorter invited Danilo to join his first all-acoustic group after hearing him play, “It was adventurous and fresh,” Shorter observes (Jazz Times, 2002). “He wasn’t playing to show off his technique. He was interested in telling stories.” Favorably compared to the ‘60s Miles Davis group that featured Shorter, the new quartet displays a remarkable freedom.

Currently, Perez serves as Artistic Director of the Panama Jazz Festival, Artistic Advisor of the innovative Mellon Jazz Up Close series at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, and Artistic Director of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. He also continues to play with Ben Street and Adam Cruz, musicians that have been working with him for more than eight years. His new CD, Providencia, is released August 31 of 2010 on Mack Avenue Records. “Trust and deep knowing are the foundation for the spirited and soulful interplay among the musicians in this trio. "I know them very well," says Pérez, "and we all try to practice brotherhood, love, equality and freedom in our personal lives and in our music. All of us have become a family, and there is a feeling of celebration, of transcending communication, when we play that it is very magical to me."
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Wayne Shorter: Celebration Volume 1

Read "Celebration Volume 1" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
September 7, 2024

Wayne Shorter never rested on his or anyone's laurels. So when at the start of this perilous century he convened his great, late-stage quartet with pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade it wasn't to take the bandstand and placate audience and skeptics with greatest hits or refurbished takes on old standards. It was to create new and now again, just as he had with Art Blakey (1959-19630), Miles Davis (1964-1970), and Weather Report (1971-1986). In Shorter's expansionist ...

Album Review

Wayne Shorter: Celebration Volume 1

Read "Celebration Volume 1" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
August 9, 2024

In 2000, three years short of entering his eighth decade on this planet--a place of origin which at times seemed questionable, though he made less fuss about it than Sun Ra--Wayne Shorter finally did what he had resisted doing throughout his career. He formed his own band, not just for an album project but as an ongoing touring and recording unit. By the time Shorter passed in 2023, the Wayne Shorter Quartet had released four live albums and a studio ...

Radio & Podcasts

Richie Cole & Danilo Pérez

by Joe Dimino
May 8, 2022

We celebrate our 750th Episode of Neon Jazz with master pianist & humanitarian Danilo Perez. Following that, we hear from his mentor Dizzy Gillespie. As the show moves one, we listen to some great new music from jazz veterans in Jorge Garcia, Mark Buselli with the Ball State University Jazz Band, Brent Laidler and Kevin G Davy. President Bill Clinton concludes this special hour with a live track recorded back in 1994 in Prague. Thanks for the continued support and ...

Album Review

Kurt Elling: Secrets Are The Best Stories

Read "Secrets Are The Best Stories" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi

by Angelo Leonardi
September 9, 2020

Due anni dopo la pubblicazione di The Questions il cantante di Chicago si presenta con un organico completamente nuovo che fa perno sul pianista panamense Danilo Pérez, aggiunge in un brano il portoricano Miguel Zenón e si avvale di una base ritmica di prim'ordine con altri strumentisti latini. La direzione espressiva di Kurt Elling non è però cambiata e in questo progetto ritroviamo la dimensione introspettiva legata alla riflessione sociopolitica ed etica. Il tutto evidenziato in testi composti ...

Live Review

Children of the Light al Teatro Golden di Palermo

by Maurizio Zerbo
March 29, 2019

Children of the Light: Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, Terri Lyne Carrington. Nomos Jazz 2019 Teatro Golden Palermo 15.3.2019 ConTerri Lyne Carrington al posto di Brian Blade, il trio di Danilo Perez ha raggiunto risultati oggi difficilmente eguagliabili sul piano della logica jazzistica improvvisativa e dello spazio sonoro. Lo testimonia mirabilmente il concerto palermitano, all'insegna della lettura radicalmente nuova di ogni brano proposto, al di là della sua storia interpretativa. Emblematica è in ...

Album Review

Wayne Shorter: Emanon

by Mike Jurkovic
September 27, 2018

With his most trusted cohorts standing shoulder-to-shoulder with him--pianist Danilo Perez, ever-ready bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade--Wayne Shorter knows, beyond instinct, that any music he envisions will come to life. And inspire. And amaze. And so we have Emanon, a three-CD set whose first disc--four sweeping orchestral works recorded with the quartet and the 34-piece, player-conducted, innovative and expansive Orpheus Chamber Quartet--serves, in a rather loose way, as the cinematic soundtrack to the Shorter/Monica Sly-penned, Randy ...

Album Review

Wayne Shorter: Emanon

by Mark Sullivan
September 14, 2018

Saxophonist/composer Wayne Shorter is a living jazz legend--his career includes stints with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, with trumpeter Miles Davis (including his last great quintet, as well as foundational fusion albums), and with fusion icon Weather Report--any one of which would be enough to give him a significant place in the history of the music. Throughout his career he has also produced influential work as a leader, going back to hard bop standards for Blue Note Records. So it is ...

Recording

Danilo Pérez & Bohuslän Big Band Collaborate On The New Album 'Lumen' - Releases October 25, 2024

Source: Vivo Musique Internationale
August 6, 2024

Danilo Pérez and Swedish jazz orchestra, Bohuslan Big Band collaborate on the new album Lumen, where Pan-American rhythms meet the Nordic big band sound. The album, characterized by improvisation and playfulness, is evidence of music's power to unite cultures. Danilo Pérez and Swedish jazz orchestra, Bohuslän Big Band collaborate on the new album Lumen, where Pan-American rhythms meet the Nordic big band sound. The album is characterized by improvisation and playfulness, is evidence of music's power to unite cultures. Lumen ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Danilo Pérez

Source: Michael Ricci
December 29, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Danilo Pérez's birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Danilo Pérez

Source: Michael Ricci
December 29, 2021

All About Jazz is celebrating Danilo Pérez's birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Danilo Pérez

Source: Michael Ricci
December 29, 2020

All About Jazz is celebrating Danilo Pérez's birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Danilo Pérez

Source: Michael Ricci
December 29, 2019

All About Jazz is celebrating Danilo Pérez's birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Danilo Pérez

Source: Michael Ricci
December 29, 2018

All About Jazz is celebrating Danilo Pérez's birthday today!

Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website or blog. ...
read more

Education

Global Association For Interconnective Arts Will Explore, Define, And Implement New Ways Of Educating Music Students

Source: Allen Bush
October 17, 2018

Five prestigious music programs have formed a new international organization to prepare young musicians to become jazz ambassadors in and beyond their communities. The Global Association for Interconnective Arts (GAIA)—comprising the Berklee Global Jazz Institute (BGJI), the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music at the New School, the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, and Siena Jazz Academy—will explore, define, and implement new ways of educating music students. Led by Danilo Pérez, ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Danilo Pérez

Source: Michael Ricci
December 29, 2017

All About Jazz is celebrating Danilo Pérez's birthday today!

Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website or blog. ...
read more

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Danilo Perez

Source: Michael Ricci
December 29, 2016

All About Jazz is celebrating Danilo Perez's birthday today!

Place our Musician of the Day widget on your website or blog. ...
read more

Video / DVD

StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: The world fusion of Danilo Pérez' Panama 500

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
February 13, 2016

Today, our video spotlight shines on pianist Danilo Pérez, who will be in St.. Louis to perform on Saturday, February 27 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Pérez, 50, first came to the US from his native Panama in the mid-1980s to study at Berklee College of Music. He initially gained wide attention in this country for his work with the late trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and since 2000 has been a member of Wayne Shorter's long-running quartet, recording four ...
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“No one in the mainstream is playing more freely than this trio.” —Joe Garelick, Boston Phoenix.

“A bold example of the musicological rethinking of jazz.” —Ben Ratliff, New York Times

“A compelling collection of rhythms and textures.” —Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times

“...but there are still amazing musicians—like Danilo Perez, who plays piano with Wayne Shorter’s quartet. He is not afraid of anything.” —Herbie Hancock

"There's nobody like Danilo. What I especially like is his sense of rhythm, color and form. He's studied, he's open, he's flexible, generous and sweet. This guy's got everything, all the qualities are there." —Steve Lacy, quoted in DownBeat cover story on Danilo