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Daren Burns

Daren Burns is an innovative, fretted and fretless electric bass player, composer, and improviser in Los Angeles

About Me

”Real music is not for wealth, not for honours or even the joys of the mind... but as a path for realisation and salvation.”-Ali Akbar Khan

“If you miss the sensual part of music, you risk becoming a gynecologist and not a lover”-Rabih Abou-Khalil

Daren Howard Burns is an innovative, fretted and fretless electric bass player, composer, and improviser has been playing music for twenty-two years and composing for ten years. Much of his musical interest lies in the area of improvisation and how to make new systems for developing improvisation in new ways. In the last three tears he has also become interested in Indian rhythmic and melodic systems.

Born in El Centro, California, but moving all around as child, to places like New Mexico, Texas, and the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Burn’s musical life began in Junior High School when he purchased his first bass with money from a paper route he had. At this time, he was immersed in the rock music of the time, but was quickly turned on to jazz by purchasing bassists, Jaco Pastorious and Stanley Clarke’s first albums and classical Indian music by listening to Ravi Shankar. He received his formal education from Fullerton junior College (1991-1994), California Institute of the Arts (1994-97, BFA; 2006-08, MFA). He also studied privately with Wadada Leo Smith, Ralph Rose, Baba Elephante, Gary Willis, Aloke Dutta, Aashish Khan, Vinny Golia, and Jeff Berlin.

As an Improviser/Composer Burns has studied, Western European music, the classical music of North and South India, Ghana music of Africa, Japanese, Eastern European/Arabic music, and American Blues, Rock, and Jazz. He is working on notation systems that incorporate world music and jazz and open structures that give the musician freedom while also giving the composer his realized ideas.

Daren has taught privately from his home and at Woodlowe Music in Woodland Hills, CA for over ten years. He is a founding member, and first acting president, of the Improvising Composers United (ICU), a non-profit, collective in the Los Angeles area. He is a member of the American Composers Forum and an ASCAP member. He was a winner of the Dan Radlauer composition competition in 1994.

As a composer he has written for soloists, various ensembles, and creative orchestras. As a performer he has shared the stage with Wadada Leo Smith, John 'Drumbo' French, Neil Sadler, Butch Morris, Mike Keneally, Nels Cline, Vinny Golia, Jeff Kaiser, Motoko Honda, Ori Barel, Chris Opperman, Andre LaFosse, John Bergamo, Randy Gloss, Houman Pourmehdi, Miroslav Tadic, Adam Lane, Len ‘Boogsie’ Sharp, George McMullen, Brian Walsh, Kurt McGettrick, Bill Fowler, David Roitstein, Joe LaBarbera, Eleanor Academia, Frank Macchia, and many others.