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Dan Pitt
Dan Pitt is a guitarist, composer and improviser currently based in Toronto, Canada.
Originally from Hamilton, Ontario, Dan started studying guitar at 10 years old. Throughout his teens, he played music both in school and with bands at venues downtown. Eventually, Dan went on to study jazz at Mohawk College learning from guitarist Bob Shields. Afterwards, Dan moved to Toronto and received his Bachelor’s Degree in Music Performance at the University of Toronto. During his time there, Dan learned from many great musicians including, David Restivo, Geoff young, Andrew Downing, Jim Lewis, Terry Promane, Mike Murley and Phil Nimmons. Additionally, Dan also attended the School for Improvisational Music where he learned from David Torn, Brad Shepik, Ben Monder, Michael Formanek and Tony Malaby
Dan performs regularly throughout Toronto in a variety of music genres and ensembles. He leads his own creative improv group, Dan Pitt Trio, which features bassist Alex Fournier and drummer Nick Fraser. Their debut record, "Fundamentally Flawed", was regarded as “an album that is rich in complexity, original creativity and sophisticated musicianship.” (JazzMusicBlog). They now have two albums as a group including the former mentioned and their 2023 release “Stages”.
In 2021, Dan expanded his group and recorded a quintet album entitled “Wrongs”. This group included woodwind players Naomi McCarroll-Butler and Patrick Smith along with the members of Dan’s trio. Together, these five musicians extend the vision of this experimental music and build upon it further in this larger ensemble format. These explorations are continued further in the groups latest release “Horizontal Depths” coming at the end of 2024.
Dan has performed across Canada and the USA and his music has been received, played and reviewed across the world. He has had the opportunity to work with musicians such as Pat Collins, David Braid, Terry Promane, Andrew Downing, Dave Young, Terry Clarke, Lina Allemano, Tim Berne and Michael Attias. Dan also appears on recordings with Canadian musicians Harrison Vetro and Noah Franche-Nolan.
Dan has also been awarded a Stingray Rising Star award as part of the Jazz Youth Summit at the Ottawa Jazz Festival in 2017. Additionally, Dan has been a recipient of many grants from organizations such as the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
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Dan Pitt | Noah Franche-Nolan: Arid Landscapes
by Glenn Astarita
In the capable hands of Toronto guitarist Dan Pitt and Vancouver pianist Noah Franche-Nolan, the self-titled debut from arid landscapes proves that ambient electroacoustic music need not be either precious or ponderous. Recorded across two sessions in November 2024, this ten-track collection is a work of atmospheric intelligence that knows the difference between space and emptiness. The duo's jazz pedigree reveals itself not through overt displays of virtuosity (mercifully, there are no gratuitous cadenzas here) but in the ...
Continue ReadingDan Pitt Trio: Stages
by Dan McClenaghan
Shades of Link Ray's “Rumble," from 1958. Shades of Dick Dale's 1963 hit “Miserlou." Shades of every guitar/bass/drum band that has ever set up in someone's garage in an attempt to work on their hard rock and roll chops, trying to become the next heavy metal band to hit the charts. Canadian guitarist Dan Pitt rolls with the guitar trio format on his Stages, though his trio is a good deal more intricate and musically skilled than the ...
Continue ReadingDan Pitt Quintet: Wrongs
by Troy Dostert
Maybe it's a case of false humility, or a stab at irony, but guitarist Dan Pitt seems to prefer self-deprecating album titles. The Toronto-based musician's 2019 trio release, Fundamentally Flawed (Self-Produced), featured bassist Alex Fournier and drummer Nick Fraser, and his current offering, Wrongs, adds saxophonists Naomi McCarroll-Butler and Patrick Smith to the mix. For an artist who actually gets it right most of the time, these releases could have been more accurately named. But we can forgive him that, ...
Continue ReadingDan Pitt: Monochrome
by Dan McClenaghan
Toronto-based guitarist Dan Pitt debuted as a recording artist in 2019 with his trio outing, Fundamentally Flawed (Self Produced). A versatile gutarist who plays in a variety of styles, he has performed with cellist Andrew Downing, saxophonists Tim Berne and Michael Attias, and bassist Michael Formanek. Monochrome, Pitt's offering for 2020, is a solo guitar work, subtly and deftly augmented by pedal effects, loops and sampler phrases. Pitt explores his inner musician on this thirty-eight minutes of (mostly) ...
Continue ReadingDan Pitt Trio: Fundamentally Flawed
by Dan McClenaghan
Toronto-based guitarist Dan Pitt has tagged his debut album Fundamentally Flawed. It is a trio recording full of gorgeous, glowing chords and inspired accompaniment, beginning with the tune “Balmoral," a study in patience and off-kilter beauty. And throw in the sound of a trio equilibrium and telepathic interplay. If that opener marinates in the brooding side of sound, the title tune that comes next puts some pep into the sound, while maintaining a cerebral mood. The trio sounds ...
Continue Reading“Pitt is an interesting composer whose work we want to keep an eye on. This set, by turns delicate and vigorous, hangs together nicely and cohesively, demonstrating the contemporary art of this trio.”
— Jazz Trail
“The musical language of Dan Pitt is the language of modern jazz, which has gone quite far from the classic straight-ahead. I would even say that Pitt's music is more reminiscent of European samples. In any case, this is a creative and interesting musician, whom you obviously won't regret meeting.”
— Leonid Auskern (JazzQuad)
Music
Wrongs
From: WrongsBy Dan Pitt
