Dan Wilensky

Dan Wilensky

Musicians | Instrument: Saxophone | Location: Portland

Wilensky's individuality can be heard with his first notes. His sound is bright, crisp, and completely relaxed in all registers. His lines are direct, to the point, and completely his own; he just does not sound like anyone else.

—Saxophone Journal

Updated: December 7, 2022

Born: August 4, 1961

Dan Wilensky was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and moved to Berkeley, California the following year. Music was in the air at the Wilensky house: every family member played at least one instrument, and family jam sessions were frequent. He began piano lessons at age 8, and saxophone at 9 after he attended a Duke Ellington Orchestra concert. Wilensky flourished in the superb Berkeley public school music program, and studied saxophone privately with BHS grad Steve Elson, and his teacher, Hal Stein, and classical piano with Julian White. As a teenager, he street played, performed with schoolmates Benny Green, Craig Handy, Paul Hanson and Steve Bernstein, gigged with local bands, won top honors in various competitions, performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival three times, and was a guest soloist with the Woody Herman Orchestra. When he was 17, Wilensky studied for a year with jazz legend Joe Henderson, and received a scholarship to the Eastman School of Music.

The summer after high school, Wilensky heard that Ray Charles was looking for a lead alto player for his big band. He auditioned, and got the gig. “Ray told me to be in LA on Monday. It was surreal,” he recalls. After six months with Ray, a brief stint at Eastman, and six months with jazz great Jack McDuff, he moved to New York.

“It was like starting all over. I was street playing, doing rodeos out at Nassau Coliseum, and playing funerals in the Village,” says Wilensky of his first year in the Big Apple. He recorded, gigged and toured with dozens of small groups, including Nitesprite (Paul Adamy, Rob Aries, Andy Bloch, Joe Bonadio, Vaneese Thomas, and Dave Weckl), Who It Is! (Cornell Dupree, Steve Gadd, Will Lee, and Richard Tee), and Slickaphonics (featuring Ray Anderson and Mark Helias). In 1986, Wilensky worked in the house band at the Playboy Club, played Bob Fosse’s Broadway show Big Deal, won a National Endowment for the Arts award for jazz performance and composition, and toured with Steve Winwood playing saxophone and keyboards. He subsequently played on numerous commercial jingles, film soundtracks and TV themes, and can be heard on over 250 records, including hits by Santana, Madonna, R. Kelly, Freddie Jackson, Deborah Harry, Donna Summer, Bryan Ferry, Mark Murphy, Keith Washington, Hall & Oates, Melissa Manchester, James Brown, Rory Block, Manhattan Transfer, and Faith No More.

Other career highlights include touring with Joan Baez as her pianist, recording and performing in videos and TV shows with David Bowie, Steve Winwood, Martika, and Sheena Easton, playing with Rick Derringer in the TV house band for Joy Behar’s Way Off Broadway, and gigging with Ben E. King, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Carole King, Cab Calloway and Aretha Franklin. Wilensky has also appeared on The Today Show, The Tonight Show, Late Night With David Letterman, The View, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, The Arsenio Hall Show, and The Uncle Floyd Show, and performed regularly at many of New York’s legendary clubs, including The Bitter End, Kenny’s Castaways, Mercury Lounge, The Bottom Line, The Village Gate, Sweet Basil, Mikell’s, Seventh Avenue South, and The Lone Star Roadhouse, as well as larger venues like Madison Square Garden and Avery Fisher Hall, and iconic European locales such as New Morning (Paris), Quasimodo (Berlin), and the Montreux and Stockholm Jazz Festivals. Wilensky was also featured extensively in the twelve year run of the Emmy® – winning PBS children’s show Between the Lions. In addition, he wrote two saxophone method books, Saxophone Technique, and Advanced Sax.

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4
Album Review

Dan Wilensky: All In All

Read "All In All" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Saxophonist Dan Wilensky--who has played with everyone from Ray Charles to David Bowie to Jack McDuff-- offered up his take on some familiar pop tunes (The Beatles, The Youngbloods), a touch of George Gershwin and some Sammy Cahn on his 2018 offering, Good Music (Polyglot Music). Now it is (mostly) all Wilensky originals, the result of a busy composing period that spanned the last two weeks of December 2019 the first week of January 2020, in which the saxophonist penned ...

3
Album Review

Dan Wilensky: Good Music

Read "Good Music" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


“There are only two kinds of music. Good Music and the other kind." So said Duke Ellington, and probably a whole bunch of other people. Good Music is saxophonist Dan Wilensky's examination of music for music's sake, his unpretentious “serving the music" recording. Seven of the eleven tunes are chordless trio affairs, bringing--as a touchstone--Sonny Rollins' groundbreaking A Night At the Village Vanguard (Blue Note, 1958) to mind with its fearless flexibility and Wilensky's muscular and assured tone. ...

6
Album Review

Dan Wilensky: Made In Portland

Read "Made In Portland" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Relocating is never easy, but it would seem that multi-reedist Dan Wilensky has acclimated quite well to the musical climate of Portland, Oregon since arriving there in 2012. The latest release from this man-of-many-talents puts him in close quarters with a collection of that city's finest musicians, a crew that's ready and eager to tackle Wilensky's originals and put new twists on old favorites from artists like Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, and, dare I say it, Neil Sedaka. ...

9
Album Review

Dan Wilensky: Made In Portland

Read "Made In Portland" reviewed by Edward Blanco


A Hollywood/TV industry musician who has performed on, or arranged for such programs as, The Today Show, David Letterman, The Tonight Show and several others, Portland-based composer and saxophonist Dan Wilensky is currently performing and teaching in Portland, from where he records his fifth album as leader on Made In Portland, offering eight fresh new originals and five covers including vocal renditions of songs from Irving Berlin, Charles Trenet and Hoagy Carmichael. As the album title indicates, the saxophonist records ...

104
Album Review

Dan Wilensky: Back In The Mix

Read "Back In The Mix" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Thirteen years separated the release of tenor saxophonist Dan Wilensky's first two albums-- And Then Some (Speechless, 1997) and If You Only Knew (Speechless, 2010)--but the saxophonist wasn't sitting around idly during that stretch of time. Wilensky's work as a session player, touring musician, author, and educator kept him beyond busy, yet his own music suffered as a result. Thankfully, the saxophonist has been focusing his efforts on being a leader since 2009, and the resultant albums released since that ...

108
Album Review

Dan Wilensky: Group Therapy

Read "Group Therapy" reviewed by Charles Walker


Tenor saxophonist Dan Wilensky possesses a warm, accessible tone on his instrument, and at first glance Group Therapy seems tailor-made to feature this broad, bluesy sound on ten straightforward compositions. However, less than two minutes into “Reckless Tongue," the album opener, the syrupy head breaks down into a standstill of rests and whole notes before sliding back into the relaxed groove that carries the tune the rest of the way. This brief moment of suspense perfectly encapsulates what makes the ...

195
Album Review

Dan Wilensky: Group Therapy

Read "Group Therapy" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Group therapy involves a collection of individuals coming together to work things out and sort through their thoughts in the same room. The same can be said for saxophonist Dan Wilensky's Group Therapy. Wilensky's wide-ranging career has involved everything from street playing and studio sessions to Broadway and a stint in Ray Charles' band. All of his experiences have helped him flesh out a personal sound that touches on everything from loose swing and free jazz to faux-Arabian fare.

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51

Recording

New Dan Wilensky Quartet Record: "Back In The Mix"

New Dan Wilensky Quartet Record: "Back In The Mix"

Source: Dan Wilensky

Dan Wilensky's Back In The Mix features Mark Soskin (piano), Dean Johnson (bass), Tony Moreno (drums), and special guest Russ Johnson (trumpet) in a musical tour de force. Wilensky's 4th recording as a leader includes new arrangements of Cole Porter's “Falling In Love With Love," Gross and Lawrence's “Tenderly," “Lament" by the great J.J. Johnson, and six new Wilensky originals. The creative virtuosity of long-time band mates Dean Johnson and Tony Moreno propel the group to greater heights. Russ Johnson, ...

165

Recording

Dan Wilensky releases "Group Therapy"

Dan Wilensky releases "Group Therapy"

Source: Dan Wilensky

Dan Wilensky's new CD, Group Therapy, features saxophonist Dan Wilensky, guitarist David Phelps, bassist Dean Johnson, and drummer Tony Moreno. It was recorded March 21, 2011 at Charlestown Road Studios in Hampton, New Jersey by Paul Wickcliffe. The CD includes 8 original compositions, a new take on Charlie Chaplin's “Smile," and a reconstruction of the pop hit “Downtown" featuring Tony Moreno. “Wilensky's individuality can be heard with his first notes. His sound is bright, crisp, and completely relaxed in all ...

190

Recording

Dan Wilensky's new CD first since 1997

Dan Wilensky's new CD first since 1997

Source: Dan Wilensky

New York, September 15—Speechless Productions is pleased to announce the release of If You Only Knew, the new CD by saxophonist and composer Dan Wilensky (Ray Charles, Jack McDuff), featuring pianist Bob Himmelberger (Charlie Rouse, Nelson Riddle), bassist Dean Johnson (Gerry Mulligan, Bill Frisell), and drummer Scott Neumann (Dave Liebman, Maria Schneider). This is Wilensky's first studio recording as a leader since 1997. After he played on over 250 records as a sideman, received a grant from the NEA, wrote ...

GOOD MUSIC: "There are only two kinds of music. Good Music and the other kind."  So said Duke Ellington, and probably a whole bunch of other people. Good Music is saxophonist Dan Wilensky's examination of music for music's sake, his unpretentious "serving the music" recording. Seven of the eleven tunes are chordless trio affairs, bringing—as a touchstone—Sonny Rollins' groundbreaking A Night At the Village Vanguard (Blue Note, 1958) to mind with its fearless flexibility and Wilensky's muscular and assured tone

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Primary Instrument

Saxophone

Location

Portland

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

Credentials/Background

I've been teaching saxophone, flute and piano for 40 years. Many of my students, including Joshua Redman, Craig Handy, and Chris Byars, have gone on to true greatness. All ages and levels welcome; music therapy; flexible hours; same rates as 1977!

Clinic/Workshop Information

Riveting and fun as all hell!

Sonny Rollins
saxophone
Miles Davis
trumpet
Eric Dolphy
woodwinds
Jan Garbarek
saxophone, tenor
Dexter Gordon
saxophone, tenor
Joe Henderson
saxophone
Johnny Hodges
saxophone, alto
Charlie Parker
saxophone, alto
Ben Webster
saxophone, tenor

Contact

Management and booking

CONTACT DAN for private lessons, master classes, world-class horn sections, arrangements, and house concerts.

Links

Followers

All About Jazz user Anna Petrova

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