Danny Sinoff

Orbit | Updated: October 4, 2026

Born: August 23, 1981

Danny Sinoff is a jazz pianist, singer, and bandleader who has spent more than 20 years performing the Great American Songbook in clubs, concert halls, and restaurants throughout Southwest Florida and beyond.

A working musician in the truest sense, he has played thousands of nights, the bandstand being his truest and most longstanding teacher.

He has performed and recorded with tenor saxophonist and flutist David “Fathead” Newman, bassist and trombonist Chris Brubeck, drummer Dan Brubeck, organist Jimmy McGriff, guitarists Russell Malone and Paul Bollenback, drummers Joe Farnsworth, Herlin Riley, and Ulysses Owens Jr., trumpeter and vocalist Benny Benack III, tenor saxophonist Jerry Weldon, bassist Ben Wolfe, and trumpeter Joe Magnarelli.

Engagements include appearances at The Apollo Theater, Smoke, The Cutting Room, B.B. King’s, Minton’s, and The Triad in New York City; Chris’ Jazz Café in Philadelphia; and festivals including South Beach, Syracuse, Adirondack, and Suncoast Jazz Classic in Clearwater, Florida.

Born in Newton, Massachusetts, and raised in Naples, Florida, Sinoff began classical piano lessons at four and performed professionally by thirteen. Raised by his grandparents, he grew up with a deep respect for discipline and presentation — values that still guide how he approaches his craft.

A year after his first gig, his father introduced him to recordings by Harry Connick Jr. and Bobby Darin, setting him on the path toward jazz and the Songbook. After attending the Berklee College of Music, he returned to Florida and became a fixture at Ellington’s Jazz Club on Sanibel Island with trumpeter Dan Miller (Harry Connick Jr., Maynard Ferguson, Wynton Marsalis).

He later held a 15-year residency at The Roadhouse Café in Fort Myers, performing two nights a week with a rotating cast that often included Lew Del Gatto, longtime saxophonist for Saturday Night Live.

Those years of steady work — hundreds of nights of live performance, improvisation, and audience exchange — shaped every part of his musical identity.

Sinoff’s piano style draws on Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, Red Garland, Wynton Kelly, and Bill Charlap — musicians who shaped his sense of time, touch, and swing. As a baritone vocalist, he carries the influence of Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, and Harry Connick Jr., with further inspiration from Freddy Cole, Shirley Horn, and Blossom Dearie.

He approaches both piano and voice with the same purpose: to tell the truth of a song without affectation. “It’s not lounge music,” he says. “It’s real music.” Always performing in a suit, he treats presentation as part of the respect the music deserves.

Sinoff keeps the tradition of the singing jazz pianist alive — what he calls “two instruments in conversation,” the piano holding time and harmony as the voice tells the story. His shows are built on swing, spontaneity, and direct communication with the audience.

In 2025, Sinoff released two swinging holiday singles, “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” and “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” — featuring bassist Ben Wolfe, guitarist Dan Wilson, trumpeter Joe Magnarelli, drummer-producer Ulysses Owens Jr. and others. Both would later become part of his first full-length holiday album.

In April 2026, Sinoff released his debut album, Make Someone Happy, produced by Owens for Cellar Music. The album brought his decades on the bandstand into the studio, with Sinoff alternating between piano and vocals and pianist Tyler Henderson joining him on select tracks.

The repertoire includes “Taking a Chance on Love,” “I Won’t Dance,” “Mood Indigo,” and “Make Someone Happy,” alongside “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” “Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word,” and a duet with Benny Benack III on “All I Need Is the Girl.” The album’s blues-inflected closing track, “Black Coffee,” honors the Bobby Darin records his father introduced him to at fourteen, the music that set his path in motion.

For Sinoff, Make Someone Happy is both title and directive. He sees music as an act of communication — something meant to move people, not impress them. Every night, the goal is the same: make the band swing, make the audience feel it, and mean every note.

Sinoff follows Make Someone Happy with A Very Sinoff Christmas, his second album and first full-length holiday release, forthcoming on Cellar Music. Produced by Owens, the album features Sinoff with bassist Ben Wolfe and drummer Aaron Kimmel, alongside special guests guitarist Dan Wilson, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, tenor saxophonist Cory Weeds, guitarist Leandro Pellegrino and harmonica virtuoso CY Leo. Violinists Sara Caswell and Tomoko Akaboshi, violist Fung Chern Hwei and cellist Zachary Brown comprise a string section arranged by Matt Fukui Grandy.

Drawing inspiration from the Christmas albums of Harry Connick Jr., Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin and Mel Tormé, Sinoff brings the same singer-pianist sensibility to eleven holiday standards and Great American Songbook selections. The album moves from the straight-ahead swing of “Silver Bells” and “Winter Wonderland” to a bossa nova treatment of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” the strings of “Whatever Happened to Christmas” and a spare voice-and-guitar rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

For Sinoff, the record reflects both sides of the season: its warmth and celebration, and the absence and reflection that can accompany them. “Christmas is a feeling to me,” he says. “A feeling in the air. The warmth of Christmas, the feeling of home — I wanted to convey that through this music.”

After years spent absorbing the holiday records that helped shape his musical vocabulary, Sinoff sees A Very Sinoff Christmas as his own contribution to that tradition. “Through their music, they’ve all made their indelible mark on the feeling of the holidays,” he says. “This is my humble contribution to that canon.”

“It all becomes very Sinoff,” he says. “This album really feels like me.”

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A fine ambassador for the Great American Songbook - and more

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes
December 23, 2018

To many fans, Danny Sinoff is a crooner for the new millennium. But to savvy jazz listeners, his piano chops are just fascinating. Maybe more so. He underscored his talent on both fronts on Friday, December 21, in a matinee concert for the South County Jazz Club in Venice FL with his regular trio-mates, bassist Scott Smith and drummer Patrica Dean. The program included a wide array of Broadway and movie soundtrack material. Five of the standards were written by ...
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Performance / Tour

Exploring the Great American and Jazz Songbooks

Source: Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes
October 9, 2015

Singer-pianist Danny Sinoff let his piano chops carry most of the load Thursday when his trio opened the South County Jazz Club's 2015-2016 matinee season at the Venice (FL) Art Center. While he is busy with steady club gigs, principally in Fort Myers and Port Charlotte, this was Sinoff's first appearance in Venice. Sinoff is best known for his vocal talents - and a repertoire that is heavily weighted toward the Frank Sinatra songbook - but on this afternoon his ...
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PRESS

“He sounds completely comfortable in his own shark skin suit. Let him off his leash!”
— George W. Harris, Jazz Weekly

“A singer who not only chooses great material, but does so with a strong natural jazz essence.”
— George Fendel, High Standards

“It sparkles with energy, charisma, and his satin smooth vocals!”
— Dee Dee McNeil, Making A Scene!

“Sinoff is a fine singer, but a close listen to his inventiveness at the keyboard reveals that he's a formidable pianist as well.”
— Ken Franckling, Jazz Notes

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