Dan Willis

Samo Salamon Ra Kalam Bob Moses Orchestra: Dream Suites vol. 1

by Alberto Bazzurro
July 21, 2025

Basta scorrere i nomi dei musicisti coinvolti nell'operazione per capire di quale rappresentatività per una data scena della più creativa e verace attualità jazzistica “unga" questo assolutamente notevole album cofirmato dal chitarrista sloveno Samo Salamon e dal batterista newyorchese Bob Moses. Lo compongono tre soli ampi brani (dai tredici minuti alla mezz'ora appena scarsa) incisi nel novembre 2023 e fondati sulla pratica della libera improvvisazione (non si parla neppure di conduction, in questo caso), raggiungendo una dimensione formale assolutamente invidiabile, ...

Dan Willis, Paul Dunmall, Amok Amor & Treesearch

by Maurice Hogue
May 5, 2021

Many jazz musicians in Poland consider playing and/or recording the music of Poland's father of jazz, Krzysztof Komeda, a rite of passage. A similar feeling exists with most jazz musicians anywhere about the music of Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and more. This episode features some recordings that follow that path. Saxophonist Dan Willis tackles Monk on his new latest release, while Miguel Zenon fronts a European band in an Ornette-inspired set. Canadian drummer Ivan Bamford and his Eyevin ...

Dan Willis and Velvet Gentlemen: The Satie Project II

by Maurizio Zerbo
March 7, 2014

Più che un mero omaggio a Erik Satie, Dan Willis opera una superba ristrutturazione delle già rivoluzionarie partiture originali mediante l'aggiunta di parti composte per l'occasione. Il musicista statunitense si conferma così autorevole esponente contemporaneo di una musicalità trasversale, aperta alle contaminazioni. È sufficiente l'ascolto del brano di apertura, “Gnossienne # 7," per rendersi conto di quanto poco convenzionale sia questo progetto. Le originarie partiture per pianoforte vengono arricchite da un sostrato contemporaneo, che pesca nei brillanti ...

Dan Willis and Velvet Gentlemen: The Satie Project II

by Dave Wayne
January 27, 2014

The music of Eric Satie may well be some of the most malleable and adaptable works ever composed. This could be partly due to the fact that Satie himself stood well outside of the musical mainstream of his time, thus his compositions are comparatively unencumbered by the stylistic baggage of his era. Satie was avant-garde before the term was coined, and is considered by many to be a precursor to the Minimalists and to the 20th Century Serialist composers such ...

Dan Willis and Velvet Gentlemen: The Satie Project

by Raul d'Gama Rose
October 12, 2010

French composer Erik Satie (1866--1925), a contemporary of Claude Debussy, was often scorned and, had it not been for his friend, Debussy would have been largely ignored as well by his generation. Debussy not only supported Satie, but championed his work as well, and saw to it that some very forward thinking pieces, such as the “Gymnopedie," were publically performed, too. Satie experimented with dissonance and, more importantly, he often used avant-garde harmonic changes in his pieces as well. In ...

Dan Willis: The Voice of a Tone Poet

by Raul d'Gama Rose
October 12, 2010

There is an ancient Latin aphorism that was often central to a debate among philosophers discussing art. The debate itself began earlier than the time of Augustan Rome, and over time raged on, occupying the philosophers of Greece as much as it occupied the classicists. It addressed the question of whether poetry was a gift of nature or a product of conscious art or training. The aphorism came from 16th Century Venetian writer Coelius Rhodigenus, who wrote a chapter in ...

Dan Willis: No Longer a Divided Artist

by Paul Olson
July 9, 2007

You'll have to look long and hard to find a better tenor saxophonist than Dan Willis.You'll have to look long and hard to find a better oboeist than Dan Willis.Dan Willis is a wonderful soprano saxophonist. He's a terrific English horn player. His bass clarinet and piccolo playing is fine. He's more than competent with more obscure ethnic instruments such as zirna and dudek.Perhaps most importantly, Dan Willis is a great composer. But instruments, ...

"The Monk Project" By Saxophonist Dan Willis & Velvet Gentlemen Due July 17 From Belle Avenue Records

Source: Terri Hinte Publicity
June 7, 2020

Dan Willis puts his idiosyncratic spin on the tunes of the godfather of jazz idiosyncrasy with the July 17 release of The Monk Project (Belle Avenue). The saxophonist/multi-reedist’s fourth album with his ensemble Velvet Gentlemen—guitarist Pete McCann, keyboardist Ron Oswanski, bassist Evan Gregor, and drummer John Mettam (with special guests bassist Kermit Driscoll and drummer Ian Froman)—is an intriguing and highly exploratory set of performances that, like Thelonious Monk’s compositions, could never be mistaken for the work of anyone else. ...
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Multi-Reedman Dan Willis Interviewed at All About Jazz...and More!

Source: All About Jazz
October 12, 2010

For the past several years, multi-reedman Dan Willis—as prone to play Armenian duduk as he is a saxophone or clarinet—has been exploring the music of renegade classical composer Erik Satie, first with his 2006 Omni-Tone release, Velvet Gentlemen, and now, with his 2010 Daywood Drive follow-up, The Satie Project. In both cases he finds the perfect nexus of reverence for Satie's in some cases near-iconic pieces ("Gymnopedies," for example, which have been brought into the jazz world previously by Jacques ...
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Dan Willis Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
July 9, 2007

You'll have to look long and hard to find a better tenor saxophonist than Dan Willis.

You'll have to look long and hard to find a better oboeist than Dan Willis.

Dan Willis is a wonderful soprano saxophone player. He's a terrific English horn player. His bass clarinet and piccolo playing is fine. He's more than competent with more obscure ethnic instruments such as zirna and dudek.

Perhaps most importantly, Dan Willis is a great composer. But instruments, and the ...
read more