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Danny Janklow

Saxophonist, multi-Instrumentalist, educator, producer & composer Danny Janklow is quickly gaining international recognition for his soulful and innovative musical voice. His heart-felt, passionate, and highly energetic music has reached and inspired thousands of listeners from Japan to Holland to Mexico. His live performances, often described as “emotionally charged” and “vibrant celebrations,” leave his listeners always wanting more…

Born in Tarzana, CA in 1989, Danny Janklow was handed the saxophone at the age of 11. His life would soon change as he was introduced to the remarkable sounds of Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley, and John Coltrane. Just 2 years later, it was obvious to all that the music had chosen him. During his time at Agoura High School, Danny was recognized by Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra as the first-ever triple instrument “Outstanding Soloist” on tenor saxophone, flute and clarinet.

In 2007, Danny was awarded a full-tuition scholarship to Philadelphia’s Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance where he was mentored by saxophone legend Dick Oatts and incredible trumpeter Terell Stafford. In 2010, Danny won 1st place in the North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA) competition held in Athens, Georgia. While living on the east coast, he frequently played at the Village Vanguard with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the Kimmel Center, the Apollo in Harlem, and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in New York.

After graduating in 2011, Danny moved back to Los Angeles to take the scene by storm. He rapidly became one of LA’s most in-demand saxophonists and bandleaders. In August 2012, he won 1st place at the Detroit Jazz Festival Saxophone Competition and headlined on that year’s festival. He took part in a 2-year Mentor program teaching at Stanford Jazz Camp where he discovered his deep passion for teaching students of all ages. In 2013, he was selectively chosen as a semi-finalist to compete in the Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition in Washington D.C.

Danny has enjoyed the pleasure of sharing the stage and recording with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Kendrick Lamar, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, George Benson, Aloe Blacc, Jose James, Wynton & Branford Marsalis, Benny Golson, Eric Reed, John Beasley, Ben Williams, Jason Moran, Wallace Roney, Savion Glover, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Bill Holman Big Band, Gordon Goodwin, and Jimmy Heath.

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4
Album Review

Judy Wexler: No Wonder

Read "No Wonder" reviewed by Pierre Giroux


Judy Wexler's release No Wonder is a portrait in vocal jazz artistry, underscored by thoughtful arrangements from pianist and arranger Jeff Colella and a luminous supporting cast of Los Angeles A-list musicians including multi-instrumentalists Danny Janklow, and Bob Sheppard, trumpeter Jay Jennings guitarist Larry Koonse, bassist Gabe Davis and drummer Steve Hass. The twelve-tune track list is a refreshingly curated program of standards that steer away from the overly familiar, instead embracing the “hipper" corners of the ...

6
Album Review

Judy Wexler: No Wonder

Read "No Wonder" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Judy Wexler imbues every song she touches with a sense of realism, wonder and depth that's ever so rare. An inimitable artist, this celebrated singer adds volumes to each story she encounters, be it a post-millennial jazz tune, '60s counterculture anthem, glimmering Brazilian jewel or any number of other finds. In the case of No Wonder--Wexler's seventh album, arriving two decades after her debut--she demonstrates her gifts with a marked emphasis on standards. Longtime collaborator/pianist Jeff Colella's ...

3
Album Review

Bevan Manson featuring Tierney Sutton with The Hollywood Studio Orchestra: Talking to Trees

Read "Talking to Trees" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


Bevan Manson is an artist who has a creative duality. As a pianist, composer/arranger and educator, he's been successful in classical and jazz environments. With Talking to Trees, Manson provides an array of both originals and jazz standards, most with an arboreal tint, as the title indicates. The work is a validation that his pen, guiding the talents of vocalist Tierney Sutton and L.A.'s premium players, can make the familiar fascinating and the novel intriguing. Miles Davis' ...

1
Album Review

Julie Kelly: Freedom Jazz Dance

Read "Freedom Jazz Dance" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello


Freedom Jazz Dance from Los Angeles singer, Julie Kelly offers an interesting array of selections that emanate from that musical road less traveled. And, as in life, sometimes that road yields nuggets of delight that would most likely never make it to the tried and “true way." Peter Nero and Carroll Coates' “New York on Sunday" opens things and is a lilting snap on 2 and 4 groove with Kelly joyously covering it and Josh Nelson slickly ...

3
Album Review

Gary Brumburgh: Full Circle

Read "Full Circle" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


A recording dedicated to New York theater and a high school music teacher. Ho, boy, one thinks. “What could go wrong?" Actually, not much. Vocalist Gary Brumburgh is, all snobbery aside, a very pleasant surprise. He swings. He is plenty hip. He has an attractive style and a pleasant, companionable voice. So, what good can come of Nazareth (or anywhere else, for that matter), On Circle, plenty. This is a Friday- afternoon kind of recording, good for unwinding and the ...

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Album Review

Gary Brumburgh: Full Circle

Read "Full Circle" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Gary Brumburgh is living proof that a talented singer can sustain a respectable career in music without becoming a “star." Even though he's not a household name—or anywhere near it—Brumburgh performed in musical productions from dinner theatres to summer stock, concert stages to casinos for more than two decades before changing direction in 2003 to focus on jazz. Full Circle, Brumburgh's third album as a jazz vocalist, consists of eleven tunes he has sung in various musical productions, bedecked in ...

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Album Review

MONK'estra: MONK'estra Plays John Beasley

Read "MONK'estra Plays John Beasley" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The MONK'estra is actually a number of groups of various shapes and sizes, from duo to big band, assembled under the guiding hand of composer, arranger & pianist John Beasley to—wait for it!—"play John Beasley," an artist whose admiration for Thelonious Sphere Monk is clear throughout this buoyant and resourceful album, as it was on Volumes 1 and 2 of the series, in which the MONK'estra “played Monk." Beasley wrote eight of the album's fourteen genial numbers ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Freedom Jazz Dance

Laurelwood Records
2025

buy

No Wonder

Jewel City Jazz
2025

buy

Talking to Trees

Tiger Turn Records
2024

buy

Full Circle

Cafe Pacific Records
2022

buy

Back to the Garden

Jewel City Jazz
2021

buy

Earthshine

Self Produced
2021

buy

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