Ted Daniel

Mr. Daniel began studying trumpet in elementary school. He began his professional career playing local gigs with his childhood friend, the legendary guitarist, Sonny Sharrock. Mr. Daniel briefly attended Berklee School of music and Southern Illinois University before a tour of duty will U.S. Army Bands. After his discharge from the Army, Mr. Daniel attended Central State College, in Ohio, on a full music scholarship where he met and studied with Dr. Ken Makanda McIntyre. After a year, Mr. Daniel returned to NYC and eventually received a bachelor of music degree in theory and composition from the City College of New York. Mr. Daniel had begun his recording career while studying in Ohio. He returned briefly to New York to record Sonny Sharrock's first album “Black Woman”. His second recording was with a band he co-lead (Brute Force) with his brother, Richard Daniel. The recording was entitled “Brute Force” on the Embryo label, produced by Herbie Mann. Since then, Mr. Daniel has participated in over thirty published recordings with such great artist as: Archie Shepp, Dewey Redman, Andrew Cyrille, Sam Rivers, Billy Bang and Henry Threadgill. Mr. Daniel has held workshops at Amherst College, Bennington College, Williams College and the University of Hosei in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Daniel has also conducted a seminar in Madrid, Spain as well as work in his community conducting summer music workshops for high and college age students. Mr. Daniel has produced three albums under his own name, which are entitled “The Ted Daniel Sextet” on Ujamaa records, “Tapestry” on Sun records and “In The Beginning” on Altura recordings. This recording features a twelve-piece ensemble featuring such artist as Oliver Lake, Arthur Blythe, Charles Tyler and David Murray.

Eventually this ensemble evolved into a larger group entitled “Energy”. Mr. Daniel has been the recipient of a NEA compositional grant and awarded Talent Deserving Wider recognition from Downbeat Magazine. Presently, Mr. Daniel is writing and performing with his new group, the International Brass and Membrane Corporation (IBMC). This trio was conceived as a flexible and expandable creative music performance group, which utilizes instruments from the brass and membrane instrument families. Also, Mr. Daniel has made several recordings with Charles Compo’s THE PHIBES band. Recently, May 20, 2008, PORTER RECORDS has reissued Ted’s Tapestry album with a bonus track from the original performance of 1974 recorded at Ornette Coleman's Artist House. Ted has also formed a duo with Michael Marcus on Bb clarinet and Ted on Trumpet and assorted brass.