Daniel Kelly – Composer and Pianist (short bio)
Award-winning composer and pianist Daniel Kelly is one of the most influential and accomplished pianists of his generation. He has performed all over the world with artists such as hip-hop star Lauryn Hill, Grammy-award winning jazz legends Michael Brecker and Joe Lovano, and modern classical giants The Bang on a Can All-Stars. He served as a US Jazz Ambassador performing concerts throughout Southeast Asia and India for various heads of state. Daniel has composed music for feature films, commercials and appeared on over 50 recordings.
Daniel Kelly – Composer and Pianist (long bio)
Award-winning composer and pianist Daniel Kelly is one of the most influential and accomplished pianists of his generation. He has collaborated in performance and on recordings with a wide range of artists, including: Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman, Joseph Jarman, Don Byron, Lauryn Hill, Bobby Sanabria, Harvie S, Oliver Lake, Randy Brecker, William Parker, John Zorn, Donny McCaslin, David Binney, Brad Shepik, Mark Turner, Tony Malaby, Iva Bittova, Candido, Wu Man, Joel Harrison, Owen Pallett, RJD2, the Bang on a Can All-Stars and many others.
Daniel has served as a US Jazz Ambassador to Southeast Asia and India, performed benefit concerts in Nairobi, Kenya for orphan children living in the Kibera slums, and has performed concerts for various heads of state, including the President of Costa Rica.
His group has received the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Adventurous Programming Award.
Daniel was awarded a grant by NYSCA to compose a new concert-length work titled Rakonto: A Sounding of Community Voices that incorporates the voices and stories of immigrants living in Flushing, Queens. His latest work, Inner Landscapes, is a multi-movement work for chamber orchestra.
Daniel has recorded many highly acclaimed CDs as a leader, including World, which blends Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music and features guest DJ, RJD2; Duets with Ghosts, which combines samples of voices from old archival recordings with a hard-edged Downtown New York electric quartet; Portal, an improvised solo piano suite that arose from his continuing series of improvised solo piano concerts; and Emerge, a new take on the jazz piano trio, released on Brooklyn Jazz Underground Records.
Daniel has exhibited his commitment to arts education and young audiences by performing in schools and in artistic multi-media works for family audiences. His most notable collaborator is storyteller David Gonzalez. In addition to performing in hundreds of schools, they have toured to performing art centers throughout the US and Canada and the Royal National Theatre in London. They developed several multi-media theatrical works, including The Frog Bride: the Drama Desk-nominated work premiered at the New Victory Theater on Broadway and incorporated Daniel’s music with the music of Russian composer Prokofiev and video images of paintings by Kandinsky. Their collaboration Sleeping Beauty enjoyed a sold-out run at the Kennedy Center. David and Daniel have also been Lincoln Center Institute Repertory artists since 2002.
Daniel serves as the Artistic Director of the music based non-profit organization Connection Works, one the leading artist-run music organizations that have shaped the Brooklyn jazz scene, presenting and commissioning six concert seasons of original music. He has organized and helped present workshops for young people and a series of concerts featuring artists such as Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman, Mark Turner, Larry Grenadier, Jeff Ballard, John Abercrombie, Billy Hart, Dafnis Prieto, Wycliffe Gordon, Anat Cohen, Steve Coleman and Five Elements and many others.
Visit him at www.danielkellymusic.com.
P R E S S
“Daniel Kelly is a pianist and composer who confidently splits the difference between murky history and sleek progressivism”
– Nate Chinen, New York Times
“…powerfully moving.”
– Steve Smith, Time Out New York
"…original and adventurous."
– Howard Mandel, Author of Future Jazz and Miles, Coltane & Cecil
"Gifted pianist Daniel Kelly is always a delight and his solo work is outstanding . . . topnotch . . . he performs in excellent form."
– Lee Prosser, Jazz Review
About Portal CD:
'Portal' is an inspired solo piano effort, a 17-part suite of improvised sections that flow superbly and cover a great deal of terrain…. I was most impressed with the wide range of feelings, textures, intersecting lines and ideas that emerge throughout this wonderful disc…. I found this disc to be immensely rewarding on a variety of levels.
– Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
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Kelly admires artists across genres who have embraced the polyphonic, orchestral nature of the grand piano, plumbing melodic possibilities, harmonies and dissonances, multiple layers and cross-references, rhythms and counterpoint to map otherwise inaccessible sonic spheres and mental spaces. But he imitates no one.
– Howard Mandel, Author of Future Jazz and Miles, Coltane & Cecil
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On his third album, Portal, Daniel Kelly steps into the breach with 17 wholly improvised pieces—some less than a minute long, others more than five. They add up to a complete and well-formed thought, imbued with mystery as well as technical rigor.
Kelly's sweeping arpeggios and reiterative left-hand accompaniments affirm a strong classical influence….There are flickers of Lisztian romanticism in "Turbulence," Ravelian impressionism in "Removing the Veil of Illusion" and Bartókian folklore in "Magic Circle Dance."
– David R. Adler, Time Out New York
About Emerge CD:
A U.S. State Department Jazz Ambassador who's been successful in chamber music and film scoring in addition to most forms of jazz can make pretty much whatever record he wants to. For Emerge, Daniel Kelly chose to make a highly varied, challenging but listenable record.
– Pico, Something Else Reviews
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Downtown keyboard wiz, Daniel Kelly returns with another fine disc.… I am most impressed with this CD.
Each piece a different structure or strategy, from the over-the-top to the more sublime and each song is memorable in its own way. 'Emerge' doesn't sound like any other piano trio I've heard, making it hard to pin down yet no less engaging to savor.
– Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery
Other quotes:
"Pianist Daniel Kelly shows great character and depth-definitely a talent to watch."
– John Davis, Latin Jazz Club
"Daniel Kelly has an uncanny ability to get inside and around the percussive heat and deliver exciting moments on the piano."
– Jazz Zine.com
"fist-pounding keyboard attack that has the crowd shouting like a revival meeting . . . masterful evocative performance!"
– Tom Ineck, www.bermanfoundation.org
"When pianist Daniel Kelly breaks loose with an exhilarating performance set up by the entire group, attention must be paid . . . [a] performance made possible by Kelly's finely attuned senses of touch and texture."
– Don Williamson, JazzReview.com
"Kelly is quite a marvel throughout, whether spitting out burning runs or flowing lyrical elegance, but nowhere does he shine more than on his original, "Momentàneo". His rich, yet slightly wintry hues reflect contemplation and beauty."
– Jay Collins, OneFinalNote.com
"Daniel Kelly's composition is complex and entertaining."
– Jazz Review.com
