bio

Dan Zemelman - pianist, composer and teacher


Dan Zemelman was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and moved to the Chicago area when he was three and spent his adolescent years there. He attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

His musical life started with classical piano at age 5 with Annabelle Leviton. He began studying jazz piano in high school and studied with several teachers: Alan Swain, Bob Dogan and Mike Kocour.

During his University years he gigged extensively with many diverse groups, performing around Madison, Milwaukee and the greater Wisconsin area. In Wisconsin he worked with Jeff Eckles (from the original Whad'ya Know Show band on Public Radio) and Dane Richeson, one of the BEST drummers in the midwest! He also got a chance to play under the direction of famous jazz bassist Richard Davis in BME (Black Music Ensemble). During his Senior year at UW Madison, he was awarded best jazz artist at the school.

During his years in Wisconsin, he also performed and composed for the Children's Theater of Madison (CTM), performed on Higher Ground, a live public radio show, played with many different ensembles, large and small, and lived the good life!

In 1998, Dan was chosen by the US State Department to tour India and Sri Lanka with trumpeter and vocalist Matt Lewis as part of the Kennedy Center's Jazz Ambassadors project. To see more about this trip, visit my Jazz Ambassadors page. He spent a month touring the 2 countries, giving performances and master classes to diverse audiences.

In 2001 Dan moved to the San Francisco bay area. His first musical milestone was playing with Benny Rietveld, Santana's bassist. They performed at a local jazz festival and did some other club gigs. His next 'break' was meeting the daughter of John Lee Hooker, Zakiya Hooker (http://www.ozaproductions.com/zakiya1.htm). Through this connection, Dan got to record on John's last album and 'hooked' up with Zakiya's band, Blues 4 U. They played gigs from August 2003 to April 2004. It culminated in March, 2004 when they travelled to Buenos Aires, Argentina to perform for sold out shows at a large and well-known music club called Trastienda. You can listen to samples of the John Lee Hooker album Face to Face by clicking on the cd universe link and following the links to the music clips (Dan is on 2 tracks - Loving People and Six Page Letter):

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?style=MUSIC&pid=6308094&cart=162512480

In July of 2004, Dan joined forces with the creative, original rock band Plum Crazy. He performed with Plum Crazy (a funk/rock/jazz/pop band) for 3 years, playing festivals and clubs all over California.

Currently, Dan is leading his own Quartet featuring Fred Randolph on bass, Erik Jekabson on trumpet and Alan Hall on drums. He is also playing with bassist Marcus Shelby, playing regularly with the Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, freelancing with many great musicians, and composing/arranging music for his Quartet.

Dan also loves to perform and collaborate with dancers and has done so on numerous occasions. He has been the resident musician at the Moab Contact Improvisation dance festival, and has also performed regularly at the West Coast C.I. dance festival.

Dan has also collaborated in the bay area with the Ragged Wing Theater Ensemble in their performance of 'The Serpent' by Jean Claude Van Damme by arranging and composing music for the ensemble.