Biography

Composer and multi-reeds player Dan Stern has just won a place on the prestigious ‘Take 5’ scheme, and is impressing audiences and musicians alike with his vision of contemporary jazz music. A virtuoso reeds player, he started off on the clarinet, before moving on to the tenor saxophone when he started studying with master musician Dave Liebman in the US. He is one of the few jazz musicians to take the sound of the classical clarinet into the jazz world, something he attributes to his early training on the instrument. Composition has always been at the heart of his approach to music making. His debut album, ‘Traces’ was the consequence of a suggestion by Tim Garland to write an extended piece of music. The resulting 35 minute suite attracted eminent musicians such as David Liebman, David Binney, Tim Garland, Phil Markowitz, and Gwilym Simcock to record with him. Prior to this, Dan had built up a solid foundation in classical music, reading Music at Cambridge University, and studying composition with Alexander Goehr, Robin Holloway, and Malcolm Singer. His conception of contemporary jazz music has evolved from this typically European background. His work with Dave Liebman demonstrates a vision for advanced harmony, and work with Spanish pianist Mikel Andonegi highlights a modern approach to rhythm and timing. Dan also sees the modern in ancient music: in his ‘Traces’ album he created a type of medieval mash-up, using twelfth century composer Perotin and sixteenth century composer Palestrina as the basis for extended compositions and improvisations. This is especially interesting to witness live, where Dan uses loop based technology to create an enchanting sound world that fluently travels between Renaissance polyphony and post Coltrane saxophony. His current band, features some of the best young jazz musicians in the UK at the moment: Robert Mitchell, Julian Seigel,Tom Mason and Asaf Sirkis. The band plays with an incredible intensity and passion, and yet is also able to pick out the detail of Dan’s complex yet accessible music.