Dan Siegel

Since 1980 pianist and composer Dan Siegel has followed an inventive and personal route across contemporary jazz as well as film and television scoring. His opening two releases, Nite Ride in 1980 and Hot Spot in 1981, both came out on Inner City, the second of them reaching the summit of the jazz album charts; together they illustrated his distinctive approach to widening the scope of smooth jazz by folding in new age, pop, world music, soundtrack music, and funk. In 1983 he issued Another Time, Another Place, a forward-looking fusion of contemporary jazz-funk and electronic music created with percussionist Alex Acuña and bassist/electronicist Patrick O'Hearn; the album has since been sampled by numerous hip-hop and EDM producers. Northern Nights, an influential recording, arrived in 1987. Going Home, released on Epic in 1991, joined jazz to South African township pop and folk. Hemispheres in 1995 blended jazz without seams with rhythms, melodies, and textures drawn from Brazilian, Caribbean, and Latin musics. Funky Sphere, issued in 2009, served as the inaugural release on Dan Siegel Music and was followed in 2014 by the widely acclaimed Indigo. Origins in 2018 merged jazz, funk, film music, and rock. Siegel delivered Faraway Place, his 22nd album, during 2021. In August 2024 he released Unity, an exploration of groove that presented his trio augmented by a Tom Scott-led horn section and six guest guitarists.

Born in Seattle and raised in Eugene, Oregon, Siegel began piano lessons at age eight and was leading a rock band on guitar by age 12. After earning a composition degree from the University of Oregon, he studied at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Inner City Records, a prominent independent jazz label, signed the young keyboardist in 1979 and issued Nite Ride in 1980, which included guitarist Lee Ritenour. Siegel’s second Inner City album, Hot Spot in 1981, achieved greater success, topping the jazz album charts and remaining there for ten weeks. That same year he released Oasis on Japan’s Baybridge label. In 1983 Siegel moved to Los Angeles to focus on film and television assignments while expanding his recording activity. He put out a well-received self-titled album on Elektra in 1982 and followed it the next year with Reflections, his first release on Pausa. Another Time, Another Place appeared in 1984, a groundbreaking blend of jazz, new age, and electronic music created with Patrick O’Hearn and percussionist Alex Acuña. In 1985 Siegel issued the charting On the Edge, his final Pausa recording, then Tropical Breeze on Japan’s Overseas Records.

Beyond his own releases and session contributions, Siegel devoted much of the 1980s to composing for television and film. He wrote the scores for the cult films Reform School Girls and Happy Hour in 1986 and for the television news series Hard Copy in 1987. From 1986 to 1991 he created forecast music for the Weather Channel and served as musical director and conductor for the late-night CBS program Overtime… With Pat O’Brien in 1990. Siegel has performed on many television and film projects, among them the Oscar-winning film The Usual Suspects.

He signed a solo contract with Epic in 1986 and released Short Stories, an album that signaled the start of his shift from fusion toward contemporary or smooth jazz. That year he formed the jazz-funk supergroup Birds of a Feather alongside Acuña, Richard Elliot, Carl Verheyen, John Robinson, and Neil Stubenhaus; the ensemble issued its self-titled debut in 1987. Also in 1987 Siegel played piano on the self-titled album by Future Prospect, an all-star fusion project that featured guitarist Grant Geissman. He further released Future Prospect on the jazz indie Optimism and Northern Nights on CBS Associated. The latter recording became a reference point for contemporary jazz releases throughout the following decade. Late One Night, which included Birds of a Feather and additional musicians, appeared in 1989.

In 1991 Siegel issued the stellar Going Home on Epic. The sessions featured vocalist Kenny Rankin, bassists Brian Bromberg and Alex Al, guitarist Robert Bacon, percussionist Lenny Castro, drummer Dave Hooper, and saxophonists Boney James and Jeff Kashiwa. The album represented the first occasion Siegel deliberately incorporated the influence of South African township music and Brazilian rhythms. He followed it with The Getaway on indie Sin-Drome Records in 1993, a small-group jazz-funk outing that also drew on Brazilian music. The second Birds of a Feather album, Above the Clouds, surfaced in 1994. By the time Siegel released the widely acclaimed Hemispheres in 1995, he had fully integrated Caribbean and Latin rhythms and textures with those of South and West Africa as well as Brazil into his lyrical brand of contemporary jazz. Stand Together, the third and final Birds of a Feather release, came out in 1997. Siegel closed the century with the urban-flavored jazz-pop album Clairvoyance on Countdown in 1998.

Epic issued the compilation Along the Way: The Best of Dan Siegel in 2000, and it reached the jazz album charts. At the same time the pianist maintained an active schedule of session work and touring. He released the live album Key of Joy on Japan’s M&I label. Joining the roster of Southern California’s Native Language Music, he recorded Inside Out, an album that signaled a deliberate return to smooth, funky contemporary jazz. The title track, “Crossroads,” and “This Time Around” each received airplay while the album itself charted. Siegel pursued a more organic direction on Departure in 2006. Also on Native Language Music, the collection presented 11 new compositions performed on acoustic piano with a band that included bassist and co-producer Bromberg, drummers/percussionists Lenny Castro and Vinnie Colaiuta, saxophonist Bob Sheppard, and vocalist Bill Cantos, along with a selectively employed string ensemble. Its single “Street Talk” remained on the smooth jazz charts for most of the year. In 2008 Native Language Music released Fables by the Dan Siegel Project.

Sphere, an acclaimed and pristinely recorded album issued in 2009, marked the first release on Dan Siegel Music. In addition to Sheppard, the sessions included contributions from saxophonists Tom Scott and Gary Meek. Five years passed before Siegel followed it with Indigo. An impeccably recorded blend of contemporary jazz and straight-ahead post-bop, the set’s title track spent more than 20 weeks inside the Top 20 on the smooth jazz songs chart. In 2019 Siegel returned to a more polished sound with Origins, a refined collection that crossed contemporary jazz, silky funk, and lithe rock while incorporating breezy Latin, Andalusian, and Brazilian rhythmic grooves. Its single “After All” remained on the charts for more than 23 weeks.

Owing to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing global quarantine, Siegel assembled a band remotely to record Faraway Place, his 22nd album. All tracks were first demoed and developed rhythmically by drummers Vinnie Colaiuta and Steve Gadd at East West Studios in Los Angeles; these were the only sessions Siegel attended in person. He forwarded the resulting files to the remaining musicians he had selected: saxophonist Eric Marienthal, trumpeter/trombonist Lee Thornburg, guitarist Allen Hinds, acoustic bassist Bromberg, electric bassists Abraham Laboriel and Dwyane “Smitty” Smith, percussionist Lenny Castro, and Brazilian vocalist Rogerio Jardim. Siegel later overdubbed his piano—along with accordion on four tracks—constructing his mix around the rhythm tracks as reference points for his melodies before gradually layering additional instrumentation to reach a dense final result. Faraway Place appeared in August 2021.

Siegel has consistently emphasized groove as a primary vehicle for his compositions and ensemble interplay. In August 2024, two decades after drummer Oscar Seaton appeared on Inside Out, he reunited with the keyboardist and brought along his rhythm-section colleague from Terence Blanchard’s E Collective, bassist David “DJ” Ginyard, to create an album of contemporary jazz grooves. The trio was joined by a horn section led by saxophonist Tom Scott and received contributions from six guitarists including Dean Parks, Michael Miller, and Rob Bacon.