Biography
From the start of his professional path, New York drummer, percussionist, composer, and bandleader Dan Weiss has shown a natural facility for blending modern jazz, East Indian traditions, and rock grooves into his personal approach. This capacity has opened doors to an extensive range of projects alongside an eclectic roster of forward-thinking players. As a sideman he appears on close to two hundred sessions with artists such as Rez Abbasi, David Binney, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Tineke Postma, and Vijay Iyer. His 2005 debut, Tintal Drum Set Solo, consisted of a solo recital; he next issued the three-tabla project Three D alongside Dibyarka Chatterjee and Debu Nayak. Sonically restless as a leader, Weiss refuses to repeat himself from one recording to the next, moving between piano-trio formats such as 2010’s Timshel and larger configurations like the widely praised 2016 release Sixteen: Drummers Suite, scored for two pianists plus reeds, winds, brass, guitar, harp, bass, and voices. The 2017 revival of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks prompted him to assemble an avant-jazz-metal ensemble that recorded Starebaby for Pi Recordings two years later.
Born in New Jersey, Weiss received early musical exposure from his guitar-playing father. In his teens a Led Zeppelin recording ignited his interest; John Bonham became his initial influence, and Led Zeppelin IV persuaded him to take up the drums. He soon gravitated toward Rush and metal, spending his first fourteen years immersed in rock. Drum instructor Jeff Krause redirected his attention toward jazz through albums by Max Roach & Clifford Brown and Count Basie, prompting an immediate shift in direction.
Weiss earned a B.A. in Jazz Percussion & Classical Composition at the Manhattan School of Music, later pursuing tabla studies with Samir Chatterjee, drum-set work with John Riley, composition lessons with David Noon, and frame-drum instruction from Jamey Haddad. He maintains four active ensembles: the Dan Weiss Trio with Thomas Morgan and Jacob Sacks, the Dan Weiss/Miles Okazaki Duo, the Dan Weiss/Ari Hoenig Duo, and a collaborative quintet featuring Lorenzo Feliciati, Joel Harrison, Roy Powell, and Cuong Vu.
His first album, Tintal Drum Set Solo, appeared on Chhandayan Records in 2005, the same year he contributed to David Binney’s Bastion of Sanity on Criss Cross. The Dan Weiss Trio issued Now Yes When on Toneofapitch in 2006, as did Binney’s Cities and Desire. Mirror, a duo date with Okazaki, also surfaced that year. Tabla Solo followed on Chhandayan in 2007; Weiss guested on Bloody Panda’s Pheromone and joined the Jackson Harrison Trio for The Land Tides on Hatology. In 2008 he premiered his Trio for Piano, Violin and Percussion in Nova Scotia and recorded The Wheel with Joel Harrison for Innova. He participated in Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition album Apti the following year. In 2010 Ohad Talmor conducted the premiere of Layas: For Piano, Drums and Orchestras in Portugal, while the trio released Timshel on Sunnyside.
Weiss also teaches privately on tabla and drum kit and serves on the faculties of the New School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. His first recorded project with the Feliciati–Harrison–Powell–Vu ensemble, Holy Abyss, came out on Cuneiform Records in January 2012. Two years later he began his association with Pi Recordings by issuing the seven-part suite Fourteen with his large ensemble. Sixteen: A Drummer’s Suite appeared in 2016, along with the trio collaboration Exploring the Music of Monk and Bill Evans with Florian Weber and Donny McCaslin on Enja’s Criss Cross imprint.
In 2018 Weiss fulfilled a long-held ambition by convening Craig Taborn on acoustic and electric piano, Matt Mitchell on piano and Prophet-6 modular synthesizers, guitarist Ben Monder, and electric bassist Trevor Dunn to merge jazz with heavy metal and electronic new music under the continuing influence of Twin Peaks. The resulting album, Starebaby, emerged on Pi Recordings in April, followed by a European tour; critics worldwide praised its integration of jazz composition and improvisation with doom-metal dynamics and textures. The next year the Dan Weiss Trio Plus 1 released Utica Box on Pi, featuring pianist Jacob Sacks and bassists Thomas Morgan and Eivind Opsvik. After additional Starebaby concerts, the group reconvened to record eight tracks for Natural Selection, again shaped by the 2017 return of Twin Peaks and its dreamlike, ominous atmosphere; Pi Recordings issued the album in September 2020.
Born in New Jersey, Weiss received early musical exposure from his guitar-playing father. In his teens a Led Zeppelin recording ignited his interest; John Bonham became his initial influence, and Led Zeppelin IV persuaded him to take up the drums. He soon gravitated toward Rush and metal, spending his first fourteen years immersed in rock. Drum instructor Jeff Krause redirected his attention toward jazz through albums by Max Roach & Clifford Brown and Count Basie, prompting an immediate shift in direction.
Weiss earned a B.A. in Jazz Percussion & Classical Composition at the Manhattan School of Music, later pursuing tabla studies with Samir Chatterjee, drum-set work with John Riley, composition lessons with David Noon, and frame-drum instruction from Jamey Haddad. He maintains four active ensembles: the Dan Weiss Trio with Thomas Morgan and Jacob Sacks, the Dan Weiss/Miles Okazaki Duo, the Dan Weiss/Ari Hoenig Duo, and a collaborative quintet featuring Lorenzo Feliciati, Joel Harrison, Roy Powell, and Cuong Vu.
His first album, Tintal Drum Set Solo, appeared on Chhandayan Records in 2005, the same year he contributed to David Binney’s Bastion of Sanity on Criss Cross. The Dan Weiss Trio issued Now Yes When on Toneofapitch in 2006, as did Binney’s Cities and Desire. Mirror, a duo date with Okazaki, also surfaced that year. Tabla Solo followed on Chhandayan in 2007; Weiss guested on Bloody Panda’s Pheromone and joined the Jackson Harrison Trio for The Land Tides on Hatology. In 2008 he premiered his Trio for Piano, Violin and Percussion in Nova Scotia and recorded The Wheel with Joel Harrison for Innova. He participated in Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Indo-Pak Coalition album Apti the following year. In 2010 Ohad Talmor conducted the premiere of Layas: For Piano, Drums and Orchestras in Portugal, while the trio released Timshel on Sunnyside.
Weiss also teaches privately on tabla and drum kit and serves on the faculties of the New School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. His first recorded project with the Feliciati–Harrison–Powell–Vu ensemble, Holy Abyss, came out on Cuneiform Records in January 2012. Two years later he began his association with Pi Recordings by issuing the seven-part suite Fourteen with his large ensemble. Sixteen: A Drummer’s Suite appeared in 2016, along with the trio collaboration Exploring the Music of Monk and Bill Evans with Florian Weber and Donny McCaslin on Enja’s Criss Cross imprint.
In 2018 Weiss fulfilled a long-held ambition by convening Craig Taborn on acoustic and electric piano, Matt Mitchell on piano and Prophet-6 modular synthesizers, guitarist Ben Monder, and electric bassist Trevor Dunn to merge jazz with heavy metal and electronic new music under the continuing influence of Twin Peaks. The resulting album, Starebaby, emerged on Pi Recordings in April, followed by a European tour; critics worldwide praised its integration of jazz composition and improvisation with doom-metal dynamics and textures. The next year the Dan Weiss Trio Plus 1 released Utica Box on Pi, featuring pianist Jacob Sacks and bassists Thomas Morgan and Eivind Opsvik. After additional Starebaby concerts, the group reconvened to record eight tracks for Natural Selection, again shaped by the 2017 return of Twin Peaks and its dreamlike, ominous atmosphere; Pi Recordings issued the album in September 2020.
Albums
