Eddie Daniels

Eddie Daniels ranks among the foremost jazz clarinetists, sharing the uppermost tier with Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Buddy DeFranco, while rendering technically demanding passages with seemingly casual mastery. Breakthrough, his inaugural GRP album from 1984, found him moving without pause between jazz and classical idioms, after which he pursued material associated with Charlie Parker, Roger Kellaway tunes, crossover projects, and swing, each rendered with steady authority. He also commands tenor saxophone with striking fluency that has never received full recognition. At the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival he appeared in Marshall Brown's Youth Band on alto, and after receiving his Juilliard diploma in 1966 he spent six years on tenor with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. As a leader he issued First Prize in 1966 and participated in sessions with Freddie Hubbard in 1969, Richard Davis, Don Patterson, and in duo settings with Bucky Pizzarelli in 1973. Although he recorded under his own name for Muse and Columbia between 1977 and 1978, Eddie Daniels achieved widespread notice only after concentrating on clarinet and issuing a steady stream of GRP dates beginning in 1984. Once his standing on that instrument was assured, he resumed doubling on tenor in 1992.