Dan Wall

Dan Wall (* 1954 in Atlanta ) is an American pianist and organist of modern jazz .

Wall, who comes from a family of pianists on his mother's side, first played the guitar as a child before taking piano lessons and also starting to play the organ in the late 1960s. Wall graduated from Berklee College of Music and then went to New York City . Wall was best known as the sideman of musicians such as Steve Grossman , Eddie Gomez , Jeremy Steig , Karl Ratzer , Joe Chambers , Dakota Staton , Jackie Paris and Sheila Jordan in the 1970s and 1980s ; this also resulted in the first recordings. He then went back to Atlanta where he worked with Eddie Harris , Charlie Rouse , Lee Konitz and Al Cohn . He recorded a piano album for the Audiophile label . In 1992 he became a member of the trio of John Abercrombie , with whom he recorded albums such as "While We're Young", "Tactics" and "Speak of the Devil" for the ECM label . Wall was also involved in recordings of Jerry Bergonzi ("Lost In the Shuffle", 1998, "Wiggy", 1999), Al Cohn ("Skylark", 1983) and Ernie Krivda ("Golden Moments", 1995).

In 1996, Wall's first album was released under his own name on the Enja label, "Off The Wall", on which u. a. the Canadian trumpeter Ingrid Jensen , the Austrian guitarist Karl Ratzer and drummer Adam Nussbaum participated. With guest musicians such as Jerry Bergonzi, Mick Goodrick and Billy Drummond , his second album "On the Inside Lookin In" was created in April 2000.

Wall's main instrument is the Hammond B-3 organ ; he is heavily influenced by Larry Young . He has been teaching jazz piano at Oberlin College since 2001 .

literature

• Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. Volume 2: M – Z (= rororo-Sachbuch. Vol. 16513). 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-499-16513-9 .
• Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
• Bielefeld catalog 1988 & 2002.

Web links

• Biography at Oberlin Conservatory