Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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DANIELS, Eddie

(b 19 Oct. '41, NYC) Tenor sax, clarinet, composer. Played alto sax in the Youth Band at the Newport Jazz Festival '57, studied at Brooklyn College and Juilliard, played in the Mel Lewis band late '60s. He won first prize on saxophone at the International Jazz Competition in Vienna '66, joined the Mel Lewis band same year, but subsequently became famous with complete technical mastery of the clarinet. From '69 he recorded with Freddie Hubbard, Richard Davis, Bucky Pizzarelli, Morgana King and others. Debut album as a leader was First Prize! '66 on Prestige with Davis, Lewis and Roland Hanna; on A Flower For All Seasons '73 on Choice (a duo with Pizzarelli) he played flutes as well as clarinet and bass clarinet; Brief Encounter '77 on Muse was a quartet set; on Morning Thunder '78 on Columbia he played mostly clarinet with strings; Demoiselle '79 on Dire in Italy was another quartet. He played the premiŠre of Jorge Calandrelli's 'Concerto For Jazz Clarinet And Orchestra' '84 with the New American Orchestra and recorded it: Breakthrough '85 was on GRP, a label where there is a lot of technical mastery but sometimes less than complete musical interest. On To Bird With Love and the semi-classical Memos From Paradise he sounded like a virtuoso in search of material; Nepenthe '89 was better (named after a mythical Egyptian narcotic): he seemed to adopt a more personal tone and his improvisations were elegant, but the fusion type of material still left something out. Other albums incl. Benny Rides Again (with Gary Burton) and Under The Influence on GRP, Real Time on Chesky. Eddie Daniels' Beautiful Love '96 on Shanachie was easy-listening music, 'intimate jazz portraits' incl. classical themes.