Dan Barrett was born in Pasadena and raised in Costa Mesa. He began playing the trombone when he was eleven years old and the cornet shortly after. His first band, the Back Bay Jazz Band, was formed in high school. The sextet featured the music of Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver and other early jazz greats for Southern California audiences. Dan worked many jobs in the local community with Alton Purnell and Mike DeLay from New Orleans. He also heard about the “old days”. Dan traveled to Europe in 1977 to attend the Breda International jazz festival in Holland. This was the beginning of many such trips. He has been a frequent guest at many international jazz festivals and has made close friendships with many musicians. Dan and Laura moved to New York City with their wife in 1983. After a couple of years spent touring and writing with the Widespread Jazz Orchestra for a few years, Dan was later a regular guest at Eddie Condon’s jazz club and other Manhattan night-spots. Benny Goodman saw Dan play at Eddie Condon’s and asked him to join the King of Swing’s final orchestra. Dan was also a member of the Howard Alden – Dan Barrett Quintet (the ABQ), and he played both slide and valve trombones in many motion pictures including The Cotton Club, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite and Everyone Says It Loves You. You can see Dan in the second film if you look closely. Wild Man Blues, which features Dan a little more, has him featured in the film. This film, which won an award, documents Woody Allen’s three-week European tour with his New Orleans Jazz Band. Dan has performed at Carnegie Hall four times: with Woody Herman and the New York Pops Orchestra, Joe Bushkin, as well as in two tributes of Louis Armstrong. He has also composed and arranged the music for the American Playhouse television show Rocket to the Moon. Also, the soundtrack to Christopher Munch’s motion picture, The Sleepy Time Gal, which stars Jacqueline Bisset and Christopher Munch. Dan still finds time to perform at many jazz festivals and parties across the United States, Canada and Europe. Barrett has recorded with many well-respected jazz musicians, including Blue Swing and Melody In Swing under his own name. Some of the names include Doc Cheatham and Scott Hamilton, Bob Haggart. Ruby Braff, Joe Bushkin. Jay McShann. Buck Clayton, Benny Goodman. Dan is particularly proud of his association with Messrs. Clayton, Goodman, where he was both a featured soloist and played the lead trombone. Dan is still pursuing his passion for orchestration and arranging, in addition to his freelance work. His most ambitious project was scoring the St. Louis Blues jazz band and symphony Orchestra. You can hear his writing on Arbors Records CDs like I Saw Stars and Moon Song and Blue Swing. All featuring Rebecca Kilgore and Look What I Found with Daryl Sherman. A Grammy nomination was given to Barrett’s earlier recording, which featured Bobby Short (on another label). John S. Wilson, an aspiring jazz critic for The New York Times, commented on another CD: “He” is a delight here, a melodyt, a colorist, and, all in all, a player Duke Ellington would love. Dan and his family moved back to Southern California in 1996. Since then, he has been nominated to the 1999 Bell Atlantic Jazz Award as “Trombonists of the Year” and was voted “favorite trombonist living” by the Mississippi Rag readers. The new Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz, by Ira Gitler (and the late Leonard Feather), mentions him with high praise. Dan is currently touring with BED, a group that includes long-time friends and musical colleagues, Eddie Erickson, Joel Forbes, and Rebecca “Becky”. BED is the featured group on The Sleepy Time Gal’s soundtrack. BED continues to make friends and gain fans through its many appearances at jazz parties and festivals both here and abroad. BED performed at the Caesarea jazz festival in Tel Aviv in June 2006. Blue Swing is an all-star ensemble that combines BED’s quartet with four other top performers. Blue Swing has been performing together (and recording) for many years. It features some of the best “two-way” musicians (those who can excel at solo and ensemble work). Dan reminds prospective jazz party producers, as well as people who want to host a fun and exciting jazz band for their private event or party, that both Blue Swing and BED are just a phone call away. Visit www.blueswing.com
