Jazz vocalist Dan Ferris is launching his new album, Now Playing!, at Chicago’s Jazz Showcase on Tuesday, June 18 at 8 p.m.
Now Playing! presents music taken from movies and television. Ferris rips the music apart and reassembles it, adding and rewriting lyrics, and borrowing elements from rock, R&B, Latin and even classical styles, as well as tapping into ideas and concepts from history, pop culture and the arts.
Joining Ferris on the recording of Now Playing! is a musical lineup of Dan Cray (piano), Clark Sommers (bass), Greg Wyser-Pratte (drums), and Pat Mallinger (saxophone).
With this new album, Ferris has found a way to broaden the boundaries of vocal jazz by tapping into multiple music styles to deliver a fresh approach to jazz and Songbook standards. Ferris notes: “With each song we sought out interesting and fresh options, while at all times mindful that the finished product will be heard by you, the listener.”
For the Jazz Showcase launch on June 18, Ferris will be accompanied by the Alex Murphy Trio.
BIOGRAPHY
Chicago singer Dan Ferris is co-founder and editor of Chicago Jazz Magazine, and draws upon his knowledge of jazz (and other music genres), as well as history, pop culture and the arts to create unique arrangements and renditions.
A first-rate interpreter of a lyric, Ferris employs a four-octave range and sustain that creates phrasing options possessed by few singers. Whether rendering a ballad or tearing off an R&B tune, the result is a music product that is accessible and transgenerational.
Ferris has performed at most of Chicago’s jazz clubs and at top venues, including the Chicago, St. Charles and Deer Park Jazz festivals, Pritzker Pavilion, Taste of Chicago, Festa Italiana, and several major hotels and venues in the city and suburbs.
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