Dan Papirany

Dan Papirany (b.1967, Tel Aviv,?Israel) is a Jazz pianist/Composer whose compositions include some references and ideas borrowed from contemporary tunes and standard harmonies.

Dan grew up in a non musical family, and as a child he played club sports (football and Basketball). In his teenage years Dan took up playing the drums. ?A friend told him that playing jazz required the most demanding drumming skills and if mastered, everything else would be easy. At that time Dan was practicing playing along to ?Genesis? music absorbing the drumming style of Phil Collins and to Collin?s other fusion band ?Brand X?. He took a break from music and drumming during his compulsory ?eventless? 3 years army service and after his release he went back to study drums with Israel?s top jazz drummer Arale Kaminski (1988). At the end of that year he met Tracey (Jewish girl visiting Israel) and they left together to New Zealand and eventually stayed and got married. In 1992 Dan enrolled at Wellington conservatorium (later changed to Massey university) as a drums major studying with Roger Sellers. Dan studied drums for three years and than changed his major to Piano studying with Leigh Jackson. In 1999 Dan graduated from university with a bachelor of music performance, and around the same time he begun playing local jazz trio/duo gigs. ?

During 2002 while studying post graduate musicology at Victoria University Dan was accepted to a position of Teacher in charge at Hato Petera College on Auckland?s North Shore, working with Maori students teaching a curriculum based on jazz. Since then, Dan recorded five trio albums. The first album which was nominated for New Zealand music award comprised of standard tunes and is titled ?Session one?. The second album titled ?Session Two - Originals? is comprised of original tunes only. The third, forth and fifth albums are live recordings at the MLC bar where Dan has been holding a regular gig in the last three years on Thursdays mostly playing duo with bassists such as Pete McGregor, Olivier Holland, Alberto Santarelli, Tony Baylis, and sometimes alternating drummers for a trio setup with drummers including Frank Gibson Jr, Owen Kneebone, and Barry Young. Dan?s new bass player is Tom Denison (17 year old).