Eddie Daniels

Eddie Daniels (born 19 October 1941) is an American musician. Though he is best known as a jazz clarinet player, he has also played alto and tenor saxophones, as well as classical music on the clarinet.

Daniels was born in New York City to a Jewish family. He was raised in the Brighton Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City. He became interested in jazz as a teenager when he was impressed by the musicians accompanying singers, such as Frank Sinatra, on recordings. Eddie's first instrument was the alto saxophone, and by the age of 15 he had played at the Newport Jazz Festival youth competition.[1] By the time he entered college, he was also playing clarinet.

Daniels has toured and recorded with a variety of bands, small groups and orchestras, and appeared on television many times. Since the 1980s he has focused mainly on the clarinet. In 1989 he won a Grammy Award for playing on the Roger Kellaway arrangement of Memos from Paradise.

Eddie Daniels has played with Thad Jones,[1] and most recently has been featured as a guest artist with Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band, on the album Swingin' For The Fences, the first album by the band. He featured in Goodwin's arrangement of Mozart's 40th symphony in G minor on XXL, and on the Big Phat Band's album The Phat Pack on "Under The Wire".

In 2009 the Swiss composer and saxophonist Daniel Schnyder composed a Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra called MATRIX 21 for Eddie Daniels and dedicated it to him. It was commissioned by the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (Switzerland) and world-premiered in Lausanne under its artistic director Christian Zacharias in January 2010. The American premiere took place at the Crested Butte Music Festival on July 18, 2010 under the direction of music director Jens Georg Bachmann.