Dan Weiss / Miles Okazaki DUO

Miles Okazaki and Dan Weiss have been performing as a duo for over two decades. In early years their repertoire was focused largely on the translations of tabla material to drumset from Weiss’ albums Tintal Drumset Solo and Jhaptal Drumset Solo, the rhythmic explorations on Okazaki‘s Mirror trilogy, as well as standard repertoire. In 2020, they each wrote complete suites for guitar and drums that were recorded and released on the album Music for Drums and Guitar.

Dan Weiss has been hailed as one of the top five drummers in jazz by The New York Times. His innovative drumming and forward-thinking compositions have been pushing musical limits for decades, and have brought him many accolades including three awards from The Shifting Foundation and two years in a row as 'The Top Up and Coming Percussionist' the Downbeat's Critic's Poll. Weiss has studied tabla under Samir Chatterjee for 25 years and released two groundbreaking recordings  Tintal Drumset Solo and Jhaptal Drumset Solo in which translate tabla repertoire to the drumset. His trio with Jacob Sacks and Thomas Morgan has released four records (Now Yes When, Timshel, Utica Box, and Dedication) and he also leads a 16-piece large ensemble that features some of NYC’s most gifted musicians including Miguel Zenón and Jen Shyu on the recordings Fourteen and Sixteen. Weiss has released two albums with his latest project, Starebaby, drawing on his interests metal and prog rock to create a blend of sophistication and visceral impact. As a sideman, Weiss has played/toured with Lee Konitz, Chris Potter, Sylvie Courvoisier, David Binney, Jen Shy, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Linda May Han Oh, John Zorn, and many others.

Miles Okazaki is a NYC-based guitarist originally from Port Townsend, a small seaside town in Washington State. His approach to the guitar is described by the The New York Times as “utterly contemporary, free from the expectations of what it means to play a guitar in a group setting — not just in jazz, but any kind.” His sideman experience over the last two decades covers a broad spectrum, from standards to experimental music (Kenny Barron, John Zorn, Stanley Turrentine, Dan Weiss, Matt Mitchell, Steve Coleman, Jonathan Finlayson, Jane Monheit, Amir ElSaffar, Darcy James Argue, and many others). He has released nine albums of original compositions over the last twelve years on the Sunnyside, Pi, and Cygnus labels. In 2018 Okazaki received wide critical acclaim for his six-album recording of the complete compositions of Thelonious Monk for solo guitar, an unprecedented project that Nate Chinen called “the six-string equivalent of a free solo climb up El Capitan.” That year, Okazaki was voted the #1 rising star guitarist in the Downbeat Magazine critic’s poll. As an educator, Okazaki has published book, Fundamentals of Guitar, with Mel Bay, taught guitar and rhythmic theory at the University of Michigan from 2013-22, joined the faculty at Princeton University in 2021, and holds degrees from Harvard University, Manhattan School of Music, and the Juilliard School.

Press

“Music For Drums and Guitar is the austerely titled new release from Dan Weiss and Miles Okazaki, who happen to be composer-improvisers of absurdly expansive imaginative resources. Both pieces feel intricately designed yet wide open to possibility, and to the whims of a nearly telepathic rapport. Above all, they speak to a sense of play — albeit play of a highly evolved sort.” - WBGO, “Take Five”

“Both are absolute masters on their instruments, and both have released many albums as leaders of their own groups, often with each other as members, having collaborated for more than twenty years. . . . One has the sense that not only can Okazaki and Weiss anticipate each other’s next moves, but that they are both deeply dedicated to realizing each other’s artistic visions.” – The Paris Review

“The guitarist Miles Okazaki and the drummer Dan Weiss performed a duo set on Friday that suggested some of the new jazz musician’s inexhaustible options as they fit ideas together without stopping.” – Ben Ratliff, The New York Times

“They’ve since worked in a range of contexts together, including a pair of Okazaki’s albums — but Music For Drums and Guitar captures them in the most direct form of exchange we’ve heard . . . This music is hyperacute and superdynamic, with myriad strategies at play.” – Nate Chinen, WBGO

“Dig deeply into "Music for Drums and Guitar" and you will find a world of endless possibilities.” - Richard Kamins, Step Tempest

“they have developed a certain shorthand: the ability to intuit each other’s next move, no matter how complex the musical terrain negotiated.” - NYC Jazz Record

“a high-order musical brainteaser and a memento of a deep, longstanding mind-meld between these two” - Hank Shteamer

“Hypnotic and energizing” - Jazztimes

High Resolution Press Photos

Credit: John Rogers