Music Promotion and Music Publicity

Other:

overview         solo career          present time          collaborations

Overview

Composer, arranger, producer, multi-instrumentalist (bass, guitar, keyboards). Born in Lanus , Argentina in 1963 , Daniel Díaz  began playing bass in 1980. In 1983 he started to study theory, harmony, and bass and a year later he was working as a professional, backing several singers in small clubs around Buenos Aires. During the eighties he kept studying (harmony, counterpoint, ear training, etc.) attended to several courses and clinics such as: orchestration with Carlos Franzetti, Improvisation with Gary Burton, Production and Bass with Pedro Aznar, Tango History and Language with Horacio Salgan, and Argentine folkloric rhythms with "Cuchi" Leguizamon.

In 1993 he travelled the USA where he studied improvisation (with Bruce Gertz and Oscar Stagnaro at Berklee College of Music In Boston) and bass (with Mark Egan and Percy Jones in New York City and Alexis Skjlarevsky in LA.).

He played professionally in Argentina from 1983 until 1997 (playing other instruments among with bass) and toured and recorded with many local rock, fusion, folklore and tango bands.

He developed a career as session player, composer, arranger and producer both in Buenos Aires and Paris. His solo productions have been released in the USA, Canada and Europe.

Solo Career
From 1992 to 1997, in Buenos Aires, he played live with his electric quintet "Maquina Dura" (bass, keys, drums, sax, and percussion.) and his acoustic quartet "Maquina Blanda" (acoustic bass, acoustic guitar, tabla, and flute).

During this period, he produced his first album "The Years Alone " which is a selection of 11 of his songs composed between 1986 and 1993. In that album Daniel Diaz played most of the parts (bass, keyboards, guitar, percussion, drums, etc.) but included guest appearances of many fine South American players, such as Ricky Olarte, Manuel Miranda, "Pato" Loza, Beto Satragni, Gustavo Paglia, Rikhi Hambra, and Miguel Angel Amaral.

He signed a contract  with North American label Green Linnet/Xenophile, and "The Years Alone" was released in the USA and Canada in January 1996.
The Years Alone's eleven songs combine traditional argentine rhythms like Zamba, Chacarera, Cueca, etc. with non-traditional structures and sounds inspired in rock, jazz, and classical styles. The more traditional/pastoral songs have a particular mood with the use of instruments from north Argentine, Peru and Bolivia, such as the Quena, Pinkullo and the Sikus, as well as Tango's traditional Bandoneon. He continued this recording/composing career with "Segundo Ciclo"(1997), "Maquina Dura" (2000) and "Lugar Comun" (2005)..

Present time:
Since 1997 he lives in Paris, France, where he's been performing with several argentine-Latin-jazz-tango groups, performing live (concerts in Paris and tours in Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Turkey, Portugal, Belgium, Portugal, Andorra, Switzerland, Morocco, and all around France), producing and recording.
In 2001 his recording/production  studio "The Pleasure Dome" merged with Paris based ANGEL STUDIO.
In July 2001 he signed a contract with Timeless Records for a worldwide release of "Segundo Ciclo" in April 2002.
From January 2003 till February 2005 he's been playing with  argentine tango group "Che Tango"

In march 2004 Daniel Diaz produced "Latinos Kretinos" with electronic versions of Latin music standards, with singers Ana Guanabara, Paula Estrella, and special guests. Live performances starting 12/MAR/04 (New Morning, Paris) and 19/MAR/04 ("Le Temple", Paris)
In march 2004  he started live performances with a new trio featuring Javier Estrella (Percussion) and Bobby Rangell (Flute, Sax). This same trio recorded "Lugar Comun" CD, released in 2005.

Between February and may 2005 he's been  part of the musical show « Mambo Mistico ». This play, written and directed by Alfredo Arias with musicians and singers from Argentina, France, Brazil  and Cuba performed almost every day in the prestigious Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris, at the Maison de la Culture in Nantes in the Théâtre du Gymnase in Marseille.

In 2006 he composed/performed/co-produced a double CD of TV/Films music for French publisher CEZAME/KOKA media.

In the present he's playing with his trio, with classical baritone Jorge Chaminé and contemporary French chanson singer/composer Elise Caron and with French rock singer Marie Daguerre.

His new CD "LOW Vol.1", an audacious project performed using bass instruments exclusively, should be released in springtime 2007.

Please check Discography  for discography and collaborations.

LOW

music for acoustic and electric basses Vol 1.

composed and performed by

daniel diaz,

Basses Bajos Baixos  Bassi  Bässe  Bassen  

An album of original compositions recorded by argentinean bassist/composer Daniel Diaz in Paris, France between 2005 and 2007, performed exclusively on seven different acoustic and electric Basses.
The CD features both Solo bass pieces and orchestrated multitrack tunes, with basses performing bass parts AND guitar, keyboards, percussion parts et all.
This bass extravaganza is the result of Daniel Diaz’s 25 years performing and composing as a bassist all around the world, and it’s interesting listening for any bass player.
While many bassists reocrded great solo projects in the past, most of them focused either in solo performances  and virtuoso playing, or in full band performances prominently featuring bass and bass solos. Inspired by his previous “composer oriented” albums, Daniel Diaz decided here to take an arranger’s approach and just orchestate some of his songs for standard instruments, and then trying to perform those parts in basses, imitating the sound and role of other instruments in a bass, using special techniques and real time pedal FXs. This “multi-track” recordings and it’s incredibly full sounding orchestrations stand side by side with haunting solo bass perfomances of standard-written songs.
Some more experimental, improvised tracks add an avant-garde edge to other traditional, “classical&jazz meet pop” songs. D.D.’s playing focuses on dynamics, expression and phrasing more than speed and thechnique,  And the huge palette of colors and sounds that’s been his trademark as a soloist all along his recording career makes of LOW volume 1 a personal and original bass frequency statement.

For a full MP3 streaming playback of this album, please visit

www.dedeland.com/lowMP3.htm

For liner notes and complete track info, Please visit:

www.dedeland.com/low.htm

CDs and Downloads are for sale right now on www.dedeland.com/records.htm#low1

And on this extraordinary “bassist’s record store” on european-bassday.com

And at cdbaby.com, i-tunes, etc.

“No synths used, no drums, no percussion, no guitars,  just basses.”

Track List:

1> VALS POLACO

2> LA BAJA

3> ZAMBA DESILUCION  

4> ABSTRACT #3

5> PASTORAL PALOMA

6> IMPROMPTU N°1

7> SANS APOSTROPHE

8> INTERLUDE #2 (Haden)

9> IMPROMPTU N°2

10>ABSTRACT #2

11>ZAMBA DEL BAJO

12> ABSTRACT #1

13> FAREWELL

Total Time:   53:48

Composed and Produced By: Daniel "Dédé" Díaz/DedeLand Music Co.

All noises recorded by D.D. at The Pleasure Dome, Paris, between  Oct 2005 and Mar 2007.

Design & photos by  Sergio Pittaluga.

Instruments used:

Schecter “62 Jazz Bass” 4 string (w/black nylon strings)

Custom made Sekine Fretless Bass 4 strings.

Riverhead “Low” 4 string Bass tuned B/E/A/D with “floppy” strings.

Steinberger 5 string bass tuned E/A/D/G/C

L’arrivée Acoustic 5 string acoustic bass guitar tuned E/A/D/G/C.

Michael Kelly Dragonfly 5 string acoustic bass guitar tuned E/A/D/G/C.

1900 Argentinean Contrabass.

Street sounds used as background noise and rhythmic loop on “La Baja”.

D.D.’s voice used to construct drum loop on “Sans Apostrophe”.

File under: jazz/experimental

PS: The upcoming LOW Vol2 will complete this collection with solo basses versions of some music by D.D.’s favourite composers, including (perhaps):

Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes, Cole Porter, Astor Piazzola, J.S.Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Erik Satie, Gustavo Leguizamon, John Lennon, Paul McCartney,  Burt Bacharach, Charles Mingus, Stevie Wonder, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Gram Parsons and Armando Manzanero.

Barcode: 634479626937

 “No synths used no drums, no percussion, no guitars, just basses”.