In 1998 he toured at the Lilith Fair with Me'shell Ndege'Ocello and Maxwell. He has also taught privately in percussion and is a faculty member of New York University.
One of Daniel's projects, "Function over Structure," features Daniel's own compositions and showcases the use of percussion in a "straight-ahead jazz context." Daniel feels that jazz percussion can limit itself to styles that do not always include all possibilities of the jazz instruments. "I want to include all my influences when I play jazz. That runs the gamut from the Art Ensemble of Chicago to Joe Zawinul, from Cannonball Adderly to Frank Zappa. These musicians were torchbearers and pioneers." He adds, "I hope that my contribution makes a statement that is parallel to these exceptional artists. They were consistent in their commitment to bringing passion, intensity, and soul to their music."
Daniel is now busy with a number of different projects covering a variety of genres. He's on the new Steely Dan record "Two Against Nature" and just played with the Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon at the Blue Note. Even more recently he enjoyed being on Saturday Night Live with Jennifer Lopez. He plans to go to Europe with a band he's been part of for the last six years, the Screaming Headless Torsos. Their record should be out soon. And he has played on a film soundtrack starring Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando.
As he says, "Things are going well" - and we look forward to more new and interesting work from him.
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