Music Style Improvised / Creative / New Music

Musical Influences Traditional Jazz, Free Jazz, Classical Music of all periods, Pop Music and Ambient Music, Rock

Similar Artists Milford Graves, Cecil Taylor, Paul Bley, Tony Oxley

Group Members Pianist Dan DeChellis and percussionist Jeff Arnal have rapidly developed a unique and individual voice within the Improvised / New Music genre. Following there precise and well formed performance at the Big Sur Experimental Music Festival in CA this past May, they recorded a set of duets in Brooklyn, NY. Celebrating the new release, they kicked it off with a CD release party at the world-famous Knitting Factory in N.Y.C., and they plan a tour for late fall. As well, there were appearances on NY’s WKCR and WFMU. Dan DeChellis has been recording for Sachimay since 1996 and has released 7 CD’s over the past 6 years all to critical acclaim from national and international press. He has worked with some of most prestigious and well-respected musicians performing today and has appeared in numerous festivals in the US. He has been a featured performer at the Knitting Factory’s Main Space in N.Y.C. with percussionist Gerry Hemingway and his trio has performed twice at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, MA. Dan’s background is based on a traditional classical education. He holds a Masters Degree in Piano from Duquesne University and has performed in Classical recitals in North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Boston. Improvisor and composer Jeff Arnal received his MFA in music from Bennington College and his BA in music composition and filmmaking from the University of Maryland. A native of Georgia he began playing the drums at the age of 13. In 1990 he moved to Baltimore to study at the Peabody Conservatory. Two years later he began composition studies with Stuart Saunders Smith. These studies continued until 1997 and profoundly influenced Arnal’s music. After moving to Bennington, Vermont in 1997 he began studying with percussionist Milford Graves and electronic music with Joel Chadabe. While at Bennington, Arnal had the good fortune to work with jazz artists Mark Dresser, Charles Gayle, William Parker, and Roswell Rudd. DeChellis and Arnal strive to bridge gaps and genres within today’s ever expanding and cross-genre music scene. There music is an attempt to connect to people on all levels, through a transfer of spontaneous energy and an inherent sense of form and structure.

Instruments piano / percussion

Albums The Dirigibles Between Similarities

Press Reviews Jeff Arnal-"Jeff Arnal's muscular drums help rev up the engine, too, and his extended solo that opens "Freedom in the Wind" is a lesson in free - style drumming." Steven Loewy - All Music Guide "...Arnal’s sweeping fills, and odd-metered beats provide the listener with a potpourri of harmonious interludes and raw, yet powerful improv. "Glenn Astarita - All About Jazz "Arnal, another unknown amongst so many unrecognized by me, played with sober discernment, with an inventiveness never caught short. Completely admirable and neither smug nor complacent."Marc Chaloin - Improjazz- France Dan DeChellis- “ …his sound is one of control….He is driving across Tribeca and takes one non-obvious road after another. You think you know his next turn, but he confounds your expectation. In the end his shortcut is faster than anything you’ve seen, and you’ve been driving the area for years.” – Michael Benedetti, Phiba-improv

Location New York, New York - USA

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