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Dan Pugach
He served as the drummer for The Air Force Band in the IDF while attending the Rimon School of Jazz at the same time.
He received a Bachelor of Music Degree from Berklee College of Music, where he studied with Terri Lynn Carrington, Hal Crook, and Joe Lovano, and an M.A in music from the City College of New York, where he studied with Mike Holober and Scott Reeves.
In 2011 Dan was a recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award for his Nonet piece “Discourse This!”. In the same year he participated in the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center, where he worked with Curtis Fuller, Nathan Davis and George Cables. In 2013 he received another ASCAP Jazz Composer Award for his Nonet piece “Brooklyn Blues”.
The Dan Pugach Nonet, his 9-piece ensemble which features Dan's original compositions, has already won two ASCAP Jazz Composer Awards, a prestigious residency at the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington D.C and a GRAMMY® nomination for Best Arrangement, Instruments with Vocals, alongside vocalist Nicole Zuraitis, his wife.
This ensemble tours regularly and has played at Bird’s Eye Basel, The Zone in Tel Aviv, Blue Note Jazz, The 55bar, Smalls Jazz Club, The Jazz Loft, The Jazz Estate, Stowe Jazz Festival among respected Performing Arts Theaters across the nation.
This year he is a participant at the BMI Jazz Composer Workshop directed by Andy Farber.
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Dan Pugach Big Band: Bianca
by Jack Bowers
Dan Pugach is an Israeli-born, New York-based drummer who doubles (quite well) as composer and arranger on Bianca, his second recording for Outside In Music. Pugach anchors a splendid big band comprised of some of the New York area's finest musicians on an album whose subtitle is “Music for Paws and Persistence." The “paws" were those of the Pugach family's rescue pit-bull, Bianca, who passed away in 2019 and left a gaping hole in their lives, as ...
read moreDan Pugach Big Band at The Jazz Loft
by Dan Bilawsky
On March 22, 2024, two weeks to the day after Dan Pugach released his first big band record, the celebrated drummer-composer brought his large ensemble to The Jazz Loft in Stony Brook for an album release event that was a resounding success by any measure. That 90-seat venue--a performance space, museum and educational hub with a well-earned reputation as the crown jewel site on the Long Island jazz scene--played host to a stellar two-set concert that earned a standing ovation ...
read moreNicole Zuraitis: How Love Begins
by Dan Bilawsky
Love is not for the faint of heart. Its tides are unpredictable, bound to different souls, intensifying and ebbing in parallel to the feelings and favors of each individual who exerts their gravitational pull on an evolving romance. Musically charting those waters--depicting the full scope of that sea through song--is no simple feat. Yet some supreme talents, like this one, make it happen and make it look easy. Nicole Zuraitis--a first-rate songwriter, powerhouse vocalist and grade-A pianist--proves to be an ...
read moreYu Nishiyama Big Band: A Lotus In The Mud
by Angelo Leonardi
Una giovane e talentuosa bandleader aggiorna la tradizione delle grandi orchestratrici del Sol Levante, da Toshiko Akiyoshi a Miho Hazama. La musica presente nel debutto di Yu Nishiyama va oltre un puntuale modern mainstream per big band ma colpisce per la fantasiosa scrittura, caratterizzata da percorsi ricchi di svolte, tra aristocratici contrasti timbrici, poderosi ensemble e trascinanti interventi solisti. Una visione orchestrale matura, ricca di tensione e dalla bella carica spettacolare. Trasferitasi da Yokohama negli Stati Uniti ...
read moreNicole Zuraitis: All Wandering Hearts
by Geno Thackara
Nicole Zuraitis has a heart full of soul and a voice full of sunshine. She's got a mix of things on her mind with her fourth album, everyday themes and weighty matters alike, and yet they ultimately come out sounding exuberant in her hands. The fundamental optimism is one key asset of All Wandering Hearts, even if her variety of jazzy coffee-shop balladry is no less eloquent in the spots when things get more somber. The too-spirited-for-AOR “Make ...
read moreDan Pugach: Plus One
by Angelo Leonardi
Ci giunge con un po' di ritardo questo debutto del batterista e arrangiatore israeliano Dan Pugach ma va segnalato per testimoniare l'ottimo momento del jazz orchestrale. Trasferitosi negli Stati Uniti per frequentare il Berklee College of Music, Pugach è appassionato della scuola orchestrale mainstream e s'è perfezionato al City College di New York studiando con Hal Crook, Joe Lovano George Garzone e altri. In questo lavoro ha arrangiato per medio organico -con l'ausilio della vocalist Nicole Zuraitis-sue composizioni e tre ...
read moreDan Pugach: Plus One
by Jerome Wilson
On this debut CD, drummer Dan Pugach shows himself to be a composer and arranger who has mastered the art of making a group sound much bigger than it is. His nonet plays intricate and soulful jazz with the punch of a much bigger band. Pugach is very good at using brawny up-tempo rhythms. The CD's opener, “Brooklyn Blues" kicks off with a New Orleans second line groove that leads into a wall of shouting staccato horns driving ...
read moreDan Pugach Quartet Live at the Berklee Performance Center
Source:
All About Jazz
The Dan Pugach Quartet is composed of an international cast of top-level musicians from Berklee College of Music. This talented group of artists has worked together in various capacities for the past few years and is now focused on performing its original compositions as well as inventive arrangements of the standard jazz repertoire. The group is already playing in venues in Boston area and getting ready for a tour in Japan.
The Quartet: Jeremy Sinclair - Trumpet
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