Dana Hall

His family's interest in creative music, and their "open door" policy toward Philadelphia jazz musicians of the era sparked Hall's curiosity, passion and ultimately career in music.

• Name — Dana Hall • Born — 13 March 1969 • Birthplace — Brooklyn, New York, U.S. • Instrument — Drums Percussion • Occupation — Bandleader Composer Ethnomusicologist • Education — Iowa State University DePaul University • Genre — Jazz Hard bop Post-bop Free jazz Soul jazz Jazz-funk Soul • Years Active — 1992–present • Website — Official website

At the age of 12, Hall moved from Philadelphia to Voorhees Township, New Jersey, and began studying drums under renowned drum instructor Vincent "Jim" Hurley at Voorhees Middle School, followed by study with award-winning educator and bassoonist Dennis MacMullin at Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees Township. Hall also began playing the oboe in high school, an instrument he continued to play throughout college. Hall attended Iowa State University and double majored in aerospace engineering and percussion. At ISU, Hall cultivated his interest in music, studying marimba and vibes, timpani, hand percussion, and drumset under Professors John Harris and Michael Geary.

The list of artists that Hall has performed, toured, and/or recorded with reflects the diverse, varied approaches of his music-making in the fields of jazz and popular music and include Branford Marsalis, Ray Charles, Roy Hargrove, Joshua Redman, Pedro Latães Horace Silver, Michael Brecker, Nicolas Payton, Kurt Elling, Benny Green, Frank Wess, Ken Peplowski, Wycliffe Gordon, Russell Malone, Frank Foster, George Coleman, Lin Halliday, Betty Carter, Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson, Bobby Latães, Wallace Roney, Diana Krall, Harold Mabern, Renee Rosnes, Clark Terry, the Mingus Big Band, Steve Lacy, Muhal Richard Abrams, Jim Snidero, Eric Alexander, James Spaulding, Buster Williams, Gary Bartz, Dick Oatts, Melvin Rhyne, Ira Sullivan, David Murray, Bobby Broom, Lester Bowie, Slide Hampton, Charles Davis, James Moody, David Hazeltine, Henry Butler, Shirley Scott, Sonny Fortune, Joe Williams, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Billy Harper, Brian Lynch, Rick Margitza, Tim Hagans, John Swana, Ralph Bowen, Orrin Evans, Bud Shank, Phil Woods, Von Freeman, Ron Bridgewater, Kenny Barron, Maria Schneider, Jackie McLean, Mulgrew Miller, Marcus Belgrave, Hamiet Bluiett, the Woody Herman Orchestra, Patricia Barber, Joe Henderson, Curtis Fuller, Charles McPherson, Oliver Lake, and Steve Wilson, among others. Additionally, Hall is both a member of the Terell Stafford Quintet and the Music Director of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble. He is also a former regular member of the prestigious Grammy-nominated Carnegie Hall Jazz Band under the musical and artistic direction of trumpeter, and Dizzy Gillespie protégé, Jon Faddis, and has served as an extra in the percussion sections of the Des Moines and the Cedar Rapids Symphonies. In 2012, Hall joined the faculty of the DePaul University School of Music where he is the Director of Jazz Studies. He has served as a faculty member at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the University of Chicago and at Columbia College Chicago, and is a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Band Director's Academy and Essentially Ellington faculties. Hall also taught in the Ravinia Festival's Jazz in the Schools Mentoring Program, the Merit School of Music in Chicago, and is currently an educator and mentor in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz's Jazz in America Program and the Jazz Institute of Chicago's Artists Residency Program.

• Drums: Yamaha Absolute Hybrid Maple • Cymbals: Zildjian K Constantinople | Kerope | K Custom • Drumsticks: Vic Firth Drumsticks and Accessories • Drumheads: Remo Drumheads and Accessories

• Into the Light, 2009, Origin Records

With Ralph Bowen • Five (Criss Cross Jazz, 2008) With Geof Bradfield • Our Roots (Origin, 2015) • Birdhoused (Cellar Live, 2017) • Yes, and...Music for Nine Improvisers (Delmark, 2018) With the Chicago Jazz Ensemble • The Chicago Jazz Ensemble (Chase Music, 1997) With Clark Sommers • The Ba(SH) Trio (Origin, 2015) With Terell Stafford • New Beginnings (Maxjazz, 2004) • Taking Chances: Live at The Dakota (Maxjazz, 2007) • This Side of Strayhorn (Maxjazz, 2011) • Brotherlee Love (Capri, 2015) With Malachi Thompson • 47th Street (Delmark, 1997) • Freebop Now! (Delmark, 1998) • Rising Daystar (Delmark, 1998) With Woody Goss • A Very Vulfy Christmas (Woody Goss, 2019)