Born in Pasadena, California, and raised in nearby Costa Mesa, Dan Barrett began playing the trombone at the age of 11, and the cornet shortly thereafter. In high school, he formed his first group, the Back Bay Jazz Band. This sextet presented the music of King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, and other early jazz greats to Southern California audiences. During this time, Dan played many local jobs with the great New Orleans musicians Ed “Montudie” Garland, Alton Purnell, Mike DeLay, Joe Darensbourg, Nappy Lamare, and Barney Bigard, hearing about the “old days” firsthand. In 1977, Dan made the first of many trips to Europe, to appear at the Breda International Jazz Festival in Holland. Dan and his wife, Laura, moved to New York City in 1983. He spent a busy couple of years touring with and writing for the Widespread Jazz Orchestra, and later was a frequent guest at Eddie Condon’s jazz club and other Manhattan nightspots. It was at Eddie Condon’s that Benny Goodman first heard Dan play, and shortly thereafter asked him to join what would be the King of Swing’s last orchestra. While in New York, Dan also co-led the popular Howard Alden-Dan Barrett Quintet (the ABQ). Dan has played both valve and slide trombones for many motion pictures, including Cotton Club and Brighton Beach Memoirs, as well as Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite, Everyone Says I Love You, and Bullets Over Broadway. If you look fast, you can see Dan on the screen in the latter film. He’s featured a bit more in the movie Wild Man Blues. Dan has performed five times at Carnegie Hall: with Woody Herman (and the New York Pops Orchestra); pianist (and legendary raconteur) Joe Bushkin; in two tributes to Louis Armstrong; and a command performance for Mr. Bulgari of…well, BULGARI. Additionally, Dan composed and arranged the theme music for the American Playhouse television production of Rocket to the Moon, and Christopher Munch’s motion picture The Sleepy Time Gal, starring Jacqueline Bisset. A partial list includes Doc Cheatham, Scott Hamilton, Bob Haggart, Rosemary Clooney, Ruby Braff, Joe Bushkin, Jay McShann, Buck Clayton, and Benny Goodman! Dan is especially proud of his associations with Messrs. Clayton and Goodman, for each of whom he played lead trombone and was a featured soloist. Dan was nominated for the Bell Atlantic Jazz Award for “Trombonist of the Year,” and came in on top in a Mississippi Rag poll as its readership’s “favorite living trombonist!” He is mentioned with high praise in the new Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz (by Ira Gitler and Leonard Feather), as well as the Guinness Who’s-Who of Jazz.