Dan Costa Releases New Album With John Patitucci on Bass

The pianist/composer teams with bassist John Patitucci, Mike Stern, Dave Liebman, and Hermeto Pascoal

Dan Costa Releases New Album With John Patitucci on Bass

The pianist/composer teams with bassist John Patitucci, Mike Stern, Dave Liebman, and Hermeto Pascoal

The conversations and interactions between musicians and genres is amazing and all without any wasted notes. In fact what I like so much with regard to this project, is the fact that Dan Costa, who is obviously classically trained as a pianist has “chops” galore on the instrument, but chooses his notes very carefully. His virtuosity is evident, but he uses it very sparingly, and all his famous guests are in the same zone…less notes but a lot of lovely, heartfelt, emotional, music. The tunes likewise on the surface techni-cally aren’t easy to perform, but in these masters’ hands they are easy to digest, There is plenty of space and air on this recording, so it sinks in under your skin easily and beautifully. ‘Organic’ is the operative word. Soulful too! I see a bright future ahead for Mr. Dan Costa as a player, composer, arranger and pro-ducer…also his music evokes to me many visual images…he has many options ahead as a talented, serious and fully developed musician. 

-Randy Brecker, 24th November 2022   

Daniel Greco Costa was born in 1989 in London (UK) to an Italian and Portuguese family. He initially studied classical piano for six years at the Académie de Musique Rainier III in the south of France, as well as jazz, and wrote his first composition at the age of twelve. In 2010, he was awarded a diploma with merit at Sir Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in the UK, but his strong interest in his Latin roots coupled with his passion for jazz led him to study at the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espectáculo in Portugal, where he graduated in jazz piano with a Rotary Club award for outstanding achievement in 2015. During his course, he was also awarded a merit grant to study Brazilian music at UNICAMP – Universidade Estadual de Campinas (São Paulo, Brazil). He pursued further studies at Berklee College of Music with a scholarship for outstanding achievement. He has attended workshops and classes given by musical artists such as Gary Burton, Kevin Hays, Scott Colley, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Jorge Rossy, Chick Corea and César Camargo Mariano. 

He has co-directed musicals, performed with orchestras and big bands, and starred as both a pianist and composer in projects in countries such as the UK, France, Finland, Germany, Spain, Greece and the USA. In January 2016, he recorded his debut album Suite Três Rios in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with musicians such as Jaques Morelenbaum, Ricardo Silveira, Teco Cardoso, Rafael Barata, Marcos Suzano and Leila Pinheiro. It peaked at #1 on the iTunes Jazz Chart and Top 10 across all genres in Portugal, prior to hitting the #1 slot on the CMJ Top Adds Chart in the USA and being top 10 for several weeks on Roots Music Report. One of the best albums of the year for Down Beat Magazine, it achieved rave reviews from countries such as the USA, Russia, Canada and Brazil. 

In May 2018 he recorded his new album Skyness at Arte Suono in Italy, featuring Roberto Menescal, Jorge Helder, Teco Cardoso, Custodio Castelo, Romero Lubambo, Nelson Faria and Seamus Blake, released at Blue Note Rio in November. The track Compelling was featured by JAZZIZ Magazine on their Summer 2019 Album. His tour took him to countries such as the USA, Italy, Malta, Greece, Egypt, Turkey, Brazil, Armenia, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, Lebanon and India, where he was interviewed and featured by Rolling Stone Magazine. 

In 2020, he recorded the standard Love Dance with one its creators, Ivan Lins, and
released his first solo piano and live album Live in California, recorded during the final stage of his international tour. It came in second on Roots Music Report’s Top Latin Jazz Album for the year of 2020 Chart and was praised by several critics. In 2022 he released the single Iremia with Randy Brecker as a message of peace and recorded his new album Beams in New York with Dave Liebman, John Patitucci and other musicians. He toured Australasia, Southeast Asia and Europe, performing at key jazz venues and giving masterclasses at major universities. 

Piano, compositions, arrangement, production – Dan Costa 

Double bass – John Patitucci 

Drums – Paulinho Vicente 

Trumpet – Dave Douglas Alto 

Saxophone – Teco Cardoso 

Electric Guitar – Mike Stern 

Soprano Saxophone – Dave Liebman 

Percussion – Hermeto Pascoal 

Vocals – Anne Boccato 

Recorded by Alex Conroy at Bunker Studio, New York City, USA Filmed by Khiry Evanson Cover Art: Stefan Fransson Artistic Photo: Max Hudson Cao

Bass Magazine   By: Bass Magazine