Our current Spotlight Artist, the Latin Jazz trio consisting of bassist Michael Kraft, pianist Dana Landry, and drummer Daniel Messina bring a lot of musicianship to the trio format. They show all the best qualities of experienced trio musicians - they provide equal amounts of leadership and support, they listen and interact, and they trust each other enough to explore interesting artistic possibilities. Both Kraft and Messina contribute compositions that move beyond the basic matching of melodies and chords; they write songs that simultaneously expose the best qualities of their band mates and challenge their abilities. In a genre that often relies upon larger ensembles, these three musicians utilize all of their tools to create an intriguing sound on their debut release, Latin Journey.

Their unified approach comes from the solid foundation that each musician brings into the trio. Each artist developed their musicianship in different settings, and then found inspiration in different genres and performance contexts. The variety represented among the band members develops a wider musicianship within the complete group. One artist’s strength is another’s weakness; the individual pieces rely upon each other to build the whole. It’s a classic picture of a complementary group of musicians. Their shared experiences bring the ultimate unity to the group, but it’s all built upon the background that each musician contributes to the overall product.

You can find more info about the trio members around the internet. Check out Kraft’s MySpace and Jazz Network Profile. Make sure you visit Messina’s MySpace and Jazz Network Profile. You can hear samples from the album at the group’s CDBaby page. Of course, don’t forget to read the LJC review of Latin Journey HERE.

Here’s some information on the three band members, taken from their various pages. Enjoy!

Michael Kraft
An alumni of the University of North Texas Jazz Studies Program and Middle Tennessee State University Recording Program, Michael Kraft is an extremely versatile freelance/studio musician. During his time at UNT, he performed with many of the school’s widely regarded ensembles, gaining experience in big band performance, Latin & African ensembles, and small combo settings. After his time at UNT, he moved to Detroit, finding a good deal of work in the city’s lively music scene. In the 1990s, Kraft relocated to Germany, where he built a reputation as a solid player, fluent in many genres. He regularly performed a variety of music, ranging from jazz, pop, funk, latin, and rock. Some of his regular gigs included work with Randy Lee Kay, George Kousa, Daniel Messina, and Rumba Sureña. Following the 2007 debut of Latin Journey, Kraft actively performed in support of the album.

In the summer of 2008, Kraft returned to the States, finding a home in Denver, Colorado. Kraft will undoubtedly make a valuable contribution to this city’s music scene, hopefully finding a group to musicians to revisit the material from Latin Journey!

Dana Landry
Dana Landry directs UNC Jazz Lab I and the Northern Colorado Voices, the top vocal jazz group at UNC. Prior to joining UNC, Landry was Coordinator of Jazz Studies at Middle Tennessee State University. While at MTSU, he directed MTSU Jazz Ensemble I, the MTSU Singers, jazz combos, and taught improvisation, jazz pedagogy, jazz theory, jazz piano, and jazz history. Landry, a pianist, has performed with jazz artists such as Milt Jackson, Bela Fleck, Bill Watrous, Billy Pierce, Lew Tabackin, Alan Dawson, Tony Reedus, Ricky Woodard, Jeff Coffin, David Liebman, Marvin Stamm, Slide Hampton, and others. He has made club and festival appearances in Europe, Australia, and throughout the U.S. While living in Tennessee, he served as the principal pianist with the Tennessee Philharmonic and performed several concerts each year with the Nashville Symphony and the Stones River Chamber Players. He has recently completed his first CD as a leader, the 2005 album Journey Home, which features Gary Burton on vibraphone. Landry has presented workshops and master classes at colleges and universities throughout the country and has adjudicated high school and college jazz ensembles at festivals in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Virginia, Alabama, and Tennessee. He also serves on the faculty of the Yellowstone Jazz Camp, the Britt Jazz Workshop in Oregon and the Rocky Mountain Vocal Jazz Camp in Colorado.

Landry holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from Berklee College of Music and a Master of Music Degree from the University of Northern Colorado and was the winner of a 1994 Down Beat Student Music Award as an outstanding soloist.

Daniel Messina
Daniel Messina was born on April 9th, 1965 in José C. Paz, Buenos Aires, Argentina. At the age of six, he began to play drums and guitar. He learned to play drums on his own for almost ten years by playing along different records and using a book by Gene Krupa. His first teacher for about three years was Omar Belmonte. After that, he studied five year longs with Elias “Chiche” Heger at the Escuela Nacionál de Batería y Percusión. During that time, he played in different bands like Apertura, Quinteto el Quartetazo or the Baden Jazz Quartett.

At the age of 26, Daniel Messina immigrated to Germany. He played there in Real Blues Band, with Yanomani and the Pablo Vázquez Trio. Since 1993 Daniel Messina has been a drum teacher in the
drum department Stuttgart. An important step in his career is the co-operation with the renowned jazz Barbara Dennerlein since 1995, with whom he recorded her current duo CD Love Letters in 2001. In 1996 he founded the Daniel Messina Band, which is a continuation of his project with own compositions and arrangements. In 1999 the CD Imágenes was released.

———-
Click here to have these posts delivered via email. Or, click here to subscribe to the full text RSS feed and never miss another post!

Stumble it!