Ashley Daneman

Artist Information

Biography

The Danemans (300-word bio)
The musical marriage of trumpet player Benje Daneman and his wife, Ashley Gonzalez Daneman, “a fine young jazz vocalist” (USA Today), is a sweet sound. Rich harmonies, a love of lyrical storytelling, and a willingness to take interpretive risks provide the backdrop for this modern jazz band.

“Benje Daneman is an engaging, entertaining, and versatile trumpeter - one with distinctive ideas really worth hearing” (Stephen Jones). His emotional approach flows seamlessly with Ashley’s vocals. Upon hearing her, Mark S. Tucker writes, “...The ear is entranced by the purity and control of the chanteuse” (Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange). Together, they bring a blend of intimate jazz arrangements and expressive originals.

As a composer, Benje has written for the United States Air Force Band, Spark & Echo Arts, and Western Michigan University. Ashley was a resident composer in Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and at The Banff Centre’s Jazz and Creative Workshop in Alberta, Canada. She is also a two-time arts grant recipient.

Benje, known as “a very mature and passionate player” (Keith Hall), attended the prestigious Henry Mancini Institute (HMI) in Los Angeles, CA and recorded an album with the HMI Big Band, “Elevation” (which received two Grammy nominations). He also joined Doc Severinsen and his Big Band on tour, and was named one of 14 finalists in the National Trumpet Competition.

Before relocating to Michigan to raise their family, the Danemans met and fell in love at Manhattan School of Music while getting their masters degrees in jazz. While in New York, they performed in noted jazz venues such as Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Iridium Jazz Club, The Kitano, Zinc Bar, Cornelia Street Café, and The Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

The Danemans (100-word bio)
The musical marriage of Benje Daneman and Ashley Gonzalez Daneman, “a fine young jazz vocalist” (USA Today), is a sweet sound. Rich harmonies, lyrical storytelling, and a willingness to take interpretive risks provide the backdrop for this modern romance.

Before relocating to Michigan to raise their family, the Danemans met and fell in love at Manhattan School of Music while getting their masters degrees in jazz. While in New York, they performed in noted jazz venues such as Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, Zinc Bar, and Cornelia Street Café.

Instrumentation

Ashley Gonzalez Daneman - Singer, Songwriter
Benje Daneman - Trumpet, Flugelhorn
Andrew Rathbun - Saxophone
Jeremy Siskind - Piano
Sam Weber - Electric & Acoustic Bass
Keith Hall - Percussion, Drumset

Discography

"Estelle's Farewell Gift" Benje Daneman 2012
"Harvest Town" Ashley Gonzalez Daneman 2011
"The Gwen Project" Benje Daneman 2010

Official Website

http://www.ashleydaneman.com

Links

• Ashley Daneman - Jazz Singer/Songwriter
• Ashley on YouTube
• Benje Daneman - Jazz trumpeter/composer
• Benje on YouTube

Audio

• In A Way, He's Just Like Me - edit
  Listen  
• Sun Shadows by Benje Daneman
  Listen  
• Floating On by Benje and Ashley Daneman
  Listen  
• My Man's Gone Now Clip
  Listen  
• Estelle's Farewell Gift by Benje Daneman
  Listen  

Video

Benje and Ashley Daneman perform their arrangement of the American folk hymn, "I Will Arise and Go To Jesus."

Like Someone Divine - Ashley Gonzalez Daneman at Zinc Bar.mp4

Photo Gallery

Press

• Benje and Ashley Daneman come to Monday Night Jazz [+ Show ]
  

  Benje Daneman and the Western Jazz Quartet with special guest vocalist Ashley Daneman November’s ...Benje Daneman and the Western Jazz Quartet with special guest vocalist Ashley Daneman
  
  November’s installment of the monthly jazz series saw the first ever appearance of Benje Daneman & company at a WMJS event. One of the rare chances in recent memory to hear world- class, big-city, top-shelf, intimate jazz! This is what the people pay big bucks to see and hear in the hallowed jazz venues of New York, Boston and Washington D.C. Backed by the venerable Western Jazz Quartet, Benje and Ashley performed an eclectic list of compositions.... some standards, but with an impish twist.... AND some very sweet and personal original tunes. This is what I noticed right from the start.... no reticence whatsoever about establishing a mindset outside the “swing- set” or the “bop-box”. No fear.
  
  No fear with the set list.... no fear with some very creative arrangements of established and beloved favorites. Benje and the group opened with a delightfully syncopated reading of the 1932 Irving Berlin composition “How Deep is the Ocean” arranged
  by Benje. Other crowd-pleasers and staples throughout the night un-covered “The Nearness of You”, the toe-tapper “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” and “Come Rain or Come Shine”.
  I say un-covered because these arrangements were truly unique and not the traditional covers of the standards you hear everyday. They are uncommonly their own. As for the original compositions, of particular note was the pensive “In a Way, He’s Just Like Me” from Ashley’s 2011 release “Harvest Town”. Some nice song-writing here as she weaves a personal story with an uncharacteristically rich accompaniment for this folksy genre. And the wistful collaborative effort, “Floating On” from Benje and Ashley. Benje’s intimate “Sun Shadows” featured some solid trumpet and sax interplay with only piano accompaniment in the bop style. I really loved the tender “Estelle’s Farewell Gift” featuring some very fine flugelhorn and piano work from Benje and 25-year old recent WMU acquisition, Jazz Piano prof Jeremy Siskind. Rounding out the rest of the group were 12-year veteran Jazz Studies director at WMU, bassist Tom Knific and WMU drum guru Keith Hall, and finally WMU newcomer Andrew Rathbun on tenor sax. This group brought us an uncompromising concoction of subtle and intimate Jazz with a touch of the hipster singer- songwriter component. You wouldn’t think the twain shall meet, but they did.... and very creatively indeed! - Mark Kahny

• A Musical Marriage [+ Show ]
  

  “However, what truly distinguishes the group is the vocal stylings of singer Ashley Gonzalez Daneman...“However, what truly distinguishes the group is the vocal stylings of singer Ashley Gonzalez Daneman. She is almost completely self-taught...Ms. Daneman owns that most pleasing of all musical traits, a decidedly individualistic style and a willingness to take interpretive risks, the true hallmark of the dedicated jazz musician...she approaches each piece with the contagious confidence of genuine exuberance. It is truly a pleasure to witness Ms. Daneman throw her entire body into each song, swaying one minute to the groove, jumping up on tip-toe the next instant as she stretches the limit of her extensive range, only to slide smoothly from this peak into a sensual glissando. As if channeling a strange amalgam of an early Anita O’Day, a late Billie Holiday, and a swinging Ella Fitzgerald, Ms. Daneman is a performer whose continued development will certainly be interesting to watch, as will the trio as a whole...”
  -Franz A. Matzner
  allaboutjazz.com
  [05.23.03]

• Benje Daneman [+ Show ]
  

  Benje Daneman is an engaging, entertaining, and versatile trumpeter ---- one with distinctive ideas ...Benje Daneman is an engaging, entertaining, and versatile trumpeter ---- one with distinctive ideas really worth hearing.

• Rupert Wates - "Joe's Cafe" [+ Show ]
  

  "When Ashley Gonzalez Daneman encants The Skies of South Dakota in a moving Baez-ish near-a-cappella..."When Ashley Gonzalez Daneman encants The Skies of South Dakota in a moving Baez-ish near-a-cappella reminiscent of a toned-down Joe Hill, the ear is entranced by the purity and control of the chanteuse. Then the lyrics become clear, an exercise in the outfall of the class war, in which an envied rich girl who one day disappeared later is found as a farmer plows his fields...The drift of events, in five stanzas of progressively understood import, slowly dawns on the listener as a chill creeps up the spine." - Mark S. Tucker

• Rupert Wates - "Joe's Cafe" [+ Show ]
  

  "The best number is 'The Skies Of South Dakota', sung virtually a capella by an assured Ashley Gonza..."The best number is 'The Skies Of South Dakota', sung virtually a capella by an assured Ashley Gonzalez Daneman.

• A Jazz Of Her Own [+ Show ]
  

  "My first impression of Ashley Gonzalez Daneman, having not yet heard her sing, was a hint of skepti..."My first impression of Ashley Gonzalez Daneman, having not yet heard her sing, was a hint of skepticism matched with a glimmer of hope. Skepticism because after a season of impishly charming bluesy chanteuses [read Norah Jones, Joss Stone], I wasn’t quite sure she’d be able to right an assumption I’d made of the white-woman-singing-the-blues genre.
  
  Yet this is where my glimmer of hope always resides. That someone will come along to readjust my reasoning, my albeit overly-critical nature.
  
  Enter Ashley Gonzalez, barely 26, raised in the so tame, so middle-of-the-road Midwest. Sitting on top of a speaker, tapping time on her thigh, belting out a more-jazzy-than-usual “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess while a standard trio of musicians [which includes her husband, Benito Gonzalez, on piano] bangs out the rhythms in the exciting, highly sought venue…
  
  Post Office Pavillion??
  
  Yes. Unlikely spot indeed. If you’ve ever been to the food court in the basement of this high-tourist-zone web, you’ve probably noticed a stage on the Penn Avenue side where usually stands a grand piano. Maybe I just don’t get off the Hill enough, but never had I seen someone trying to sing above the snapping clamor of fry baskets and frazzled mothers commingled with the buzz and whir of excited tourists, milkshake blenders and metal detectors.
  
  The funny thing is? She pulled it off. She succeeded in transcending what could have easily collapsed into the cynically ironic or the musically mundane..."
  - Joseph Cambell
  Voice of the Hill
  [04.2004]

Setlist

Concert programs are arranged from the following:

ORIGINALS
Hey Moon, Moon [Ashley Daneman, 2002]
Second Chances [Ashley Daneman, 2009]
In A Way, He’s Just Like Me [Ashley Daneman, 2009]
Good [Ashley Daneman, 2010]
Where I Want To Be [Ashley Daneman, 2007]
It Is What It Is [Benje Daneman/Ashley Daneman, 2009]
Floating On [Benje Daneman/Ashley Daneman, 2009]
Sun Shadows [Benje Daneman, 2009]
Estelle's Farewell Gift [Benje Daneman, 2012]
To Those I Didn't Know [Benje Daneman, 2009]
Gwen’s Song [Benje Daneman, 2006]

JAZZ STANDARDS, AMERICAN SONGBOOK, ETC.
Being Alive [Stephen Sondheim, from the musical “Company,” 1970]
The Nearness of You [Hoagy Carmichael, from the film, “Romance In The Dark,” 1938]
I Will Arise & Go To Jesus [American folk hymn]
Come Rain or Come Shine [Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer, from the musical "St. Louis Woman," 1946]
My Man’s Gone Now [George Gershwin/DuBose Heyward, from the opera "Porgy and Bess," 1935]
Easy To Love [Cole Porter, from the film "Born to Dance," 1935]
Hi Lili [Bronislau Kaper/Helen Deutsch, from the film "Lili," 1952]
And The Angels Sing [Ziggy Elman/Johnny Mercer, 1939]
How Deep Is the Ocean [Irving Berlin, 1932]

Basic Requirements

Calendar