Daniel Rosenboom

Trumpeter and composer Dan Rosenboom is a vital member of the Los Angeles jazz and creative music scene whose work touches upon driving post-bop, avant-garde new music, and defiant, metal-infused jazz. He first garnered attention in the 2000s playing with saxophonist Vinny Golia before embarking on his own eclectic career with 2006's Bloodier, Mean Son. He has carved out a distinctive profile, moving from harmonically sophisticated jazz and fusion dates, like 2013's Unsayable Absence and 2019's Absurd in the Anthropocene with saxophonist Gavin Templeton, to his hybrid jazz-metal projects with guitarist Jake Vossler, like 2019's American Circus. In 2023, he brought his jazz and avant-garde influences together on the dynamic Polarity. Born in 1982 in California, Rosenboom grew up in a musical family, the son of composer David Rosenboom and performance artist and vocalist Jacqueline Humbert. By his teens, he knew he wanted to pursue a classical orchestral trumpet career and enrolled at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. However, following his graduation he returned to the West Coast where he finished his graduate studies at UCLA and Cal Arts. It was during this period that he began seriously exploring improvised music, playing with a handful of forward-thinking jazz and creative music artists, including reedist Vinny Golia and Harris Eisenstadt. He also joined the Balkan-jazz-metal group PLOTZ! and began leading his own small groups. At the same time, he took on classical work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and embarked on a lucrative studio career, playing on numerous film soundtracks, including Despicable Me 2, X-Men: Apocalypse, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and others. As a solo artist, Rosenboom debuted with 2006's Bloodier, Mean Son, a wildly eclectic album that combined his classical, new music, and heavy metal-influences. More projects followed, including Fallen Angeles and Unsayable Absence, which featured his group with saxophonist Gavin Templeton. The metal-infused Book of Omens arrived in 2013 with saxophonist Golia, guitarist Jake Vossler, bassist Tim Lefebvre, and drummer Matt Mayhall. The same group returned two years later with Book of Storms. In 2014, he launched his Orenda Records label with his fusion quintet album Fire Keeper and in 2015, he again collaborated with Templeton on Astral Transference & Seven Dreams. He and Vossler released two albums with their jazz-metal protest band, Burning Ghosts, including 2017's Reclamation on Tzadik. In 2019, he delivered the fusion-influenced Absurd in the Anthropocene, which was produced by Jeff Babko and again featured Templeton alongside a large cast of notable artists including saxophonist David Binney, drummers Vinnie Colaiuta, Gary Novak, and Zach Danziger, bassists Jimmy Johnson, Tim Lefebvre, and Jerry Watts, Jr., and many others. He was also back with Burning Ghosts for American Circus. A year later, he released the quartet album Points on an Infinite Line with Templeton, bassist Billy Mohler, and drummer Anthony Fung. Also in 2020, he joined drummer Mayhall for the improvisatory duo album Language. He then pared down to a trio with Mohler and Fung for 2021's Refraction, followed by duo and trio albums with guitarist Vossler and drummer Tina Raymond. In 2023, he released Polarity, a hard-hitting small group album featuring Templeton, keyboardist John Escreet, bassist Mohler, and drummer Damion Reid.
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