About the Artist

Drummer, percussionist, composer, bandleader, ethnomusicologist, and educator
DANA HALL has been an important musician on the international music scene since
1992, after leaving aerospace engineering for a life in music. Mr. Hall has professional
performance and tour credits on six continents and extensive concert, club, and
festival experience throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia with the ensembles of others.
He has performed, toured, and/or recorded with such luminaries as Branford Marsalis,
Nicholas Payton, Curtis Fuller, Joe Lovano, Horace Silver, Benny Golson, Marcus
Belgrave, Bobby Hutcherson, Michael Brecker, Betty Carter, Roy Hargrove, Joshua
Redman, Jackie McLean, Jimmy Heath, Clark Terry, Maria Schneider, and Joe
Henderson, among others. Former Artistic Director of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble and
permanent member of The Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Mr. Hall was a member of the
Terell Stafford Quintet from 2002 – 2015, touring extensively with the group and
featured on its last four recordings.

Mr. Hall is also the leader of a number of ensembles and projects including The Dana
Hall/Nick Mazzarella Duo; The Dana Hall Quintet; Polyglot, a quartet devoted to
creative improvised music; Black Fire, a project dedicated to the music of pianist and
composer Andrew Hill; Black Ark Movement, which premiered in September 2014 at
the Hyde Park Jazz Festival; and spring, a dynamic musical endeavor featuring two
multi-instrumentalist woodwind specialists, acoustic bass, and his own drums,
cymbals, and mbira. His debut CD, Into the Light, was released to great critical
acclaim. Neil Tesser has noted that, “even among modern drummers, Dana Hall
stands out.” Described by Howard Reich as “viscerally exciting, intellectually
formidable” with a “seemingly bottomless well of ideas”, Mr. Hall presented a newly
commissioned, multi-disciplinary work in June 2015 as part of the 2014—2015 Jazz at
Symphony Center Series.