Danny Smith

Danny showed interest in a music from an early age, starting to play the piano from the age of five, and taking up the cello briefly. However his love for music really startet to develop when he was twelve, which is when he took up the trumpet. He immediately formed his own jazz quartet which won the Colet Court group prize in the music competition for two years running (Danny also won the brass prize both years).He had his first professional gig at the age of fourteen with a local big band and has worked with many different jazz combos in and out of school since then, playing numerous functions as well as jazz gigs (at the Bulls Head, the Vortex and the Ram Jam Club). Danny received lessons from esteemed trumpet player Henry Lowther during this time, as well as jazz musicianship lessons from George Adie and jazz piano lessons with Gareth Hunt.More recently Danny has been attending WAC (weekend arts college), with tutor Jonny Phillips of the F-IRE collective. Other musicians who have come through WAC include artists as diverse as Julian Joseph and Ms Dynamite. He also attended the National Youth Jazz Summer School with tutors including Mark Lockheart, Anders Bergcrantz, Alec Dankworth, Liam Noble, Nic France and Tim Garland, and many of the finest young musicians in the country.