Dan Neville

Dan Neville is an award winning vibraphonist, composer, performer, educator and arranger, currently based in NYC, a resident of North New Jersey.

Dan’s international career has taken him to perform on stages in Europe and South America, as well as extensively in the U.S. including the SFJAZZ Center, NBC’s Today Show and more.

A guitarist since childhood from the small town of Sonoma, Dan started playing vibraphone in 2012 and moved to San Francisco in 2013. He played frequently with local legends Ricky Aguilar, Hector Lugo and Louie Romero. He co-led and served as musical director for 8 years with local salsa band Nuevo Cani. He wrote, arranged for and performed with SFJAZZ Center's Monday Night Big Band, led by Adam Theis for 7 seasons (2013-2016). He was also an in-demand sideman for local jazz gigs.

While living in San Francisco he absorbed Afro Cuban music like a sponge, studying composition with Rebeca Mauleon, percussion with John Santos, batá drums with local legend Babaduru, and writing & performing in Anthony Blea’s charanga orchestra. During this time he formed a longstanding musical relationship with Adrian Areas, master percussionist and son of Chepito Areas, a founding member of Santana.

Neville received a prestigiuos full scholarship to attend California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley, where he studied from 2014-2019. He had the opportunity to collaborate with many of his instructors while earning his B.A. in Jazz Studies, including Erik Jekabson, Dan Zinn, Marcos Silva, Jason Levis, John Santos. CJC placed him in the college’s leading ensemble, which toured Europe in the summer of 2018 representing the school, performing in Liverpool, Edinburg, Manchester, and at the esteemed Perugia jazz festival in Italy. 

Dan released his debut album Tenerife in 2017, featuring all original compositions by Neville alongside a cast of Bay Area elites: John Santos, Anthony Blea, Destiny Muhammad, Grant Levin, Rebecca Kleinmann, Sam Bevan and Pepe Jacobo. It was named “A debut in style” by Colombia’s DJ El Chino, with “...exquisite and sophisticated arrangements, full of flavor.” Neville traveled to Guantanamo, Cuba in January of 2019 to celebrate and feature Tenerife on Radio Nacionál de Guantanamo. 

His passion, discipline and well earned talent led him to win first place in the 2017 Jazz Search West competition. In 2019 Dan was featured playing vibraphone on NBC’s Today show. 

After graduating Berkeley’s CJC, Dan spent a year in Cali, Colombia in 2020 where he studied under the master marimba player Diego Obregón and helped to build a recording studio, overseeing various recording projects and collaborations with musicians from Colombia’s Pacific Coast. 

He left an impression on the local music scene in Cali and his since been welcomed back; He was invited in 2021 to perform the Utopia festival alongside salsa veteran Jaime Henao, and again in 2022 to headline the Tamborimba festival, where he invited the Puerto Rican percussion master Riche Flores to perform alongside Neville’s Latin Jazz quartet. 

It was this performance that inspired a film crew from Colombia to feature him in a documentary called “Viaje de La Marimba”, where Dan represents the vibraphone and its position in North American music, as well as how the Colombian marimba has inspired his music. Dan’s original music will be featured in the documentary, aimed to be released in 2023.

Dan relocated to the NYC area in 2021, staying in between Brooklyn and North New Jersey to study at the renowned William Paterson University. While at William Paterson, Neville has had the opportunity to study with Pete McGuiness, Cecil Bridgewater, Ed Neumeister and Bill Charlap, and he has had the opportunity to perform alongside Randy Brecker and arrange a big band chart for vibraphone master Steve Nelson. 

Dan is a part of the vibrant community in Terraza 7, Queens, performing regularly with musicians such as John Benitez, Samuel Torres, Juan Sebastian Monsalve and many others. He is currently the vibraphonist / marimbist in the Colombian fusion ensemble “La Balsa De Fuego”, led by the esteemed Colombian bassist and composer Juan Sebastian Monsalve, where he also acts as a contributing writer. 

Dan is the producer and arranger of the Colombian singer Xiomara Torres’ album La Voz del Mar (2022 Patois), which debuted and stayed in #1 on RMR’s Top 50 Latin Jazz Albums for 14 weeks (August - October 2022), and has been named “…a scintillating work…" in Downbeat magazine. He invited heavyweights Edmar Castañeda, John Santos, Nidia Góngora, John Benitez and Wayne Wallace to record on the album.

He is currently signed onto Patois Records with Latin Jazz veteran Wayne Wallace.