Dan Neville

Dan Neville Nonet is a 9-piece ensemble led by vibraphonist and composer Dan Neville, creating original music at the meeting point of modern jazz and the marimba traditions of Colombia’s Pacific Coast. Where New York jazz meets Colombia’s Pacific Coast, the project brings together a large-ensemble jazz sound, Afro-Colombian rhythmic language, and Neville’s voice as a composer and improviser.

At the center of the music is a dialogue between New York jazz and Colombian música del Pacífico. The ensemble draws on the energy of currulao, the resonance of marimba de chonta traditions, jazz harmony, improvisation, and the expansive color of a 9-piece band. The result is music that is rhythmically alive, harmonically rich, and deeply connected to place, memory, and community: music built not as a surface-level fusion, but as an ongoing conversation between traditions, musicians, and lived experience.

The Nonet features a powerful lineup of artists, including jazz luminaries Ari Hoenig and Alex Norris alongside Colombian musicians Armando Quiñones, Alex Pastrana, and Xiomara Torres. Together, the ensemble has developed a distinct cross-cultural sound rooted in original composition, deep listening, and collaboration. The project is currently preparing to record its debut album at Bunker Studio in Brooklyn with the support of Chamber Music of America and the Doris Duke Foundation.

Neville first fell in love with the marimba music of Colombia’s Pacific Coast in 2017 after hearing it on the radio. Drawn to the sound and wanting to understand it more deeply, he began asking Colombian friends where to start. Those conversations led him toward musicians, teachers, and communities connected to the tradition, eventually bringing him to Cali, Colombia in 2020 to study with master marimbist Diego Obregón.

What began as a planned two-month study trip became a year in Colombia when the pandemic hit while Neville was there. During that time, he grew close with Maestro Diego Obregón and became immersed in the musical community around him. Neville had originally helped organize a crowdfunding campaign to bring microphones and recording equipment to Obregón’s studio and to support a local group from the Pacific Coast in coming to record. In exchange, Obregón would teach him marimba. That exchange became much more than a set of lessons. It became the beginning of a deep artistic and personal relationship with the music, the people, and the culture.

During that same period, Neville met Colombian vocalist Xiomara Torres, now his wife, at a recording session. Later that year, Obregón passed away while Neville was still in Colombia. In the aftermath, Neville collaborated with Obregón’s family to help rebuild the recording studio in his honor, carrying forward a space connected to the teacher, community, and musical world that had shaped him so profoundly.

Out of those experiences, the Dan Neville Nonet became not just a musical project, but a way to honor relationship, study, memory, and collaboration. As a vibraphonist, Neville found a natural resonance between the vibraphone and the marimba traditions of Colombia’s Pacific Coast: not only in the instruments’ shared sound world, but in the way rhythm, melody, dance, and community live at the heart of the music.

The music invites audiences to experience the joy and communal energy of Colombia’s Pacific Coast through the lens of jazz harmony, improvisation, and interpretation. Listeners are drawn into a sound world that is celebratory, emotional, and expansive, where groove, lyricism, and improvisation create a shared experience between the ensemble and the audience.

Currently, Dan Neville Nonet is preparing its debut album and developing performances for presenters interested in adventurous, culturally engaged, and community-centered music. The project is especially well suited for jazz clubs, festivals, universities, performing arts centers, and cultural institutions seeking music that connects contemporary jazz with Afro-Colombian tradition, original composition, and a powerful live ensemble experience.