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Dan Pugach Big Band – Branford Green
June 27 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
The Dan Pugach Big Band to Open the 2024 Branford Jazz Series on June 27
Dan Pugach’s life and music have taken him around the world, and now he returns to his adopted home state of Connecticut. GRAMMY Award-nominated Drummer and Composer Dan Pugach and his Big Band will open the 2024 Branford Jazz Series on the Town Green on June 27th at 6:30 p.m. The concert will feature original compositions from his latest Big Band Album, “Bianca”, released in March 2024 on Outside in Music.
“I cannot wait to perform at the 2024 Branford Jazz Series with my 17-piece big band,” said Pugach. “We’ve been enjoying such immense enthusiasm for the music on my new album and I’m so delighted to play it at the iconic Jazz on the Green Series.”
A three-time winner of the ASCAP Foundation Jazz Composer Award and winner of the BMI Charlie Parker Composition Prize/Manny Albam Commission (BMI Jazz Composers Workshop), Dan was the featured drummer on the 2024 GRAMMY Award-winning album “How Love Begins”, co-produced by his wife, Nicole Zuraitis, and Christian McBride.
Pugach is the leader of the Dan Pugach Nonet and the Dan Pugach Big Band, playing his much-lauded original music and arrangements. The Nonet and Big Band tour regularly, playing at such venues as the Blue Note, Birdland Jazz Club, Bird’s Eye Basel, The 55bar, Smalls Jazz Club, The Jazz Loft, The Jazz Estate, Stowe Jazz Festival, and esteemed Performing Arts Centers across the country.
Dan’s debut nonet album, “Plus One” (2018), was released on UNIT Records, charted on jazz radio in the top 20, and included Dan’s GRAMMY Award-nominated arrangement of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” (Best Arrangement, Instruments with Vocals, with vocalist Nicole Zuraitis).
Dan Currently lives in both Brooklyn, New York and Connecticut. He received a Bachelor of Music Degree from Berklee College of Music – where he studied with Terri Lynn Carrington, Hal Crook, and Joe Lovano – and received his M.A. in music from the City College of New York, studying under Mike Holober and Scott Reeves.