BIOGRAPHY

If you are going to the movies, watching TV, listening to radio, buying CDs or going to concerts and partying to live music in America - as well as in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America, you almost certainly heard the soulful music of Grammy Winner Dan Farrow. Primarily known for his extensive work as a Studio- and Touring Keyboardist with many Grammy Award-winning and Gold- and Platinum-selling Artists, his many talents - that include Composer, Producer, Musical Director, Vocalist and Recording artist - are captivating music professionals and audiences around the world. This explains why his career has been as extensive as it has and why the demand for his presence is so high from local Los Angeles music groups as well as from many other world-renowned recording artists and music, movie and television producers. Dan is also a gifted multi-instrumentalist.

Dan has worked with all 3 First Families of Funk, James Brown and The J.B.'s, George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic and Sly & The Family Stone. He also worked with the bands and the members of Earth, Wind & Fire, Michael Jackson, The Jacksons, Prince, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, George Duke, Bootsy Collins, The Isley Brothers, Chaka Khan, Herbie Hancock, the Pointer Sisters, Sade, LTD, the Staple Singers, the Gap Band, Kool & the Gang, Graham Central Station, Marvin Gaye, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Little Richard, War, Santana, Charles Wright, Mother's Finest, Tower of Power, Mandrill, Roy Ayers, Motown's Funk Brothers, Whitney Houston, T-Connection and many more. In addition to all of that he worked with many top music producers such as Multi-Platinum winning Richard Perry (Tina Turner, Diana Ross, The Pointer Sisters, Chaka Khan, Rod Stewart et al.), Bob Margouleff (Stevie Wonder, Isley Brothers et al.), Wah Wah Watson (Herbie Hancock et al.), Jeffrey Bowen (The Temptations et al.) and Brian Holland (Parliament/Funkadelic, Mavis Staples et al.), to name just a few. Dan has recorded and produced music in quite a few of the world's top recording studios.

His most recent CD on Soulstar Records is called "Devotion" and contains 13 funky tracks. Written, arranged, performed and produced by Dan it also includes Charles "Sweets" Sherrell, longtime musical director for the legendary James Brown and most recently on tour with Maceo Parker. Even more refined than his previous albums "Evolution" and "Spacefunk" - featuring Patrice Rushen and others - the "Devotion" CD is an exciting blend of what Dan calls Cool-Funk or Soul-Jazz. He sounds like George Duke bumps into Earth, Wind & Fire on Planet Funk in 1975 at times.

But to really experience his music you will have to see Dan Farrow live in performance. This is where he puts on a show that electrifies his audiences. To top it all off, he dazzles them with extraordinairy keyboard wizardry, old school funk chops and unique, immediately identifiable phrasing, sound and style. Dan specializes in tearing things up on Hammond B3 organ, Hohner Clavinet D6, Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer pianos and programming Moog synths and other vintage synthesizers. But in an interview for N.Y.'s Proview magazine, he states "I love the versatility of modern synthesizers, particularly Korg," which he endorses. He almost always programs his own sounds and enhances them by using vintage to space technology signal processing equipment, creating a unique voice of his own.

Based in Los Angeles, California, Dan is originally from Zurich, Switzerland, where he started out playing Hammond B3 organ at the age of 3, his first love and the keyboard he's been playing the longest. He first arrived on the world stage in the mid-eighties, playing the legendary Montreux Jazz Festival with his Jazz-Funk band. That's where Dan also got to play with David Sanborn, George Benson, Al Jarreau, Dennis Chambers and many other top session cats, even though the first time he played there he was still a teenager. This exposure soon led to the name Dan Farrow getting around in the international music community, especially in England and America.

After being invited to San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York - and even more so when he moved to L.A. for good in the early 90s - word of Dan's funky high-energy keyboard work spread quickly. His career took off early in the US when he got called on by legendary Mega Music Producer Richard Perry (Rod Stewart, The Temptations, Tina Turner, Diana Ross) decades ago to record with Michael Jackson's band which included Greg Phillinganes, Paul Jackson Jr., Steve Lukather, Marva King and others, Toto with Jeff Porcaro, David Paich and Lee Sklar as well as with Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Brenda Russell, Phil Perry, Mavis Staples, Steve Gadd, Vinnie Colaiuta, Abe Laboriel, Tata Vega, Maxayn Lewis, Oren Waters, Rose Stone, June Pointer, Chuckii Booker and others, doing Ray Charles's Grammy Award-winning CD "My World" on Warner Brothers Records. At their offices in Los Angeles is where he first met Prince who was signed to Warner Brothers Records at the time - Dan later got to work with Prince's band that included Musical Director Morris Hayes, Kat Dyson, John Blackwell, Dale Alexander and others. Ray's album went triple-platinum, selling more than 3 million copies. Since then things just went through the roof and to this day Dan has been recording and touring with many Grammy Award-winning and Gold-and Platinum-selling recording artists around the world. He worked in and played sold out concerts in Los Angeles, New York, Las Vegas, Tokyo, London, Paris, Berlin, Hamburg, Stockholm, Zurich, Johannesburg and many other places in America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

More recently Dan was one of the featured performers for endorser IK Multimedia, along with fellow keyboardists Morris Hayes (Prince), Larry Dunn (Earth, Wind & Fire), Greg Phillinganes (Michael Jackson) and Bernie Worrell (Parliament/Funkadelic). His keyboards are also on America's number one Jazz CD for seven weeks straight (Billboard Magazine) by guitarist Nils, featuring Gerald Albright, Steve Ferrone, Chante Moore, Paul Jackson Jr. and others.

Ever since the early nineties Dan's talents are also in demand by the television and movie industry. That's when he was asked to compose and produce music for Dick Griffey, Disney and ABC's "Wheel of Fortune", America's number one game show. His work can be heard in movies like "Another Stakeout" (Touchstone Pictures), starring Richard Dreyfuss and Rosie O'Donnell. Dan also did the title track and other music to "Our Neighbors," a movie by director/producer Kathina Szeto.

So it is no surprise that musical instrument manufacturers from around the world have noticed this multi-talented artist, so Dan is fortunate to be able to endorse a lot of companies from Europe, Japan and the U.S. He uses the world's very best products from the last 50 years, both on tour and in the studio. Companies that Dan endorses and that support him include Hammond and Leslie (organs and speakers, USA), Moog (hardware synthesizers, USA), Mutron (effect pedals, USA), ACE Products Group (keyboard cases, USA) - where he is one of the main endorsees with artists like Taj Mahal, Ultimate Support Systems (keyboard stands, USA), Korg (keyboards, Japan), Clavia/Nord (keyboards, Sweden), Limex Systems (Midi systems, Austria), IK Multimedia (music software, Italy), Arturia (virtual synthesizers, France),  Aquila Systems (Midi systems, USA), Casio (professional keyboards, Japan) and Art Vista (sampling software, USA). In an article for Keyboard Magazine he reveals some of the secrets of his trademark custom sounds.

The most important thing about Dan is that he is a spiritual man. He is most definitely in touch with god who in turn blessed him richly with many talents. This might be one of the reasons for his Signature Funky Clavinet work (think Stevie Wonder's Superstition) which led to him being known as "Mister Clavinet" on the L.A. studio scene, a sound that he was asked to play on tours and sessions around the world. Dan credits early exposure to the great american R&B, Funk, Jazz, Soul and Gospel Artists as his main musical influences. This happened before he even understood the language that they were singing in. Dan never dreamed that he would actually get to work with so many of his musical heroes.

Dan is always in the studio working on many projects, both on his own music as well as with clients from around the world. A promo version of his next CD had been generating much interest, so much so that he is planning to do more live dates with his own music. Dan's promotional efforts for his own music took him around the world over the years from Los Angeles to New York and as far as Paris, London, Tokyo and even Manila, Philippines where he got invited by KISS-FM radio for a Jazz-Special that introduced him to millions of new music lovers. Dan has been writing and composing a boat load of tracks in recent months - about a dozen will be on his next CD. If he is not doing sessions or writing new material, Dan is performing with many of L.A.'s top musicians and music groups. "I really appreciate all the good things that are coming my way and it is just so great to work with all these amazing artists," he says. It seems like Dan is doing something right - and there will be a lot more to come... So stay tuned! The journey has only just begun...