Meet Daniel DeLorenzo: A Guitar Player and His Original Jazz Compositions in Two Albums with a Trio

ARTS & CULTURE

Jazz is the quintessential American art form. Born from a uniquely American cultural mix and history, jazz began in New Orleans through the African American community, blending blues, ragtime, spirituals, and work songs. It then took root in Chicago, Kansas City, and New York, and later on the West Coast.

Jazz merges composed music and improvised music. Tunes and the responsibilities of the instruments are known beforehand, but when the musicians play, they create complex forms of a theme and melodic variations. Players react to each other and attune to the music whether they’re soloing or not because it changes direction. Improvisation, free association, and individual expression are its characteristics.

If you didn’t know, the Triangle has a thriving jazz music scene. Many venues feature jazz every week, sometimes several times a week, and three universities in the area have active jazz programs and ensembles. An appreciative, knowledgeable fan base of all ages also seeks out live jazz performances.

Daniel DeLorenzo is an active member of the Triangle jazz community. In September, he released his eighth album, Can You Not, featuring Theous Jones on drums and Casey Toll on bass. The same players are on his previous album, We Probably Wouldn’t Get Along (April 2025), with Doug Sours (guitar) on one track.

“A lot of my titles have a seed of truth or humor, while also carrying significant weight or meaning to me and my life,” DeLorenzo told The Local Reporter when asked about his album and song titles. “I love the idea that a word or phrase can carry a lot of weight, or have many different meanings.”

DeLorenzo recorded both at Dark Pines Studio in Graham, handling recording, mixing, and mastering. He prefers performed music over orchestrated music, for which jazz is a perfect vehicle, and this is reflected in the production values of the albums: “I do want the instruments to feel big on records, but I also want them to sound like they do to me when we are on the bandstand. Honest or true is what I’m shooting for, while also sounding clean and beautifully captured.”

DeLorenzo’s latest two albums each have seven tracks, with last year’s recording being more groove-based and the new album a collection of breezy, melodic tunes.

Can You Not opens with “On The Box,” which has Toll thumping on the bass in the intro, showcasing his fluidity and thick tone, and helping lead to DeLorenzo’s quick-witted guitar work, with Jones keeping a strong but subdued pulse. The track concludes with a typical drum-and-bass exchange, with DeLorenzo polishing it off with the main theme.

“Don’t Mind If I Do” slows things down a bit and showcases fine sonics from DeLorenzo’s guitar, with a lot of sustained notes and spacious, intricate playing. You can hear some bendy and bluesy notes later on, and surprisingly, sounds that emulate an electronic wind instrument. Toll is once again handling his business, and your ears keep listening for Jones. Then you realize that instead of a standard jazz sound, he’s playing the drums melodically, blending with the reverberations of guitar and bass.

L to R: Theous Jones, Daniel DeLorenzo, Casey Toll in the studio. Photo provided by the artist.

DeLorenzo almost exclusively plays the electric Guild Starfire SC-1 guitar on the two albums. “It’s a semi-hollowbody, single cutaway guitar equipped with a humbucking Charlie Christian-style pickup,” he explained.

Christian was an early jazz guitarist from the swing era who helped make the guitar a prominent solo voice in jazz, as it had previously been relegated to the rhythm section. He was also a key figure in the advent of bebop and cool jazz.

“The Charlie Christian style pickup not only sounds great, but also pays homage to the roots of electric guitar and a lot of the players that fed the craft,” DeLorenzo commented.

“Emergently,” a guitar duet on We Probably Wouldn’t Get Along, has Sours joining on guitar and takes a Spanish flavor from the very first notes. Sours’ melodic and harmonic underpinning allows DeLorenzo to weave magical lines through the composition, and then you hear the nylon strings of Sours as though you were being serenaded in the shade of an olive tree.

“I Wasn’t Going To” is the bluesiest offering, hinting at DeLorenzo’s early love of the improvisatory nature of the blues. It has Jones exerting more on drums, a solid bass solo from Toll, which slowly shifts into a walking bass line for Jones to let go on the skins and speak his mind.

DeLorenzo is highly complimentary of his fellow musicians. “Doug is an incredibly thoughtful musician, brilliant guitar player, and he’s got a fantastic sense of melody and depth as a player,” he said. “Theous has huge ears; he’s always super aware of the energy a tune is pushing and giving it the lift it needs to really speak. And Casey has an incredible feel and sound on the bass. His sensibilities as a musician are always giving the heft, groove, or sentimentality that the tune asks for.”

Writing tunes tends to be a bit of a stream of consciousness for DeLorenzo. “Typically a song will start with a harmony or short melodic phrase that is appealing, and I will follow that thread wherever it leads.”

He cites Charlie Christian, Wes Montgomery, Jim Hall, and Grant Green as historical influences, along with John Scofield and Bill Frisell as contemporary players who inform his sound, although he sounds nothing like these great musicians.

Pamir Kiciman is an artist who writes about a range of the arts and the creative process. This reporter can be reached at: Information@TheLocalReporter.press.