Originally from Kfar Saba, Israel, bassist and composer Daniel Ori’s first exposures to music were classical piano recitals at his grandmother’s apartment in Tel-Aviv. Her attempts to teach Daniel traditional piano lessons were disrupted by his interest with contemporary music. At age 14, Daniel took his older brother’s electric bass into his own hands. The connection with the instrument came immediately and Daniel’s musical voyage had begun. His growing interest in Jazz music brought him to Rimon School of Music, where he studied Jazz performance and collaborated with some of Israel’s top Jazz prospects. In 2006, Daniel decided to take on studies again, as a scholarship student at the Berklee School of Music. There he studied with Matthew Garrison, Dave Samuels, Alain Mallet, John Lockwood, Ed Tomassi and many more as he earned his degree in composition with honors.

Since his move to New York in 2008, Daniel has been a prominent young voice in the contemporary jazz and world music scene, and has performed/recorded with world class musicians such as Oz Noy, Lionel Loueke, Kenwood Dennard, Marcus Printup, Frank London, Jamie Haddad, Alon Yavnai, Mark Turner, Dave Liebman, Logan Richardson, Dayna Stephens and Aaron Goldberg among others.

Daniel is a 2009 ASCAP Jazz Composers and ASCAP Plus Award winner. His debut album, So It Goes, on the Art of Life Records label was released in 2010. The album features Uri Gurvich (sax), Gabriel Guerrero (piano), Eric Doob (drums), Marcelo Woloski (percussion) and Jeff Miles (guitar). His second album, EMUNA, was released in 2012 with BlueJazz Records. The album features a stellar lineup: Mark Turner (sax), Oz Noy (guitar), Sam Barsh (piano) and Ziv Ravitz (drums). Daniel’s music has been described as fresh, communicative, lyrical and rhythmic. A blend of modern jazz with deep Middle Eastern roots and pan African influences.

Ori currently leads and co-leads multiple projects – Daniel Ori “pianoless” Quartet, featuring Uri Gurvich (sax), Josh Deutsch (trumpet) and Kenneth Salters (drums), electric groove trio – MINDSET, featuring Pablo Vergara (keys) and Engin Gunaydin (drums), and multinational Balkan/Flamenco and Jazz infused acoustic ensemble – TAVCHE GRAVCHE, featuring Vasko Dukovski (clarinet), Dan Nadel (guitar) and Satoshi Takeishi (percussion).