Danny Jonokuchi
Danny Jonokuchi is a jazz trumpeter, vocalist, composer, arranger, producer, and educator based in New York City and Los Angeles. He has been recognized for his performance on two Grammy Award-Winning big band projects with the Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra and the 8-Bit Big Band. His own highly anticipated big band album, Voices, features 11 jazz vocalists from New York City.
He is the recipient of several awards including the 2024 ISJAC/iMusic Wayne Shorter Jazz Arranging Prize, the 2020 ASCAP Foundation Louis Armstrong Award, and he was unanimously named the winner of the 2020 Count Basie Great American Swing Contest. DownBeat Magazine remarked, “The music is expertly executed and offers an infectious, kinetic quality.”
Danny currently leads The Danny Jonokuchi Big Band, a 17-piece collection that performs Danny’s original works, and Danny Jonokuchi & The Revisionists, a swing band dedicated to performing for the international Lindy Hop community and have “a classic swing sound you wouldn’t think possible” (Syncopated Times).
Composing and arranging have always been Danny’s passion and his “well-crafted arrangements” (Jazz Weekly) have been performed by an incredible array of artists including Lady Gaga, Catherine Russell, Grammy-winning vocalist Nicole Zuraitis, Hannah Gill, The Duke Ellington Legacy, The U.S. Air Force Airmen of Note, The Budapest Scoring Orchestra, The Nashville Pops Orchestra, The Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia, Terell Stafford, Dick Oatts, Brian Newman, Benny Benack III, Charles Turner & Uptown Swing, The Christian Wiggs Big Band, The Ulysses Owens Jr. Big Band, The Birdland Big Band, The South Philly Big Band, Svetlana, & Peter Bernstein.
Danny is originally from Los Angeles and holds a Master’s degree in composition from The Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College with the support of the Sir Roland Hanna Memorial Scholarship, and was the recipient of the Boyer Alumni Award as an undergraduate from Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance.