Behind the music
Dan's drumming best known for his creative, sound, versatility high energy.
Born and raised in Nahariya, Israel.
Dan started playing at the age of 7 as a classical percussionist in the Nahariya Youth Orchestra, with the conductor Arie Kfir. By the age of 10 he went on his first tour to Germany.
At the age of 12, Dan stopped the music lessons and went on another way with surfing winning a couple of titles until he joined the army at the age of 18.
Six months before he finished the army service, the passion for music came back, and this time for good.
The first 2 years after the army service, Dan was working night job in order to practice drums during the day. He drove all the way to Tel Aviv once a week for a drum lesson with the great teacher Rony Holan.
Rony took Dan "under his wings" and after studying a year at "head" music school, Rony took him to "Rimon" school in Ramat HaSharon, there Rony said "Here you will have people to play with."
Apparently, Rony was right, since Dan came to Rimon school he never stopped playing.
After 3 years at Rimon, Dan won a scholarship to attend Berklee Collage of Music in Boston U.S. There he lived and played with the world best teachers and students.
In the end of 1998, Dan's father, Jacob Benedikt (RIP) got sick and Dan decided to go back home, to Israel.
After returning back to Israel, Dan formed the band called "ELEGUA". The band played Latin Jazz compositions, and in 1999 they got to play for the first time at the highly acclaimed Red Sea Jazz Festival in Eilat.
That was the beginning of a beautiful period in Dan's life, where he got the chance to play with some of his heroes like Low Solof, Aisha Dialo, Perry Robinson, Joca Perpignan & Anat Cohen, Miguel Zenon, Jeremy Pelt, Jalal Show, Alon Yavnai, Avi Rothbard, Anat Fort, Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, Albert Beger, Yuval Cohen, Avishai Cohen, Makondo, Hagiga Sextet, and the list goes on and on…
In 2011, Dan started composing and his first album – Dani Benedikt Trio, came out. composed and arr' by Dan himself.
Dan toured the world playing his music and as a sideman at U.S.A, Canada, Europe, Thailand, Brazil…
Performing at the Jazz festivals of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ko-Samui, Copenhagen, Red-sea Eilat, Paris, Bangkok, Belo Horizonte, ect.
At 2017 the album "New Directions" from Hagiga Sextet was released. The whole album was formed by Dan Benedikt and Alon Farber, presenting 2 compositions by Dan.
This was the last album with the Hagiga for Dan, and he decided to go on his own way as a leader.
.jpeg)
Dan Benedikt
