Since the mid-1980s, Dan Ouellette has been writing about music for a variety of publications-reviewing & critiquing albums and shows, profiling artists ranging from Dizzy Gillespie to Astor Piazzolla to Frank Zappa, and commenting on the evolving world of the recording industry.

Dan started writing for DownBeat, the jazz-magazine Bible, in 1987 and has been a regular contributor since. In the last few years he filed cover stories on Brad Mehldau, Michael Brecker, the Saxophone Summit, Ravi Coltrane, Charlie Hunter-Bobby Previte, Dave Douglas, Joshua Redman, Elvis Costello-Allen Toussaint, Esbjorn Svenson Trio, Keith Jarrett, Norah Jones, Jane Monheit, Regina Carter and Dee Dee Bridgewater. He writes the monthly “The Question Is…” column and contributes frequently to DB's “Blindfold Test” page. Each year, Dan moderates “live” DownBeat-sponsored Blindfold Tests in front of an audience: in January at the International Association for Jazz Educators' conference, in July at the North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands and in September at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

As the Jazz Notes columnist for Billboard for five years (2003-08), Dan reported on the jazz world-profiling new and veteran artists, breaking news on record companies, and weighing in on various subjects ranging from post-Katrina rebuilding in New Orleans to Wynton Marsalis' status in the jazz world at large. In addition to his columns, he contributed features and reviews.

Dan has been a contributing editor at Stereophile and a regular contributor to Acoustic Guitar and Strings magazines. His writing has appeared in Salon, Pulse!, The New Yorker (special sections), Playboy (Japan), Mediaweek, the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Oakland Tribune and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He has also been the jazz consultant for Napster for the past five years. Dan recently started writing a monthly music column at abcnews.com.

In addition to writing, Dan served as the music editor of several Schwann publications, including Schwann Spectrum and Schwann Inside, the monthly jazz and classical magazine. He has traveled the world to report on jazz and popular music. His jaunts have taken him to Mali, Africa; Cape Town, South Africa; Beijing, China; Melbourne, Australia; Molde, Norway; Perugia, Italy; Genoa, Italy; Istanbul, Turkey; Marciac, France; The Hague and Rotterdam, in the Netherlands; and on the Queen Elizabeth 2 for its “floating” jazz festival that traveled from New York to Southampton, England. He has covered music events throughout Canada (including Montreal, Vancouver and Quebec City) and the U.S. (including New York, San Francisco, Cleveland, Seattle, Chicago, New Orleans and in the Mississippi Delta).

Dan has moderated panels at IAJE, the Monterey Jazz Festival, The North Sea Jazz Festival and the San Francisco Jazz Festival. He is a longstanding member of the Jazz Journalists Association and the New York Circle Critics Poll.

In 1999, Dan moved from San Francisco, where he comprehensively covered the Bay Area music scene for several years, to New York, where he is now based. He lives part-time on Shelter Island, at the eastern end of Long Island, where he finds the quiet and relaxed atmosphere conducive to writing.

Even though the subject matter seems quite at odds with his expertise and reputation in the popular music world, Dan wrote the book, The Volkswagen Bug Book: A Celebration of Beetle Culture (Angel City Press, 1999). While its subject matter is steered by the Bug, it's also heavily indebted to music.

1996 - present

	Saturday Afternoon - September 20, 2008 / 4:00pm
	Dizzy's Den