Zack Danziger's earliest musical influences were through his next oldest brother, an aspiring jazz pianist, who exposed him to some of the piano giants: Monk, Powell, Evans, Peterson. Growing up, he spent millions of hours listening to many of the great artists and bands: B.B. King, Joe Pass, Barney Kessel, Wes Montgomery, Benson, Django, Chicago, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Beatles, Duke Ellington, Horace Silver, Mingus, Broadway Show Tunes, Brazilian Samba bands, Yes, Genesis, ...etc.

He started playing guitar by ear when I was 15 years old, learning Pink Floyd, then the Beatles, then moving on to Jazz. At age 17, his father started sending me into N.Y.C. to take classical lessons. This gave him a good foundation to approach the playing of Joe Pass, who was truly his biggest influence. At age 19, he auditioned to get into the Manhattan School of Music, and while he discovered that he could transcribe music without touching an instrument. That was very encouraging and he knew he had to keep on going with music.

He became obsessed with bebop language, and the horn players: 'Bird', 'Cannonball', Lee Morgan, and Clifford Brown." He found himself singing endless bebop riffs, his mind looping around "rhythm changes", a "12 bar blues", or "Cherokee", "All the Things You Are", etc. He also became obsessed with jazz chords and harmony, especially piano players Bill Evans, and Herbie Hancock.

He also was always enamored with the marriage of music and lyrics. Broadway shows like "Fiddler", "Sweeney Todd", "The Producers", "Hair Spray", "The Mikado", made a huge impression on him. The lyrics of The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Yes, Horace Silver, Hank Williams all influenced
him greatly.

Over the years, Zack studied had the great honor to study with great players like Sal Salvatore, Ron Elf, Wayne Krantz, Tony Perrone, Mike Mossman, Roland Hannah, Jimmy Heath... to name a few.

Living in N.Y.C. for 17 years and being exposed to the "University of the Streets" that was invaluable.

He completed his Bachelor degree in music and eventually his Master degree in
Jazz performance.
For 8 years, he was a public school music teacher in N.Y.C.
For 8 years, he was a public school music teacher in Western MA.

Danziger resigned teaching in January 2010 in order to pursue performing, writing,
and recording.

Danziger's current CD Sun Is All We Need? is very autobiographical. "It expresses my philosophy of Solar Power, Dreams, Evolution, Time, Love, Death, and Nature, among other things."

My next release will be the music that I wrote for children.

Currently Danziger is playing in various musical situations. Every Monday and Tuesday, he has a "Featured Music Artist Series" where he plays duo with a huge rotation of musicians, including Charles Neville (sax), Paul Lieberman (flute), Jack Pezzanelli (guitar), Jeff Holmes (piano, trumpet), Paul Arslanian (piano), Marty Jaffe (bass phenom). At least 100 more people have performed with Zack in this series. Other performances include shows with Karrin Allyson, (3 time
Grammy nominee).