Dani Cortaza

Dani Cortaza has more than three decades of artistic life to his credit. He specializes in Brazilian and Latin jazz and South American folklore, in both nylon and electric jazz guitar. He also performs, composes and arranges Latin American folk music.

Hailing from both Argentina and Paraguay, Dani has performed in many prestigious concert venues around the world, namely in Japan, Europe, South America and the United States. He has appeared with international and local musicians, and with his own band at Blues Alley, the Smithsonian Jazz Cafe, Silver Spring Jazz Festival (2007, 2008, 2016, 2023) and Gala Theater, just to name a few venues.

In 2007, Dani was the recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council’s award for Artistic Excellence in Music Performance. That same year, his Brazilian jazz CD Expressions received a WAMMIE nomination for Best Jazz Album. Once again in 2017, Dani received a Maryland State Arts Council’s award for Artistic Excellence in World Music Composition.

Throughout his musical career, Dani has appeared in more than 30 recordings, not only as guitarist, but also as arranger and producer. One of Dani’s ongoing projects is creating new compositions and arrangements of South American folk music combined with jazz elements. Based on this work, in August, 2012, he received a grant from FONDEC (Paraguayan Endowment for the Arts) to produce his CD Together/Oñondivé, which includes some of his own compositions and arrangements of Paraguayan and South American folk music combined with elements of jazz. The CD was recorded and mixed in Cortaza’s own professional studio InTune Recording based in Adelphi, MD.

In 2014, Dani and his group were invited by the US State Department to represent the United States at the Asunción Jazz Festival in Paraguay, including a tour of several cities. During the same trip, the group played the release concerts for the CD Together/Oñondivé in Asunción and Buenos Aires.

In 2020, Dani Cortaza was invited as featured artist with the Pan American Symphony Orchestra to appear at the Kennedy Center, Terrace Theater in Washington DC, in a concert that celebrated the music of Tom Jobim from Brasil.

Dani is currently working on a new CD of South American folk music for jazz quartet and string orchestra, which is being recorded at ION Studio in Buenos Aires and InTune Recording in Adelphi, MD.

Awards:

2023 Grammy Winner as Recording Engineer, with  vocalist Carlos Vives for the album “Escalona Nunca Se Habí­a Grabado Así”

Washington Area Music Association Nominations: 

2015 WAMMIE Nominee - Latin Instrumentalist, Dani Cortaza

2014 WAMMIE Nominee - Latin Instrumentalist, Dani Cortaza

2014 WAMMIE Nominee - Latin Music Recording, Together/Oñondivé, Dani Cortaza 

2007 WAMMIE Nominee - Jazz Music Recording, Expressions, Dani Cortaza

Dani is a voting member of the Recording Academy (GRAMMY) and the Latin Recording Academy (LATIN GRAMMY).

Dani Cortaza plays custom guitars made by luthier Esteban González of Argentina. www.estebangonzalezmusica.com.ar