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After only two years beginning his official career as a
"drummer"
in 1974, Dan Pinto inadvertently advanced on to learning how to
play keyboards. Having been lucky enough to have easy access to an
electronic organ and amplifier at the time, Dan went between practicing
two instruments instead of only one. Moving forward as multi-instrumentalist,
Dan Pinto forged a career in music composing styles of "Progressive Jazz-rock
Fusion", New Age and Film Score & Soundtrack. ROOTS: Dan Pinto's older brother, Tony
was a keyboard player in the local Rock music scene from 1967 to 1969.
This is from where Dan gained access to his very first electronic keyboard
and amplifier for learning. The Acetone "Top3 Phenix" organ and VOX
"Viscount" amp would suffice for Dan until 1977 when he bought his very
first keyboard, the Moog "Model D Minimoog". But luckily, Dan was able to
borrow acoustic pianos between the years of 1976-1979 in order to gain a
more proper feel for the instrument that became his weapon of choice for
composing later on.
STYLE: Already having a "Rock & Roll"
background as a drummer, Dan Pinto's style for playing the keyboards
changed his direction quite dramatically in this area. It was his
heightened awareness of "Keyboard Rock" bands that began to drive his
learning curve a bit tighter. His growing love for this type of music
forced him to push his abilities as both a keyboardist and a drummer to
a much higher standard and so he soon found himself playing in bands with
members that were much older than he was. One of Dan's first influences in
music was Keith Emerson, famed keyboardist from the Nice and Emerson, Lake
& Palmer. Emerson's use of orchestra and traditional instruments introduced
Dan Pinto's style to "Classical" and "Jazz" music mixing that with Rock. Other
players from Dan's earliest influences would of course be Rick Wakeman from
the band Yes. But one of Dan's hobby enjoyments in the mid to late 1970s
was visiting obscure record stores to find unusual and rare albums by bands
and keyboardists that would even remotely reveal a lineup similar in nature. So if you were to thumb through Dan Pinto's record
collection dating from this time, you'll find albums by artists such as
Vangelis; Refugee; Esperanto; PFM; Return To Forever; Dick Hyman; Triumvirat;
Larry Fast; Focus; Jan Hammer; Gong; Gentle Giant; Walter Carlos; Van Der
Graaf Generation; Tomita; Jan Akkerman; Kraftwerk; UK; Nectar; Tangerine
Dream; Strawbs and Renaissance. These are all artists that contributed to
Dan's style of playing during his earliest days at the keyboards. But as Dan
Pinto's taste for music advanced, so too did his ear for listening. The
1980s would add on influences by bands like the Dixie Dregs; Michel Camilo;
Kazumi Watanabe and Jean Luc Ponte. The 90s added Pat Methany; Steps Ahead;
Lyle Mays; Spyro Gyra; the Rippingtons and Bela Fleck. But then something
happened... Given Dan Pinto's interest in making films at a very young age
before he became involved with music, later as a composer he began listening
much more closely to the Soundtracks from these films. This was born out of
a combination of an interest in the sounds of an orchestra and the limitless
nature of Film Score music. A whole new World of music was now coming into
focus and one that went back to cover all the years that Dan had been
involved in music since the 1970s. Dan Pinto now found himself listening to
artists such as John Williams; Jerry Goldsmith; Danny Elfman; John Carpenter
& James Horner just to mention a few. This brings us up to date with Dan
Pinto's influences in style. In a nutshell, Progressive Jazz-rock Fusion
crossed with Film Score & Soundtrack music. Dan has no better demonstration
of these styles all combined then on his 2008 release, "Anomalies."
But in 1980, there was an
opportunity to be the main keyboard player in the original band Juice.
Simultaneously there was room for experimentation with this band that
would allow Dan to also play drums with a full kit on stage. Dan worked out
arrangements with this band playing originals and a few interesting cover tracks,
one of which included a rendition of "Frankenstein"
by Edgar Winter that allowed him to split his role playing both keyboards for the synth effects and
sax/keyboard solos as well as Timbales to cover the double drum solo. Dan felt right at home having his hands full, carrying a complete drum &
percussion outfit as well as a large keyboard rig during live gigs. The band's stage presence was fairly
intimidating for members of their age consisting of 2 complete drum kits & percussion, 2
keyboard rigs(Dan's and the Lead Guitarists') and bass, acoustic and electric guitars.
Juice showed great promise in 1981 when they opened for Joan Jett and the
Blackhearts in Dover, New Jersey, a show that was broadcast live over WDHA
radio. Unfortunately the band would not fully materialize disbanding only two years after its inception.
This didn't stop Dan from
continuing along these lines with other bands of similar makeup. But he
also kept busy with popular acts more commercial in nature during the 1980s.
Simultaneously he worked in more than one band at a time and on some
occasions even on the same night! Constantly performing between the popular
New York City and New Jersey club scenes, Dan Pinto's plate was full. A
performance with the Doug Wain band at the RITZ in New York City yielded a
live CD release in 1988. He also shared the stage briefly with members of
MCA recording artist Trixter. Taking into consideration the increasing
interest in building his private recording studio during this time, you can
guess that Dan was fairly busy. But as the 1980s moved along with Dan's continued interest
in playing instrumental progressive music, the Rock scene was becoming difficult with other more
popular music moving in. So Dan needed to rethink his approach if he wanted to
continue doing what he loved most.
Reducing his live shows to solo
performances with the start of the 1990s, Dan Pinto would program backup
music with sequencers and play the lead parts to his original songs. But
with his writing skills now becoming a focal point live as a solo artist,
he began carrying that over to his production studio to create recordings.
Continuing a busy schedule of advancing the technology of his studio and
writing new music at a record pace, Dan Pinto's compositional repertoire
began to increase in size. So now with all this extra music lying around,
he began to pitch his compositions to video production houses turning Dan's
focus from live performance to studio composing.
Through the second half of the 1980s and beyond,
Dan Pinto inadvertently and as luck would have it out of the need for
convenience and in order to keep studio expenses down, became a studio
producer and recording engineer himself. The construction of his own
recording studio and many years invested in learning its engineering
processes has enabled him to have complete control over his finished
product. Composing in his studio became a priority after being given the
opportunity to write for national television shows starting in 1991.
Aside from working in his own recording studio,
Dan still finds the time to work on projects for others staying active on
many levels. For example in recent past he worked with long time famed Jazz
musician/songwriter Horace Ott, composer of "Don't Let Me Be
Misunderstood" taking part in a presentation for the New Jersey Movie Makers
Network on scoring music for movies at the "MEMFEST FILM FESTIVAL" in New
Jersey. And in 2001 Dan Pinto recorded drums with Dixie Dregs' bassist Dave
LaRue for the band 3 Point Play which resulted in a CD release titled
"Double OT".
COMPOSING CREDITS: While composing music came as early as 1976, Dan
Pinto didn't get a taste of success until his material was first performed
live in 1981. Playing keyboards with the original band Juice at an opening
for Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Dan Pinto would debut two tracks with this
band. "Labyrinth" & "Pandora's Box" would never be officially released
however until his 2008 album, "Anomalies." While Dan Pinto has written
lyrical material, his music is generally geared more towards instrumental
genres. It is this style of music that has brought him the most success
beginning in the late 1980s when it began receiving placement on projects
for local cable television and industrial film. Seeing this success brought
about his joining
BMI
as he began gearing his writing skills more in the
direction of film and video. He was also and still is actively involved in
composing music for independent films. And with Dan's interest and
experience in recreating an orchestral sound combined with his intrigue
into how films were actually made stemming from his childhood, this only
made good sense.
By 1990 Dan Pinto wrote music included on projects
for companies such as AT & T; BMW; RCA and CNN. National success finally
came in 1991 with the opportunity to write music consistently for Robin
Leach's television shows, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and "Runaway
with the Rich & Famous." His music was also used for the national television
release titled "World's Best 1992." As a result of all this for the next
four years, his music enjoyed a good deal of success. These shows later
went on into syndication. As 1993 came to a close, Dan Pinto released 3
solo albums within two years under the "Eclectic Sound" label. Documentation
for all his releases can be found on the Discography Page.
In 1995, Dan Pinto began writing a screenplay
for a movie idea that he had. His single reason for doing this was to
compose a full length film score. Having gone in and upgraded his studio
with video editing and recording equipment, he dedicated a total of 5 years
to this project, producing and directing the over 100 participants involved.
In the final year, he released the independent film's music score and
soundtrack on CD. Although "Die for a Life" as a movie was considered by
Dan to be more of an incidental experimental project, Dan Pinto's musical
accomplishment for this project stands as an indelible mark to prove that
his music is very capable of carrying a feature film.
"I'm not trying to be a film producer, that's not the goal I
set for myself here at all. Of course the knowledge I gained by doing this
production certainly didn't hurt. But this experience is vital in
understanding what film producers look for when writing a soundtrack. And
as a composer, that's very important to me." With the new Millennium came the release of a
new album titled "Visions" shortly followed by a Christmas album. Dan Pinto
received accolades in 2006 for "Best Instrumental Song of the Year" with
his nomination in the JPF Music Awards. His title "The Haunting" from his
"Ivory Towers" album recognized his accomplishments as a New Age styled
composer. His music was chosen through a process that selected less than
one half of one percent during a judging term that took 13 months! In all,
over 300,000 entries were reviewed from all around the World. 2008 finds
Dan Pinto back in the studio with a release that has come to best define
him as a composer. Pulling from his roots of Progressive Jazz-rock Fusion,
his 1990s interests of Modern Jazz and combining that with film score music
using full orchestral arrangements, Dan Pinto has seemingly set the bar to
the next level with "Anomalies." As can be refrenced from the
"Reviews & Interviews" page of this site, critics have
been all consistently very kind with Dan Pinto's "Anomalies" release.
Dan Pinto first got involved with Moog
synthesizers in 1977 and since then went through owning several including
an "Opus", "Minimoog" and a very basic but now fairly rare synth called a
"Satellite." He also performed live using a Moog "Ribbon Controller" and "Drum Synthesizers."
He started off owning amplifier
equipment by Acoustic for live performance but later replaced that with
the use of Crown in the studio. Dan built his own cabinets in the studio
using EV speakers but for live performance in his early days was also
resorting to Acoustic to match the power setup.
The 1980s brought about the use of
a whole host of keyboards. Dan owned Crumar's "T-1" organ but later replaced
that with Korg's "CX-3." The first sampling synths Dan used were by Roland. But
later he pushed those out to make room for Korg as he was using a "DSS-1" and
its offspring module, the "DSM-1." Oberheim's "Matrix" series was also in the
studio for a short time but Dan found them to be too complicated to get around in.
The 1990s introduced Dan with the
need to use sequencing equipment for live solo performances and so Roland
was the choice for that with their "MMT" & "HD" series units. He used these to
trigger the Korgs which also included a "Midi" retrofitted "Polysix." Today Dan
confesses that Kurzweil keyboards are the best he's used to date and so
that is what he's been actively using in the studio. If Dan were ever to
decide to go back to playing live gigs, a whole new rig would be in order
but for studio use, he finds them sufficient.
At Pinto Studios, studio recording
equipment has seen a change between the 1980s and 1990s from analog reel to
reel over to digital tape and PC sequencing but what remained consistent was
Dan's use of Teac. Of course today it's all done with computers and the
future for Pinto Studios holds an addition of very advanced video capability
coming soon.
For more of an in depth look at Dan
Pinto's equipment use on drums and percussion, visit the Drumming Page.
THE
FUTURE: With the advancement of computers, Dan Pinto's
use of that technology will likely follow. Video will play an important
role of allowing him to demonstrate more of his own solo work as well as
work more with others. Down the road additional music is being planned
with more solo releases especially in collaboration with other musicians.
To keep up on Dan Pinto's activities, feel free to visit this website's
Current Events Page.
For more on Dan Pinto and his music, visit the "Home Page."
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