Dan Lao

Lao Dan 老丹 Originally from Dandong, a border city in Northeastern China across the Yalu River from North Korea, Lao Danstarted his music career with the saxophone at the age of 8, before taking up the Chinese bamboo flute. In 2007, he was admitted with the highest score to Shenyang Conservatory of Music (SYCM), majoring in the bamboo flute. During college, he served as principal flutist of Youth Chinese Orchestra of SYCM. Instead of pursuing the conventional career path as a professional conservatory flutist inside the “system”, after leaving SYCM, Lao Dan became an independent musician. With his unique understanding of the woodwind instruments through two decades of playing, Lao Dan sticks to his own vision and approach to the Chinese flute and its sounds. Whilst he has exploredvarious world instruments including the xiao, the bawu, the suona, and the duduk, the bamboo flute and saxophone remain his principal commitments. Lao Dan’s playing continues to push the limits of artistic expression on both instruments, exploring the possibilities of free, energetic, and nonconformist ways of sound-makingconfined by neither Jazz nor traditional Chinese musical conventions. His improvisation often brings to the audience an overwhelming sonic experience in which the East and the West, and the ancient and the modern clash dramatically on each other. In 2017, Lao Dan contributed a composition to the three-way split album Saxophone Anatomy - along with fellow saxophonists Colin Webster and Rick Countryman -which was released by the Japanese label Armageddon Nova. In 2018, he released a bamboo flute solo album titled Going after Clouds and Dreams under Modern Sky’s World Music sub-label. The same year also saw the release of his saxophone solo debut Functioning Anomie by WV Sorcerer Records, the recording was made in Hangzhou’s Qinglongdong Tunnel, where natural cave reverbs enhanced the charm of Lao Dan’s intense, imaginative breathwork. In 2018, Lao Dan started performing with multi-instrumentalist Li Daiguo, the duo named themselves “Benbo’erba & Babo’erben” (奔波儿灞与灞波儿奔,“BBB & BBB” for short), after two minions from the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. Delivering whimsical, improvisation-based music woven together around the backbone of Li Daiguo’s quirky pipa and Lao Dan’s spiritual flute, BBB & BBB take their listeners to a grotesque fairy world which presents a radical but light-hearted re-interpretation of traditional Chinese music. In 2019, the duo released their debut on cassette titled Benbo’erba & Babo’erben at the Old Heaven, a remixedlive recording of their performance at the Old Heaven bookstore in December 2018. In April 2018, Lao Dan toured America, playing in fourcities where he shared stage with local musicians. In July2019, he went on tour across Japan, playing a solo concert in Hakodate and performing with legendary Japanese drummer Sabu Toyozumi in Tokyo and Yokohama. The recording of Lao Dan’s gig in Willimantic, CT, where he was joined by saxophonist Paul Flaherty, percussionist Randall Colbourne, and double bassist Damon Smith, was released by Family Vineyard in 2019. As the label’s website states: “Dan’s voice is starkly unique, even among the blurred lines of international Improv/Jazz. He’s steeped in native traditions yet eagerly obliterates those boundaries with ecstatic intensity and haunting melodies.” From 2020, Lao Dan began to form a series of bands called "TuTu". The first band "TuTu Duo" released an album of the same name at nobusiness records in 2021. The drummer was his old partner Deng Boyu.