Daniel Glass is an award-winning drummer, author and educator based in New York City. He is widely recognized as an authority on the drum set and the evolution of American Music. Daniel has recorded and performed with a diverse group of artists, including Brian Setzer, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli, Royal Crown Revue and Gene Simmons. He typically works more than 200 gigs per year. Since 2011, he has been the house drummer every Monday night at New York’s legendary Birdland Jazz Club.

As an educator, Daniel has published five books and three DVDs, including the award-winning titles The Century Project. He has performed hundreds of clinics and master classes globally, appearing at many top educational conferences and festivals. Since 2016, he has hosted annual Jazz Intensives in both New York and Frankfurt, Germany. In 2013, Daniel curated an exhibit on the history of the drum set at the Rhythm Discovery Center in Indianapolis, for which he was awarded the PAS Distinguished Service Award

As drum set players, we are constantly inundated with references to the term “groove” (aka "feel" or "pocket"). We’re told that groove is paramount, and that a great groove will make us more employable. However, drum set education on the whole typically lets students down when it comes to offering programs that offer concrete steps to achieving the kind of "golden groove" possessed by heroes like Steve Gadd or Steve Jordan. In fact, there’s such a lack of understanding in this arena that many teachers revert to the old trope, “A great groove simply can't be taught. You're either born with it or you're not.”

So what do the vast majority of drum educators (regardless of style) focus on instead? Patterns. Why? Because limb-independence exercises are an easily quantifiable means of demonstrating progress. Truth be told, learning patterns offers little help to students looking to improve their feel, overcome tension, play more efficiently, and connect more deeply with musicians and audiences.

Daniel Glass has spent much of his 30-year career as a performer, researcher, author and educator studying the concept of groove, and its evolution across multiple eras and styles. His conclusion is that the key to solving the “groove conundrum” lies not in WHAT a drummer is playing, but HOW he or she is playing it. That “how” relates specifically to MOTIONS.

In “Finding Your Golden Groove,” Daniel will share a series of fundamental movements derived from his “Motion Based System” of teaching. These outside the box exercises (many done without sticks or pedals) will turn the groove conversation on its ear, and prove invaluable for any drummer, regardless of skill level or stylistic preference. Daniel has utilized this system to great success in his own career, typically working more than 200 gigs a year, and training hundreds of others drummers to vastly up their groove game. Daniel’s presentation will integrate multi-media, as well as performances by his long-time NY trio.