Recently, on Big Band Scene, we featured the Dan Pugach Big Band’s 2023 release, Bianca. I had the opportunity to sit down with Dan and his wife, Nicole Zuraitis, to chat about making music, and life in a musical household. Pugach is a New York-based drummer who wrote or arranged all the selections on this release, and he is joined on several tracks by his Grammy-winning vocalist wife, Nicole Zuraitis.
Dan is the leader of The Dan Pugach Nonet and the Dan Pugach Big Band, playing his original music and arrangements, and he shared some of the differences of writing for these two groups. The Nonet and Big Band tour regularly, and have played at Bird’s Eye Basel, The Zone in Tel Aviv, Blue Note Jazz, Birdland Jazz Club, The 55bar, Smalls Jazz Club, The Jazz Loft, The Jazz Estate, Stowe Jazz Festival, and esteemed performing arts centers across the country.
Nicole Zuraitis, who covers several vocals on this disc, is a Grammy-winning, and 2X Grammy-nominated, jazz singer/songwriter, pianist, and arranger, and is also the winner of the prestigious 2021 American Traditions Vocal Competition gold medal. Nicole has positioned herself as one of the top artists and prolific songwriters to watch in jazz and beyond.
The two currently live in Connecticut. Born in Israel, Pugach served as the drummer for The Air Force Band in the IDF while attending the Rimon School of Jazz at the same time. He moved to the United States in 2006 and received a Bachelor of Music Degree from Berklee College of Music and later received his M.A in music from the City College of New York. – Larry Neumann, host of Big Band Scene on Jazz88
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