Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to your most common queries.
What is your real name?
Daniel Marx. Most people call me Dan or Danny. The only people who ever call
me Daniel are cops reading my drivers license or bank tellers trying to be chummy.
Any relation to Groucho Marx?
No.
What's Howard Stern like?
I don't know, I've never met him, or anybody from his show. The Howard Stern
Radio Show frequently makes use of a comedic device called a "song parody". When
these "song parodies" are originally broadcast, they are performed along with karaoke CD's as accompaniment.
However, in order to minimize performance rights costs, the music beds are then re-recorded
for E! Entertainment Television with subtle "harmonic" alterations. Frequently, I'm hired to play guitar on
these sessions. I find it amusing that while many people are impressed
with my involvement in the E! show, it is one of the least demanding jobs I ever get.
Any relation to Karl Marx?
No.
Who did you study the guitar with?
I've had quite a number of teachers, many of whom were wonderful, although
some were really out there. I'll mention the most influential ones. Jeff Sigmund taught
me the first things I learned about playing jazz, he had studied with Joe Monk,
who was a well known teacher of many of Long Island's young jazz guitarists in the
'70s. Jeff taught me pretty much what he had learned from Joe, but he put it into a context
that a rock player could understand and relate to. He also taught
me a lot about R&B, which he excels at. I went on to study with Joe Monk
himself for a while, and that was cool, because I was getting a continuation of Jeff's source.
However, after meeting Barney Kessel on the road, I started studing
with Remo Palmieri, whom Barney refered me to. Remo was the strongest influence
on my playing to date, giving me the tools I've needed to develop lines that
relate to chord progressions lyrically and melodically, and as a result, I've
developed my own phrasing sensibility. After Remo, I spent time
studing with Carmine D'Amico, who taught me a lot about relating what I had
already learned within a commercial context, and I also had the opportunity
to observe his competetive Machiavelian approach. Of course, there have been
many other teachers but that covers the most important guys.
Paper or plastic?
Plastic, please. I'm afraid that paper could potentially harbor cockroaches, much in the
same manner that the Trojan Horse of Homer's Illiad concealed hostile Greek
soldiers.
So what style of music do you play, anyhow?
That's always been a hard question to answer because I do play many styles of music.
I started out as a rock player, but then got very interested in jazz, which I studied
intensely. The great thing about learning jazz is that it can give a player very hip
theoretical and analytical tools which will always make it easier to master other musical
genres. Blues and R&B are extremely important components in my playing concept
which in turn, affect both my rock and jazz playing. Country music is yet another
wonderful idiom that has attracted me, I even played pedal steel for a while, before realizing
that I needed to make a commitment to the conventional guitar (although I still enjoy
playing an old lap steel that I own).
I guess that at this point, I'd sum it all up by "defining" myself as a blues/rock player with strong jazz chops and a tendency to gravitate towards R&B grooves. How's that?
Boxers or briefs?
Who the hell is asking these idiotic questions?