Early jazz pianist Daniel Rottenberg’s foray into piano began at the age of four. After hearing him learning Beatles songs by ear on the piano, his mom taught him to read music and simple chords, scales, and songs. As he progressed, he began studying classical piano. Daniel wanted to be the next Mozart for a long time, composing his own pieces and quickly learning classical compositions.
In Durango, Colorado, his hometown, Daniel met famous ragtime pianist Johnny Maddox at the Diamond Belle Saloon in the historic Strater Hotel and everything changed. Daniel learned Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer” and “Maple Leaf Rag” and fell into the rabbit hole of ragtime piano. He spent the next five years studying jazz and ragtime, and throughout his remaining years in Durango he played at the Diamond Belle Saloon, one of the last ragtime piano bars in the entire country. During this period, he competed in the Old-Time Piano Playing Championship Junior Division and was featured in several school and local talent shows.
Daniel moved for school in 2012 to attend Metropolitan State University of Denver. He studied Physics, then Theatre, and finally received his degrees in English with a Writing concentration and Film Studies. During this time, Daniel played at the Bull and Bush, Dazzle Denver, and the Ship Tavern in the Brown Palace Hotel and Spa. He joined the University of Colorado Denver’s jazz ensemble The Claim Jumpers. With them, he regularly performed for the Denver Jazz Club, played sets around the city at various clubs and venues, and performed at festivals such as the Summit Jazz Festival, the Cedar Basin Jazz Festival, and the Evergreen Jazz Festival. Daniel has been featured at the Durango Ragtime Festival and the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival.
After graduating college in 2018, Daniel moved to Wilmington, North Carolina where he began playing at the local speakeasy The Blind Elephant, Circa 1922, and Tails Piano Bar. Aside from bar and restaurant gigs, Daniel also performed private concerts around town.
In 2021 Daniel moved to Minneapolis, MN, and performed at many local venues including Holman’s Table, Shakopee House, Volstead’s Emporium, and Nucky’s Speakeasy, among many others. He has also been a featured performer for the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, and a pianist for events at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts.
Daniel began a summer residency at Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan in 2023. The Grand Hotel was built and opened in 1887, and has a storied history that includes hosting 5 U. S. presidents, Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, and other famous figures; and had 2 major motion pictures filmed with the hotel as a central location: This Time for Keeps (1947) and Somewhere in Time (1980). Daniel is the hotel’s pianist in the Parlor and the Cupola Bar at the top of the hotel nearly every day during the season, which lasts from the first weekend of May through the last weekend of October.
Check out Daniel’s full calendar of upcoming early jazz piano gigs..
Daniel always accepts requests at his gigs. View his updated repertoire here.
When he is not playing piano, Daniel writes fiction and poetry, and was previously a fiction reader for Raleigh Review, a literary journal based in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is currently working on a horror novel about the 2015 Gold King Mine disaster in Durango. Daniel currently lives in Minneapolis with his cats.