Dr. Judd Danby is a concert music composer, a jazz pianist and composer/arranger, and a music teacher at Jefferson High School in Lafayette, IN, where he works with students in the areas of music theory, composition, and as director of the school’s jazz combo.
Danby has served as a member of the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) writing subcommittee for the 2014 revision of the grades 9–12 standards for music theory and composition, and as the Chair of the Indiana Music Education Association (IMEA) annual Composition Competition.
He has been a frequent guest on WBAA-920 AM Purdue's "Inside Jazz" with host Don Seybold, presenting shows on his own music and the music of Dave Douglas, Brad Mehldau, Thelonious Monk, Chris Potter, the San Francisco Jazz Collective, and the history of the jazz piano trio. He has also presented pre-show talks for Purdue Convocations on the music of the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, Arturo O'Farrill's Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Sullivan Fortner, Vijay Iyer, Donny McCaslin, Brad Mehldau, Chris Potter, Cécile McLorin Salvant, the San Francisco Jazz Collective, and the Piano Etudes of composer Philip Glass.
A jazz pianist since 2001, Danby has performed throughout Indiana as a soloist and with his own duo/trio/quartet, the Los Blancos Latin Jazz Band, saxophonists Randy Salman and Danny Weiss, and other jazz ensembles.
Danby also serves as President and Artistic Director of The Jazz Club, a member-supported jazz concert series in Lafayette, IN, which presents four concerts per season, all-ages jazz workshops, all-ages jam sessions, and the annual Tony Zamora Scholarship to a high-school musician from Tippecanoe or surrounding counties.
Danby holds degrees from Rutgers University (B. Mus. in Jazz Performance) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (M. Mus. and A.Mus.D. in composition-theory).
