Devin Daniels: From Inglewood to Hancock

By Gary Fukushima I Nov. 19, 2024

Devin Daniels performing with trumpeter Julien Knowles.
(Photo: Craig Allyn)

“I kind of wasn’t expecting me not liking gentrification,” Devin Daniels says, stroking his beard as he looks away from the screen.

The alto saxophonist is referring to his hometown of Inglewood, California, only 12 miles from Hollywood but seemingly worlds apart — until the recent construction of SoFi Stadium, home to the NFL Rams and Chargers, triggered a massive economic boon accompanied by a shift in demographics.

“Inglewood had its charm, you know? Everyone was always Black. Now I’m seeing white people on intersections where I never would have thought. It’s definitely not the same, but I’ve gotten used to it. … There’s a Whole Foods in the ’hood now,” he concedes.

Daniels remains in familiar surroundings despite a constant temptation to relocate to Highland Park, the Los Angeles version of Brooklyn, where many of his friends and fellow jazz musicians reside. He has come full-circle, returning to the neighborhood where he first learned how to play the saxophone, a vehicle of opportunity that has taken him literally all around the world, most notably as the newest member of Herbie Hancock’s band. The jazz legend is still touring at age 84, and Daniels, after accompanying Hancock on his recent travels, joined him on stage this August at the Hollywood Bowl alongside Bennie Maupin, Harvey Mason, Bill Summers and Marcus Miller in the highly anticipated reunion of The Headhunters, Hancock’s acclaimed funk-fusion band.

Just before that, Daniels will have his own show at Sam First — the jazz club located a stone’s throw from Los Angeles International Airport (and not far from Daniels’ Inglewood residence) — to celebrate the release of a live album he recorded not long ago at that very same club. LesGo! is the latest in a series of releases on the club’s new label, Sam First Records, which seeks to capture and pair the inherently pristine sound of the space created by club owner Paul Solomon with performances by some of the best jazz musicians in Los Angeles.

“Paul and I have had the privilege of hearing [Devin] across a variety of musical settings,” said Dave Robaire, artistic director for Sam First and the producer for the label, noting Daniels is a mainstay in many of the bands that perform at the club. Robaire explains he and Solomon “have made it a goal to document as many of the various jazz sub-genres that are currently represented in L.A.,” and that “Devin is a great example of that fiery, adventurous energy that’s been brewing in our city over the past 10-plus years.”

Daniels’ band is stoked with incandescent 20-something players, all from California: pianist Chris Fishman and bassist Jermaine Paul are native Angelenos, while trumpeter Julien Knowles is from Fresno and drummer Benjamin Ring from Oakland. They are part of a tidal wave of musicians flocking to L.A. — not just for the sun and surf, but for bona fide opportunities to play jazz with like-minded Millennials and Zoomers. LesGo! could be seen as a time-capsule documenting the advent of another important chapter in not only West Coast jazz, but of the evolving nature of jazz in general.

In 1996, a classical pianist and organist named Michelle Love founded Just Lovin’ Music Studios Inc., offering music classes and lessons to kids in at-risk neighborhoods. Through JMLS, Daniels would meet his first saxophone teacher, Keschia Potter, who herself discovered music through another Inglewood youth program, finding success as a pop musician for Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Hudson and others.

“Keschia Potter, she gave me my first sax for free. I held on to it for years and years until I bought a sax,” Daniels remembers. “This program, it was basically free for Black kids in Inglewood … they had a sax, flute, trombone, trumpet all laid out and they were like, pick which one you wanna play.” Daniels essentially chose his own destiny right then and there.

While in high school, Daniels received assistance from another program through the Los Angeles Jazz Society, providing him with free private saxophone lessons, including those from another altoist, Josh Johnson, who was in the UCLA-based Thelonious Monk Institute at the time. “That Monk class when I was in high school,” remembers Daniels, “that was it for me, I was really wanting to get to that level.”

Daniels would leave L.A. for Boston to attend Berklee College of Music, followed by a year’s study abroad in Basel, Switzerland, having received a full scholarship to attend the prestigious international Focusyear program. Ultimately, Daniels found himself back in Los Angeles, in the very same program his one-time mentor Johnson had been accepted to. It was the first year that the Monk Institute was renamed as the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz. Despite his prior training, Daniels isn’t sure if he would still be doing music if it weren’t for the program named for his future bandleader.

“I feel like the Hancock Institute saved me, because I needed to get much better for me to work, and I just practiced my ass off in that situation,” says Daniels, noting that constant rehearsing with his fellow Institute classmates was a rigorous initiation. “Ambrose [Akinmusire, current artistic director of the Hancock Institute] described it as like boot camp, in the sense that you’re just showing up and playing every day.”

Hancock himself got to hear and know Daniels enough to want to keep the young saxophonist around a bit longer after he left the Institute. Daniels’ first gig with Hancock was at the Hollywood Bowl, where the elder statesman paid tribute to his dear and newly departed friend, Wayne Shorter. Daniels says, “It was the most important jazz concert that year: literally everyone was there. I got to play with Jack DeJohnette, Ron Carter … and then the tour, and then I’m playing with [Hancock] again on the Headhunters reunion. Yeah, it’s not even subtle anymore, [this] simulation.”

It seems that Daniels has discovered the cheat code to whatever life-simulation we are living in. “I feel like my career especially has been fueled on luck, you know? Luck is a huge part of it: I feel like for every musician, just being in the right place at the right time is huge.”

Just like any seed needs to fall into the right mixture of soil, sun, water and fertilizer. And yet, those things will only work if the seed is good to begin with. What Daniels has proved, over and over again, from Inglewood to Boston, Basel and back, is that he was a seed worth sowing. DB