Bio
When saxophonist Dani Oore and pianist Florian Hoefner played together for the first time in early 2019, two long-separated musical souls were reunited. From the very beginning, the two developed a powerful kinship that only grew from performance to performance.
Both accomplished and versatile musicians, the synergy of their approaches is catalyzed in spontaneous duo improvisations bearing the sort of thematic and structural unity and development one associates with fully pre-composed music. Their music is raw, elegant, exuberant, and, at times, fragile.
Oore, who was a longtime member of drummer Jerry Granelli’s band, and Hoefner who has made his mark with his Juno-winning trio have collectively performed on 5 continents and have collaborated with artists such as Kurt Rosenwinkel, Seamus Blake, Julian Priester, Dan Weiss and Jay Clayton. They have been recipients of the East Coast Music Awards, the Stingray Rising Star Award and the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award.
The Pooka is a shapeshifting creature known in Celtic and Northern European cultures to take people on wild rides. On their new album The Ecstasy of Becoming, Oore and Hoefner surrender themselves to a Flying Pooka, inviting you to join them on its spellbinding journey.
Their debut album, "The Ecstasy Of Becoming", released on Alma Records on October 6, is an ecstatic and completely improvised story told in tonal contrasts and rooted in vulnerable attunement to each other, their listeners, and world around. This is the exciting trajectory promised in their upcoming international tours — their first public performances since the pandemic.
