ABOUT DAN

THE CHIORBOLI STORY

Background

Dan Chiorboli is a South African citizen based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Dan was born in Ferrara, Italy and grew up and schooled in Durban, South Africa. He is a Musician, Producer, Event Conceptualiser and Festival Director with extensive experience in the Business Sector.

As a musician

Pursuing his love for music inherited from his classically trained pianist grandmother at an early age, at her insistence Dan formally studied drums and classical percussion and learnt how to read music. He received his first taste of performing in front of an audience at the age of fifteen in his tutor and mentor, Australian Jim Bailey’s big band Cannon (in the Chase, Blood Sweat & Tears and Chicago jazz-rock style). By now the rhythm bug had bitten and he went on to join popular Durban percussion group Interitmo. He subsequently developed his technique further when he joined pianist Joe Delew in his Brazilian Project. The group supported Dan’s idol, Brazilian Airto Moreira on his South African tour, an event which proved to be an unforgettable and motivating experience which made an indelible impression in his approach to music for the rest of his life. Around this time, Dan was invited by MELT 2000’s Robert Trunz to interview Airto Moreira for the SABC Jazz Series, a never to be forgotten experience.

 Dan has performed with diverse musicians from all over the world and has worked on over 220 albums, such as Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera, Black Coffee, Neill Solomon and The Uptown Rhythm Dogs, Ray Phiri and The African Gypsies, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Simba Morri (Kenya), Roger Lucey, Sergio Dias (Brazil) and James Phillips (aka Bernoldus Niemand) amongst many others. On the international live concert front, Dan has shared stages with Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music), Ginger Baker (Cream), Sergio Dias (Os Mutantes), Crosby, Stills and Nash, Joe Cocker, Janis Ian and Jovanotti.

Exploring his beloved Latin and Brazilian themes, Dan wrote, directed and performed in three successful musical revues (Sounds of Brazil, Latin Heat and Island Rhythms) with the Joe Delew Brazilian Project in The Cellar at The Durban Playhouse in the nineties. Following on from these successes, he co-founded the 16-piece Los Cucarachos, an exciting Latin showband in the Irakere and Tito Puente tradition which became popular with Latin ballroom dancing aficionados. In 2009, Dan performed with the Joe Delew Brazilian Project at the North Sea Jazz Festival in The Hague, Holland.

In 2002, Dan had the opportunity of exploring his paternal Brazilian roots by collaborating with Brazilian rock guitarist Sergio Dias Baptiste, (from the legendary group Os Mutantes) to produce the CD Song of the Leopard, which fused South African and Brazilian music styles. The project was one of the first to fuse South African and Brazilian music styles. They launched the album at the Guinness Jazz Festival in Johannesburg and performed at the Rock in Rio Festival in Rio de Janeiro.

In 2009, Dan co-founded The African Gypsies with Ray Phiri, which also included Gito Baloi, Concord Nkabinde, Kwazi Shange, Kenny Mathaba and Lindelani Mathonsi and featured Roxy Music / Pink Floyd guitarist and producer Phil Manzanera as a special guest. Besides South Africa, the group played on the WOMAD International Festival circuit in England, Spain, Chile, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia. Dan and Ray Phiri then went on to form the Ray Phiri Arts Institute, a non-profit trust designed to help young musicians in the Mpumalanga area which is still active today.

In 2010, at the invitation of legendary explorer and adventurer Kingsley Holgate, Dan conceptualised and produced the musical concept and concert finale of the Boundless Southern Africa expedition, a massive environmental and conservation related event aimed at maximising awareness of the seven Transfrontier Conservation Areas bordering South Africa as tourist and investment destinations. The music focused mostly on indigenous styles in the areas linked to the game parks, which besides South Africa included Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana and Lesotho. The entire expedition and musical component was covered by National Geographic and provided the catalyst for Dan’s passionate support of wildlife and conservation projects, and as a forerunner to his work with Project Rhino.

Dan was invited to perform in DJ Black Coffee’s highly successful multi-dimensional extravaganza “Live from Moses Mabhida Stadium” in 2013, a concert that was filmed for a DVD and shown on national TV. The event included The Soul Brothers’ Black Moses Ngwenya and a classical orchestra.

In 1979, Dan co-founded (with Neill Solomon and Tony Hunter) the influential Uptown Rhythm Dogs, arguably the first South African band to incorporate global music styles into a mainstream rock genre. The group played extensively around South Africa and supported American singer-songwriter Janis Ian on her national tour. Dan also produced Neill Solomon’s critically acclaimed debut solo album Gathering of the Beasts, a powerful and sonically diverse set of songs based around an environmental and conservation theme.

As an avid Sharks supporter, Dan co-wrote and co-produced two successful CD’s for The Sharks rugby team, including the anthemic stadium song We are Black, We are White which is still played in stadiums to this day.

For the 2010 FIFA World Cup, (together with Neill Solomon), the duo co-produced Durban’s official World Cup song ‘Smile‘ which featured a multi-cultural cast of some of Durban’s finest musicians, including Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Madala Kunene and the late Syd Kitchen.

Awesome Africa Music Festival

Despite his accomplishments as a musician and in the business world, it is as the founder and Festival Director of Awesome Africa, the multi-dimensional and pioneering “World Music” Festival based in Durban that has featured 191 Pan-African and International artists from 29 countries, as well as 574 South African artists since 1999 that Dan is probably best known. Dan was responsible for the artistic direction, conceptualisation, fund raising, stakeholder relations and financial administration of the Festival before he handed the running over to his daughter. The Festival was instrumental in identifying and mentoring many young emerging artists, a passion of Dan’s until this day.

Other Events

Besides the Awesome Africa events, Dan has also worked as a producer / conceptualizer on Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD Festival in South Africa; produced the artistic component in all three (North Beach, Umlazi & KwaMashu) of Durban’s FIFA World Cup Fan Parks in 2010; the FIFA 2010 World Cup Preliminary Draw; conceptualised and produced the B.A.T. Indian Ocean Jazz Festival; Artists Against Apartheid Concert; Rock Against Racism Concert and campaign; Living Treasures Millennium Celebrations; B.E.T. (Black Entertainment Television USA) Jazz Festival; Rock da Beach; the ANC Freedom Charter 50 year Celebration and the Boundless Southern Africa Festival. Dan also worked as a consultant for the South African contingent to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2007. Dan served as Vice President of the Indian Ocean Music Alliance (IOMA) from 2011 to 2013, with the members of this alliance being Festival Directors from Indian Ocean linked countries. 

Honoured in song

The internationally renowned Italian group The Modena City Ramblers recorded a song entitled Stelle Sul Mare that touches on the plight of immigrants searching for a better life and is based on the story of Dan’s family leaving depressed Italy by sea looking for new opportunities far away – in this case South Africa!

WOMAD

WOMAD “World of Music, Arts & Dance” was founded by Peter Gabriel in 1982 and has been presented in 32 countries around the world to an audience of millions. Having performed at 13 international WOMAD Festivals globally, Dan has a comprehensive understanding of the respected WOMAD ethos and mandates. Dan has established the WOMAD brand in South Africa and is responsible for developing the Sub-Saharan region.

The WOMAD South Africa Safari now has a national footprint and takes place annually during Heritage month, with the inaugural event occurring post Covid in 2022 and followed up by  successful iterations in 2023 and 2024. The cornerstones are job creation, fundraising for humanitarian causes (in association with the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation), cultural tourism, social cohesion and nation building, community outreach skills transfer workshops and the identification, showcasing and export of emerging artists onto the world stage. For more info www.womadsa.co.za

Project Rhino

Dan is a Global Ambassador for Kingsley Holgate’s PROJECT RHINO, an association of 18 like-minded organisations who facilitate rhino conservation interventions, aimed at eliminating rhino poaching and securing the white and black rhino populations of KwaZulu-Natal.

PANEX

Dan is a member of the Board of PANEX (Pan African Arts Expo), a community organisation based in Brussels, Belgium and run by the NAMUN Group, whose mission is to bring together African and European music and art professionals.

Film

Dan received his first break in providing music for movies with Point of Impact with Barbara Carrera, Jon Pare & Michael Ironside (1993) and The Gods Must Be Crazy (remake 1999) and has provided mostly percussion and atmospheric effects on over 100 movies and documentaries. During the Covid pandemic Dan contributed musical interludes to Deon Meyer’s Trackers series and Chasing the Sun, the story about the Springboks World Cup triumph – both on DSTV.   

The Liberation Project

Dan conceptualised, co-produced and was the common thread of The Liberation Project. Having been born in Italy into a family of partisan resistance fighters and grown up and been actively involved in as an activist in South Africa during the Apartheid era, he became all too familiar with the struggle that occurred on his own door step. His passion for the music from Italy’s partisan resistance and South Africa’s freedom songs led to a strong desire to collaborate with artists from South Africa and Italy as well as Cuba, Reunion Island, Guinea and Burundi to produce an album representing these cultures and their independent journeys to liberation. The Liberation Project triple album “Songs That Made Us Free – South Africa |Italy |Cuba” focused primarily on traditional and newly penned and re-imagined songs of freedom from South Africa, Italy and Cuba and honours those comrades that were brave enough to fight against all odds for their desired freedom leaving a musical legacy as a constant reminder of the price of freedom. Songs that Made Us Free featured 142 musicians from 18 different countries, including Juan de Marcos Gonzales from Cuba’s Buena Vista Social Club,  N’Faly Kouyate from the Afro-Celt Sound System and Peter Gabriel and Cyril Neville from The Neville Brothers. Songs that Made us Free was launched in South Africa in May 2018 at the Nelson Mandela Theatre in Johannesburg and formed part of the finale for Africa Month. The Liberation Project’s “Friendship and Solidarity Tour” embarked on a highly successful 21 concert tour of Italy in 2019. The tour was supported by the Department of Sports, Arts & Culture and the South African High Commission in Rome and promoted by Alessandro Ceccarelli’s BPM Concerti.

The Solidarity Express

Following on from The Liberation Project, The Solidarity Express has a much broader and commercially accessible direction than The Liberation Project, and focuses on profiling South Africa by sending out a positive message of hope, reconciliation and general feeling of goodwill in the music. It also aims to sustain South Africa’s positive energy to enable a bright future for its youth. The album, entitled Radio Ubuntu was launched during Covid with a streamed concert from The Market Theatre which incorporated fundraisers for The Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation, the HIP Alliance, The Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation.

The Solidarity Express’s forthcoming album Strike a Rock is due to be released early in 2025. The term ‘Strike a Rock’ is taken from the resistance song, ‘Wathint’ abafazi, wathint’ imbokodo’ (You Strike a Woman, You Strike a Rock). It has come to symbolise the courage and strength of women, first expressed at the Woman’s March of 1956 to Pretoria. This album embraces and reflects upon the gender-based violence and femicide narrative and serves as a dedication and commemoration of the women who marched on that day to Pretoria to protest against apartheid and oppression. Each song on “Strike a Rock” is sung by a different female artist as a special guest together with The Solidarity Express.

Recent Works (2023 & 2024)

Dan was privileged to have been invited to conceptualise and co-produce (with John Lindemann) the acclaimed collaborative album Hello Hello by the African Jazz Pioneers and The Mahotella Queens.

Dan followed this up with SISONKE BAFO, a re-imagined album and documentary which pays tribute to a cassette which was released in the mid 1980’s entitled The Indestructible Beat of Soweto, Volume One. Everyone involved in this project was directly influenced by the unique sound and historical importance of this cassette which served as a major influence in Paul Simon’s Graceland album.

Based on a previous cultural exchange with the Mid Atlantic Foundation, Dan was commissioned by D’DAT, a Navajo Native American group from New Mexico, USA to produce an album entitled Kindred Spirits, which included five Soweto based rappers. Grandma’s Song (featuring Nelisiwe Mtsweni) went on to be nominated for a Grammy Award.

Die Rebelle (In the Pipeline)

Die Rebelle “Die Rebel Muziek van die Afrikaanspreekenders / “My moederf**ken taal”!”. In something completely different to Dan’s previous body of work, this educational and thought provoking documentary film project in the pipeline features Dan in a co-executive producer capacity together with acclaimed producer, musician and historian Dan Roberts. This nine-episode documentary series and album focuses chronologically on SANKhoisan and Afrikaans speaking outlaws – tracing their roots back to slavery and the colonization of the Cape Colony. 

In the Business World

Running concurrently with his musical journey, Dan enjoyed a successful 17-year career in the corporate world, culminating as Sales and Marketing Director for Bidvest Waltons KZN and sitting on their Board for the last six years.

 As he became accustomed to the challenging business environment, Dan became renowned as an innovator and motivator in his field, and for incorporating “out of the box” concepts to business practises. This environment helped him to gain vast experience of working to pressurised deadlines, setting targets, negotiating human resource issues and managing and motivating a large budget driven work force of over 125 staff. 

 Dan decided to leave the corporate sector in 2018 to pursue more creative and diverse opportunities.

As a Guest Lecturer

Dan lectures on an ad-hoc basis at the University of Johannesburg Faculty of Humanities as a Guest Lecturer for post graduate students.

MUSICAL INFLUENCES & FAVOURITES

All Time Greats: Miles Davis, Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, Fela Kuti, Joni Mitchell & James Brown.   

Percussionists: Airto Moreira, Armando Peraza, Karl Perrazo, Miguel “Anga” Diaz & Giovanni Hidalgo.

Drummers: Sly Dunbar, Buddy Rich, Paul Motian, Clyde Stubblefield & Zigaboo Modaliste.

Producers: Ahmet Ertegun, Quincy Jones, Daniel Lanois, George Martin & Jerry Wexler.

Guitarists: Mike Bloomfield, Paco de Lucia, Leo Nocentelli, Wilko Johnson, Phil Manzanera & Sonny Landreth.

Bass Players: Ron Carter, Bootsy Collins, George Porter & Robbie Shakespeare.

Keyboard Players: Garth Hudson, Herbie Hancock, Monty Alexander, Joe Zawinul & Black Moses Ngwenya.

Groups: Irakere, Buena Vista Social Club, Traffic, The Band, Weather Report & Little Feat.

Horn Players: Paquito d’Rivera, Roland Kirk, Miles Davis & Arturo Sandoval.

Composers: Ennio Morricone & Juan de Marcos Gonzales.  

Female Vocalists: Aretha Franklin, Emmylou Harris, Sister Rosetta Tharpe & Celia Cruz.  

Male Vocalists: James Brown, Joe Cocker, Salif Keita, Johnny Cash, Peter Gabriel, Otis Redding & Van Morrison. 

Songwriters: Steve Earle, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson, Ian Anderson & Lennon-McCartney. 

Favourite Film / Series: Cinema Paradiso, Catedral del Mar & Peaky Blinders.