STRIKE UP THE BAND

Rich Daniels Has Lifetime Love of Music

By Ken O'Brien, Special to the Tribune
Published: Sunday, March 14, 1999
Section: TEMPO SOUTHWEST

As a teenager, Rich Daniels was out of tune with his rock 'n' roll generation. As he grew up on
Chicago's South Side in the 1970s, he played the saxophone, his connection to the Big Band and
swing music perfected by the likes of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman.

“I was attracted to that music more so than the music that was popular during my teenage years.
In their day, (the big bands) were as popular as the Beatles or the (Rolling) Stones or anything
else in the last 30 years. It was not incongruous to like that music because 17-year-olds were the
first ones to find appeal in that music in the '30s and '40s and make it popular.”

Today, Daniels, 39, takes the melodies he loved in his youth to as many audiences as possible
as a composer, arranger, saxophonist and bandleader. The Evergreen Park resident is the conductor
of the City Lights Orchestra, a 32-piece band (including a full string section), which plays
George Gershwin and Woody Herman, Miller and Goodman, as well as tunes from Hollywood
film scores and Broadway shows. The band makes its living playing at corporate affairs and at gigs
for politicians and charities in the Chicago area. It also has backed up singers such as Ray Charles,
Mel Torme, Michael Bolton and Dionne Warwick and comedians Jay Leno and Rich Little.

“Our clients tell us that they are crazy about Rich Daniels and the orchestra,” said Jan Schunk,
a partner in Carmel Music & Entertainment, LLC, an Evanston company that has been the orchestra's
exclusive booking agent for about six years. “Some of the reasons are that (they) have great versatility,
provide great showmanship, have fantastic musical arrangements, are easy to work with and are
very professional.”