Dylan Jack

Dylan Jack is a percussionist, improviser, composer, and educator participating in multiple genres within the New England music scene.

As a performer, Jack divides his attention between playing as a sideman with some of the region’s top improvisers and leading his main creative outlet, the Dylan Jack Quartet, an ensemble focusing on his own original concepts and compositions. Combining intricately composed segments that utilize odd meters and phrasing with free improvisations, the music is described as “… bristling with rhythmic intelligence and rich in dynamic contrast and ebb and flow. (David Adler)” In September of 2017, they released their first album, Diagrams, which received favorable reviews from the jazz press. In June 2020, they followed up with the album The Tale of the Twelve-Foot Man. Both are on the Creative Nation Music label. Jack also co-leads the duo Hofbauer-Jack with premier Boston guitarist, Eric Hofbauer who released the album Remains of Echoes in 2019 and is one- quarter of the collective Hofbauer, Jack, Leva, Sabatini, who in 2021, saw the release of Period Pieces where Jack’s playing is described as “a masterclass in minimalist groovemanship…” – JAZZIZ Magazine. The same magazine awarded Period Pieces as a Critic’s Pick for 2021.

In 2022, Jack organized, composed music for, and produced multiple performances for his quartet where they performed a live improvised score to the silent film Nosferatu to capacity crowds. Their version of the film and an album of music inspired by the characters entitled “Eine Quartette des Grauens” was released in October of 2023. As an educator, Jack is part of the percussion and jazz departments at Groton Hill Music Center where he teaches private lessons, group classes, ensembles and presents lectures on jazz music. At Emerson, he teaches multiple sections of The History of Jazz.

Jack received an associate’s degree from Middlesex Community College, a bachelor’s degree in Percussion Performance from the McNally Smith College of Music in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and a Master of Music in Modern American Music from the Longy School of Music of Bard College.