Dan Fortin was born and raised in Peterborough, Ontario. His eclectic tastes have led to work with a wide variety of artists in the jazz, rock and pop worlds, including Bernice, The Allison Au Quartet, Queer Songbook Orchestra, Emilie-Claire Barlow, Aline’s étoile magique, John Southworth, Serena Ryder, July Talk, Devon Sproule, Mike O’Neill, Laila Biali, Bryn Roberts, Mike Murley, Will Bonness, Jon Gordon, Andy Milne, Nicky Schrire, David Occhipinti, Tara Davidson, Harley Card, Michael Davidson, Alex Goodman, Zoon, and many others. He’s been lucky enough to play at a number of great venues, including Cafe Oto, 55 Bar, Smalls, SFJAZZ Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival, Sunset/Sunside, JazzDock, The Cotton Club (Tokyo), Jamboree, Jimmy Glass, Koerner Hall, and the Tranzac.

Dan is a co-leader of the trio MYRIAD3, along with pianist Chris Donnelly and drummer Ernesto Cervini. Together, they’ve released five albums for Alma Records: Tell (2012), The Where (2014 – Juno nominee), Tell((Chip)) (2015 – Donnelly’s electronic reimagining of their debut record), Moons, (2016), and Vera (2018.) They have undertaken several tours of Canada, the USA, Europe, and Japan, including performances at the Tokyo Jazz Festival and Ronnie Scott’s International Piano Trio Festival (London, UK.)

In 2015, Dan released BRINKS, his debut album as a leader on Fresh Sound/New Talent Records. The critically acclaimed record features his long time collaborators David French, Michael Davidson, and Fabio Ragnelli, and includes 10 of his songs.

His most recent release is The Latest Tech (2020), an album of music for solo double bass, released on Elastic Recordings, the imprint he started with vibraphonist Michael Davidson.  A follow up recording, called Cannon, will be released in 2024.

Dan is on faculty at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, where he teaches bass in the Jazz Studies department.

In 2001, Dan scored 996,000 points in a single trick combo in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (Sony Playstation, no cheat codes.)

Website credits:
Web design by Endless Commons
Artwork by Jared Raab (Brinks) and Yesim Tosuner (Elastic Recordings)
Photos of Dan by Antonio Porcar (Bio) and Judy Chee (Teaching)