Pianist Dan Cray, a finalist at the 2003 Montreux Jazz Festival Solo Piano Competition and the 2004 American Pianists Association Cole Porter Fellowship Competition, is one of the best young independent jazz artists working today. Jazz Radio Berlin has hailed him as a "key figure when it comes to escorting jazz into the new millennium," while the Indianapolis Star enthused that his playing had "both the depth and the playfulness characteristic of jazz piano at its best."

While living in Chicago, Dan has performed at galas for U.S. Senator Barack Obama, Mayor Richard Daley, and Governor Jim Edgar, and he plays regularly at the city's premier jazz clubs and special events. He currently leads a TRIO featuring bassist Clark Sommers and drummer Greg Wyser-Pratte. Dan has also performed with a number of other established jazz musicians and ensembles, including Ira Sullivan, Eddie Johnson, Eric Schneider, George Fludas, Orbert Davis, Kimberly Gordon, Hinda Hoffman, Kurt Elling, Ari Brown and the Chicago Jazz Orchestra.

Dan graduated from Northwestern University, where he studied with Donald Isaak and Michael Kocour. Dan has released three albums with his trio: Who Cares (2001), No One (Blujazz 2003), and Save Us (Blujazz 2005). The Trio can also be heard on realeases by vocalist Marc Courtney Johnson, saxophonist John Goldman, and vocalist Erin McDougald.