“I got into Kiss when I was 8 … heavy metal, and then I started taking guitar lessons and got into jazz from there,” said Santa Barbara native Dan Zimmerman, alumnus of both UCSB and Berklee College of Music. Having played and taught jazz guitar in Santa Barbara for more than 20 years, Zimmerman is something of a household name in the city’s music scene and can boast collaborations with just about every jazz musician to have strutted State Street the last couple of decades. Sipping on overpriced coffee, Zimmerman and I discussed his much-anticipated debut album, Drifting Home.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music? Well it’s jazz, but I’ve also played a lot of rock and Latin music, so it has other influences … from folk to country to surf.
What drew you to this kind of music? In college I played in this band called Evil Farmer. We were a jazz/rock jam band. I can’t specifically remember why I like all kinds of music, but my dad would always play classical around the house. And I’ve always hung out with musicians.