Eric Darius (born December 3, 1982), is an American saxophonist, vocalist, songwriter, producer, and educator.

Early life

Darius was born in New Jersey to a father of Haitian descent and a mother of Jamaican descent. He grew up in Tampa, Florida. Born into a musical family, his father plays bass, his mother and sister sing, and his older brother plays drums and trumpet. Darius grew up listening to

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, Grover Washington, Jr.,

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. He developed a love and appreciation for music at an early age, as his parents exposed him to music from many genres. The first time he saw someone playing saxophone was when in church when he was nine years old. He fell in love with the sound. His parents bought him a saxophone for his birthday. He began his performing career at the age of 11, when he joined and toured with Sonny LaRosa and America's Youngest Jazz Band. The band included kids from the ages of five to twelve and toured worldwide, playing music by

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, and Louis Armstrong. While performing with the band at the

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, he decided to pursue a career in music. At thirteen he left the youth band and his father became his manager. He started performing in Tampa Bay with his own band. As a teenager he performed over 100 shows per year. He attended Howard W. Blake High School of the Performing Arts. In high school he participated in music and sports. He performed with the Blake High School jazz band at the Essentially Ellington contest and festival at Lincoln Center. At seventeen he released his first album independently. Darius attended the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF i ...

in Tampa, where he studied business and music. He studied jazz under the direction of Chuck Owens and Jack Wilkins and was a member of the university's Jazztet, which performed at the Montreaux Jazz Festival,

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, Jazz à Vienne, and the

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. During college, he signed a recording contract with

Higher Octave Music Higher Octave Music is a sub-label imprint of Narada Productions. Since 2013, it is part of Universal Music Group's Capitol Music Group, which is located in Los Angeles. History Higher Octave was acquired by Virgin Records on behalf of EMI in 1 ...

Career

His debut album ''Night on the Town'' was released in 2004 by Higher Octave and peaked at No. 32 on the jazz albums chart at ''Billboard'' magazine. This was followed by ''Just Getting Started'', peaking at No. 18 (2006), ''Goin' All Out'' at 14 (2008), ''On a Mission'' at 10 (Shanachie, 2010), ''Retro Forward'' at 15 (2014), and ''Breakin' Thru'' at 19 (2018). The single "Goin' All Out" reached No. 1 on the Contemporary Jazz chart during the week of October 25, 2008. His performance at the Catalina Island JazzTrax Festival earned him the ''JazzTrax'' Best Live Performance of the Year and the ''Smooth Jazz News'' Debut Artist of the Year.

Discography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Darius, Eric 1982 births Living people American jazz alto saxophonists American jazz tenor saxophonists American male saxophonists American jazz soprano saxophonists American jazz singers American jazz composers Songwriters from California American educators Crossover jazz saxophonists Smooth jazz saxophonists Blue Note Records artists University of South Florida alumni Musicians from Los Angeles 21st-century American saxophonists Jazz musicians from California American male jazz composers African-American male songwriters 21st-century African-American male singers 20th-century African-American male singers