About

Daniel Ellis Perez is an Afro-Puerto Rican bassist, composer and producer born, raised and based in Chicago, Illinois. His work, play and collaborative spirit have opened doors performing with world-renowned artists such as Derrick Gardner, Ernest Dawkins, and Pharez Whitted to name a few.

Being a 2024 graduate of the Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts), Perez was a member of the ChiArts Jazz Combo from 2021 through 2024. During his time at ChiArts, the ensemble received the DownBeat 45th Annual Student Music Award for Outstanding Performance by a Small Jazz Combo in 2022 and also earned recognition in the Blues/Rock/Pop category under faculty advisor and saxophonist Anthony Bruno. These formative years rooted Perez in ensemble discipline, listening, and the communal dimensions of music-making.

From 2019 to 2022, Perez released music under the name My Lonely Bench, a project that began as private expression and evolved into a formative compositional laboratory. Through releases including Lonely Bench EP (2019), I Think I’m Fine (2021), and later singles drawn from the unreleased concluding album A Seclusion Room, 2019–2022, the project explored themes of loneliness, longing, and emotional searching. Though once considered closed, My Lonely Bench remains an essential root in Perez’s artistic development and continues to inform his compositional voice.

In 2023, Perez was awarded the Kiewit–Wang Scholarship through the Jazz Institute of Chicago, which supported private study with bassist Dennis Carroll. He currently studies at Wilbur Wright College, where he is pursuing an Associate’s degree while continuing to perform, compose, and develop new work. In 2025 and 2026, he performed multiple times with one of the Northwestern Small Jazz Combos while enrolled at Wright.