Bassist, Composer, Vocalist & Recording Engineer
Emma Dayhuff has followed her musical passion to places beyond what her imagination could have envisioned from her childhood home on Sourdough Canyon Road in Bozeman, Montana.
She has recently performed at the infamous Newport Jazz Festival, the Sant’Anna Jazz Festival in Sardinia, and Dizzy’s Jazz Club in New York. Emma is the most recent bassist and the fifth woman to ever participate in the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance based in Los Angeles.
Featured Release
Esthesis Quartet
Dismantling conventional instrumentation roles, the band unleashes each members’ bend toward the extemporaneous on this debut statement. Uniting four corners of the United States at the cusp of a lockdown period, Esthesis Quartet features Denver-based pianist Dawn Clement, Swedish-born and New York-based flutist Elsa Nilsson, Chicago-based bassist Emma Dayhuff and LA-based drummer Tina Raymond. The assembly is characterized by an innate fascination with risk, uniting four players who continually re-evaluate their roles as soloists, performers and explorers. With original compositions molded by tactile sensitivity and exploratory improvising, Esthesis Quartet captures the meticulous spirit of collaboration integral to the group’s foundations. The reckless abandon with which the quartet approaches the discovery of new musical landscapes lends an intriguing journey, particularly when flutes and vocals come to the fore.
The quartet has the restrictions of the past two years flowing through its DNA. “Esthesis” by definition means “elementary sensations of touch,” something that we were all robbed of throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The quartet was formed at this time, starting as a creative support group to keep compositions coming and creative juices flowing. After spending many sessions together on Zoom and deciding that connecting in person was safe again, the group members headed to Los Angeles and recorded their first album.