Daniel McAlavey grew up in Switzerland near Soleure, immersed in the Irish, Swiss and Balkan folk sounds of his father’s band. He experimented with all sorts of instruments: bass, piano, guitar, Irish flute, banjo, etc. As a teenager, he took saxophone lessons, having first discovered jazz through the records of Charlie Haden and Astor Piazzolla. But it was the legendary Live at the Village Vanguard of the Bill Evans Trio that was a revelation to him. Since then, he has studied the piano at the Basel Jazzcampus, obtaining his masters in 2019, and joined several groups, including Fraktal with Jan Herzog and Gerah with Raphaël Milcent.