Recordings of him in action as a musician easily outlasted the normally brief shelf life of
newspapers and magazines. During the mid-'40s, he was part of a sort of musical critic's summit with Leonard Feather, also a pianist. Of more importance was a group he assembled in 1946 called Dan Burley His Skiffle Boys, actually including the great country blues singer and guitarist Brownie McGhee. This is supposedly the group, and the record, that established the term "skiffle" as a musical style, in some ways similar to jug band music, at least according to the published word of Burley's old pal Feather. Skiffle became especially popular in England, influencing early rock roll, and eventually the Beatles, none of which are developments that seemed to have much impact on Burley, who died in the early '60s. The pianist also appears on several excellent Lionel Hampton sides from 1946. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi