Dave Douglas has arguably become the most original trumpeter/composer of his generation. Douglas' stylistic range is broad, yet unaffected; his music is not a pastiche, but rather, a personal aesthetic that reflects a wide variety of interests. He explicitly cites such diverse influences as Igor Stravinsky, Stevie Wonder, and John Coltrane. As a composer, Douglas adapts and synthesizes unusual forms and creates his own out of disparate elements. As a trumpeter, Douglas possesses a comprehensive jazz technique; certainly, one hears the ghost of Lester Bowie in Douglas' expressive manipulations of timbre and pitch, but more pronounced is the integration of distinctive compositional and improvisational conceptions that ultimately defines his work.

Born in 1963 in Montclair, New Jersey, He began playing the piano at age five and the trumpet at seven. Douglas considers himself influenced by the many musics he heard in his parents' and elder siblings' record collections, from Wagner, Beethoven, the Beatles and the Jackson Five to Billie Holiday, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Cecil Taylor and others.

Douglas moved to New York in 1984, initially working with jazz and funk bands on the street while finishing a degree in music at New York University's Gallatin Division in 1986. From 1987 to 1990, Dave Douglas went on an international tour with Horace Silver, Vincent Herring, Dr. Nerve and the Bread and Puppet Theatre. In 1993, he made his solo debut and recorded the album Parallel Worlds which was released in 1994 by the Soul Note label. A year later, Dave Douglas produced his first album under the name of his trio: Tiny Bell Trio. Since then, he has been touring the world with his own groups. He is also a member of John Zorn's Masada and plays on records by Myra Melford, Anthony Braxton, Don Byron, Uri Caine, Cibo Matto, Sean Lennon, Fred Hersch, Mark Dresser and Tim Berne. As a composer and trumpeter, Dave Douglas explores paths outside traditional jazz and experiments with e.g. Hindustani music, mixing together Western and Indian instruments.

He has released five CDs under his own name, including over fifty of his own compositions. Douglas' recordings have appeared on numerous "Best of 1994" and "Best of 1995" lists including those of the New York Times, the Village Voice and the Boston Phoenix. Douglas has appeared in the Down Beat Critics' Poll as TDWR (Talent Deserving Wider Recognition) for the last three years. He has also received three Composer's Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. As a sideman and trumpeter, Douglas continues to work with John Zorn Masada, Don Byron Plays the Music of Mickey Katz, and the Kenny Werner Quintet and others.

Douglas also composes for and co-leads the quintet New and Used with Kermit Driscoll, Mark Feldman, Andy Laster and Tom Rainey. The group has recorded two CDs for Knitting Factory Works and toured Europe.