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Dave comes from a family of drummers. His dad, uncle and grandfather were
all drummers.
He had sticks in his hands from the time he could hold them
and there were always drums
around the house. Dave's Dad gave him his first
snare at 7 and he began to learn what it took
to be a
drummer.
Dave studied with his dad, Harry; uncle, Don; with Getz/Byrd drummer/teacher,
Buddy Deppenschmidt and majored in percussion at Trenton State
College(now The College of New Jersey)
He also had the distinct good fortune to become acquainted with jazz
drummer Jack DeJohnette when Jack lived in West Amwell NJ. His
philosophies on the art of drumming and his techniques were truly
inspirational.
Along with writing & teaching rudimentally for Drum Corps and for high
school drum lines, Dave has taught for the Community Conservatory of Music,
Doylestown School of Music & Bucks County Community College and is
currently devoting teaching time to private students. See: INSTRUCT
A varied musical career has always included the broad category of jazz as a
first love working with great jazz players such as Dennis DiBlasio, Richie Cole,
Charles Fambrough, Steve Varner, Daryl Hall, Urbie Green, Mark Kramer,
Arnie Lawrence, Barry Sames, Randy Reinhardt, Jim Ridl, Nelson
Hill, Lenny Argese, Bob Devos, Ron Kerber, Ron McClure, Brian Trainor, Chico Huff, Andrew Neu, Matthew Parrish, John
Bianculli, Glenn McClelland & Eric Mintel.
There are a few local groups that Dave worked with over the years that
were (some still are) great bands with some really talented and renown
players.The amazing power trio, "Unguided Missile" that featured guitar
phenom John Bushnell and great bassist Angel Resto. John is also in the"Maggie Hill Band" featuring Maggie of course, a great singer-songwriter, the
band also features Jerry Steele on bass and the amazing Tom Reock on keys
and vocals. The jazz/fusion ensemble "Stiff Stuff" featured Rod Brennan (Esq)
on keys and compositions & the tastey Rob Paoletti on guitars. "Otay, Otay"
featured Carol Brooks on vocals, hard working blues guitarist Billy Baltera &
the versatile Jim Gilheany on bass... great bands, great players.
Studio experience over the years has included sessions with Bittersweet
(now Baillie & the Boys). Some of the players on those sessions were the likes
of Lance & Larry Hoppen from Orleans and Paul Shaffer from the Letterman
Show. Dave recorded with George Duke & Larry Coryell for the Musitronics
project and did various commercials, jingles and also recorded sound tracks
for Sesame Street animators.
Earlier record sessions were 2 albums on Polydor records with folk-rock
singer Randy Burns out of New Haven, 3 albums on RCA/Windsong with the
rock & roll band of Philly area fame, Johnny's Dance Band, AKA "JDB", an
album with Chet Bolins & a CD with singer/songwriter Michael Ferro.
Recent projects include the contemporary jazz ensemble Soulminded's CD
"Power of the Flock" featuring composer/keyboardist, Glenn McClelland,
appearances on the CD "evidence" by the Cotton Kent Trio as well as
singer/songwriter Maggi Hill's 1st release "Keep the Label" & on her
CD "Paradise Lost & Found". More recently a CD entitled, "Blues for
Grown folks" with Jazz/Blues/R&B vocalist Doris Spears which was produced in
part by John Korba, CD with jazz/ pop flutist Wendy Zoffer, a CD w/jazz singer Carol Heffler and a blues CD w/Mikey JR. Over the past couple years or so Dave did two CD's with the Eric Mintel Quartet, "Live @XM Radio" recorded live at the XM Radio performance studio and "Times Change"recorded at Morningstar Studios, a CD with Contemporary Christian Artist Gary Shelton and recently finished a CD with the K-H-R Project recorded @ Studio 4 which was engineered and produced by the multiple Grammy winning Phil Nicolo which should be out sometime in 2008. You can see all the released CDs and any new updates by going to: CDS
Some of the studios Dave recorded in include, The Record Plant, Electric
Ladyland, Media Sound, The Power Station & Right Track Recording in NYC;
Devonshire Studios in LA; Sigma Sound & Morningstar Studios in Philly;
Signal Sound in Quakertown, PA, Studio 4 near Philly and Ampersand Records in Bridgewater, NJ.
Over the last few years Dave has had the pleasure to work with the great
harmonica player Rob Paparozzi and the Hudson River Rats, Danny "Rio"
Degenarro and John Kuzma. He's backed up singer/songwriters John McVey,
Chris Harford and recently soon to be signed Jon Dowling. Dave has worked with great blues players including Georgie Bonds, Linwood Taylor, James
Mabry, Steve Guyger and Johnny Defrancesca. Dave is currently free lancing
with various musicians & bands and working regularly with, The Eric
Mintel Quartet, John Bianculli and has recently completed several
recording projects
Dave has also been doing The Hunterdon Hills Playhouse shows.
Lots of reading and a great band led by musical director/keyboardist
Ted Brancato
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