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Dave Devine

Hailed as “Denver’s Guitar Guru” by Westword magazine, guitarist, composer, and educator Dave Devine is known for his virtuosity as a performer, his versatility as an artist, and his keen ability to connect with and inspire his students. With a background in classical guitar performance and a deep abiding love for pedals, his sound is one of dense melodic layers, ambient washes, and lush sonic landscapes.

Devine’s recording projects have ranged from experimental jazz (momen terra, Static Trio) and chamber pop (Greybird, Delby L), to jazz metal (Hate Camels), ambient (Mountain Coast), and art rock (DOORS THAT DON’T). Devine presents his original compositions with his group Dave Devine Relay, blending effect-heavy guitars, layered synths, and shifting meters into rich instrumental pop songs.

In Invisible Bird, a modern jazz trio with trumpeter Shane Endsley (Kneebody) and drummer Scott Amendola (Nels Cline Singers), Devine serves as one of three distinct compositional voices, presenting original music that traverses an array of textures from rootsy backbeat grooves and pop melodies to swirling soundscapes and meditative structures. Invisible Bird released their debut album Flutter to Fuzz in 2018 with guest appearances from Orenda Fink (Azure Ray) and Sam Amidon.

Devine has also recorded and/or performed with Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band (Body and Shadow, Blue Note), John Grant and the Czars (Sorry I Made You Cry, Bella Union) Art Lande, The Barr Brothers, Don Byron, Chuck Prophet, Marc Broussard, Janet Feder, Elliott Sharp, Ron Miles, Matt Wilson, Ben Goldberg, and Neil Halstead among others.

Devine presents his chamber arrangements of Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti western scores annually in conjunction with the Denver Western Stock Show. The Good, The Bad, and the Devine is a show as much educational as it is entertaining, and currently features Tania Katz (vocals), Shane Endsley (trumpet), Patrick Lee (keyboards), and DeVotchKa members Tom Hagerman (violin), Jeanie Schroder (bass), and Shawn King (drums).

Originally from Indianapolis, Dave Devine earned his undergrad in classical guitar performance at Butler University. He earned a Performer’s Diploma in classical guitar performance and completed graduate work in jazz studies at Indiana University, where he was teaching assistant to David Baker. An educator at heart, Devine is Co-Director of the Jazz and American Improvised Music program at Metropolitan State University of Denver, where he has taught since 2002.

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11
Album Review

Mountain Coast: Phases

Read "Phases" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Mountain Coast is a Denver-based collective which comes out of a 15-year partnership between guitarist Dave Devine and synthesist Michael Bailey. Phases follows their debut recording Watch Peak (Self Produced, 2021), with Devine and Bailey joined by new band mate trumpeter Kenny Warren. It is a true pandemic album, recorded remotely but with some interaction between the parts. Warren's trumpet and Devine's guitar tracks were processed by Bailey with effects, samplers and modular synthesizers. This procedure created new layers to ...

2
Album Review

Dave Devine: Played Against The Harmony Of The Real

Read "Played Against The Harmony Of The Real" reviewed by Chris M. Slawecki


Dave Devine's Played Against the Harmony of the Real was recorded live in the studio, with bassist Paul McDaniel and percussionist (and sometimes pianist) Matt Mayhall helping pianist, keyboardist, guitarist and vocalist Devine paint dreamy sonic landscapes of various moods and hues. Brilliant engineering by Colin Bricker allows your ears to genuinely feel each musician reaching and feeling their way towards the others as every song evolves and grows. “Wolf City" and “Sopris" sound inspired by the free, ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Phases

Shifting Paradigm Records
2022

buy

Played Against The...

David Lee Devine Music
2021

buy

Flutter to Fuzz

A-Train Creative
2018

buy

Beam

Unknown label
2004

buy

4Jeffe

From: Phases
By Dave Devine

Canadian Yarnart

From: Played Against The Harmony Of...
By Dave Devine

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