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Dave King

Born on June 8, 1970, King grew up in Golden Valley, Minnesota. He listened to a wide variety of music and musicians, including Buddy Holly, John Coltrane, Led Zeppelin and Hank Snow.

He started playing piano at age four and switched to drums in the fifth grade. He attended Cooper High School and the MacPhail Center for Music for five years, playing rock and jazz. He moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a studio musician.

But it was in 1990 when King, pianist Ethan Iverson and guitarist Reid Anderson first started playing together. They formed The Bad Plus and in 2001.

King’s other trio, Happy Apple, with bassist Erik Fratzke, and soprano-alto-tenor saxophonist/keyboardist Michael Lewis, was formed in 1996. Their releases include: Blown Shockwaves & Crash Flow, Part of the Solution Problem, Body Popping, Moon Walking, Top Rocking, Please Refrain from Fronting, Youth Oriented, The Peace between Our Companies, and Happy Apple on Top, were released on the Liberation Mob, No Alternative, Happy Apple, and Sunnyside labels from 1997 to 2007.

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Liner Notes

George Cartwright: Stick Insect

Read "George Cartwright: Stick Insect" reviewed by George Cartwright


Recently, Davey Williams spoke up to me and he said: “George that's dang good band ys got there in the frozen zen like neither atmospheres three up way up there and:" It was pretty good there down in Lower Alabama. The frog of time has hopped about on my memory of the show or even when the two of us got together. Two bedroom apt, Dave was working a country band playing drums and playing the ...

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Album Review

Julian Lage: View With A Room

Read "View With A Room" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


View With A Room looks in on two generations of American guitarists; the younger generation is represented by Julian Lage, the leader of the effort, and the older generation by Bill Frisell, who sits in on seven of the ten original Lage tunes ("Echo" is co-written by Lage and the set's bassist Jorge Roeder). Following up on Lage's 2021 Blue Note Records debut, Squint (and let's give the label's boss, Don Was, a big tip of the hat ...

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Album Review

Viktor Haraszti: Equanimity: A Futuristic Jazz Tale

Read "Equanimity: A Futuristic Jazz Tale" reviewed by Chris May


Equanimity: A Futuristic Jazz Tale is the debut album from Viktor Haraszti, a Hungarian-born, Dutch-based tenor saxophonist and composer. It is a solo project, recorded in isolation in 2021, on which Haraszti also plays clarinet, EWI, flute and keyboards. Bad Plus drummer Dave King helps out on one track, drummer Marshall Curtly on another three, and poet Lisa Marie Simmons adds spoken word to a further two. As the title suggests, the music is a suite. It ...

2
Album Review

Julian Lage: Squint

Read "Squint" reviewed by Mario Calvitti


Dopo aver scritturato negli scorsi anni due chitarristi di indubbio valore come Nels Cline e Bill Frisell, la Blue Note mette a segno un nuovo colpo assicurandosi i servigi di un altro virtuoso della sei corde, l'ex enfant prodige Julian Lage (che in realtà era già comparso in un titolo della label al fianco proprio di Cline come membro del suo quartetto in Currents, Constellations). Questo Squint rappresenta il suo esordio da titolare per l'etichetta, alla guida di un trio ...

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Album Review

Julian Lage: Squint

Read "Squint" reviewed by Chris May


Before discussing guitarist Julian Lage's album, some food for thought... A credible argument could be put forward to say that the jazz piano trio reached its pinnacle of perfection with Bill Evans' Village Vanguard performances of June 1961, with the trio of bassist Scott La Faro and drummer Paul Motian, and that trios led by guitars, another chordal instrument, have long since replaced piano led trios at the evolutionary edge of the music. Still thinking aloud, as it ...

11
Album Review

Broken Shadows: Broken Shadows with Tim Berne, Chris Speed, Reid Anderson, Dave King

Read "Broken Shadows with Tim Berne, Chris Speed, Reid Anderson, Dave King" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The context for Broken Shadows is--can you guess--the Ornette Coleman album of the same name, recorded in 1971 and released on Columbia Records in 1982. That, along with three tunes from Coleman's Science Fiction (Columbia, 1971), and more from the free jazz pioneer's Atlantic and Blue Note Records days. And while we're at it, throw in a pair of compositions from Julius Hemphill, one from saxophonist Dewey Redman and one from bassist Charlie Haden--all players with strong connections to Coleman. ...

4
Album Review

Craig Taborn: Compass Confusion

Read "Compass Confusion" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Compass Confusion, the long hoped for return of Craig Taborn's depth defying, solo-gone-quintet from Junk Magic (Thirsty Ear, 2004), climaxes early and often and, however you like to be lured, It pulls you along with a lush velvet hook in your mouth. Reeling it in is a struggle but a blessing. We know that. We get it. CTJM thinks so too. First timers, saxophonist/clarinetist Chris Speed and bassist ((Erik Fratzke}} are welcomed brotherly into the fold by pianist ...

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Music Industry

Dave King Trio – Asia Avails 2017

Dave King Trio – Asia Avails 2017

Source: Arlo Hennings

A very exciting new trio from three of the most dynamic jazz artists working today! Led by visionary drummer Dave King, this trio recently made a splash at the Winter JazzFest in New York in January 2016, and are warming up for a new record, set to come out on ECM Records in 2017. Dave King is one of the most in-demand drummers in modern jazz. He has performed in 75 countries on six continents, and has been a member ...

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Recording

Donna Lewis With UK Release Of "Brand New Day" Featuring Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson and Dave King - Produced By David Torn - Out June 17, 2016 + UK Tour

Donna Lewis With UK Release Of "Brand New Day" Featuring Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson and Dave King - Produced By David Torn - Out June 17, 2016 + UK Tour

Source: Emma Perry Publicity

Brand New Day is available for Pre-Order. “I Love You Always Forever" was such a huge hit for the multi-platinum artist Donna Lewis; a #1 chart hit / dance-pop classic for which people around the globe still have boundless affection—the 1996 song will always be the one for which many fans know her. But the Welsh native is an artist of many dimensions, as she has demonstrated with efforts ranging from “At the Beginning," her charming duet with Richard Marx ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz this week: Dave King Trucking Company, Gateway Jazz Festival, a benefit for Willie Akins, Dave Easley, and more

Jazz this week: Dave King Trucking Company, Gateway Jazz Festival, a benefit for Willie Akins, Dave Easley, and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

Though it's still before Labor Day, the fall presenting season would seem to be already getting underway this week, with several noteworthy touring musicians visiting St. Louis, plus the customary variety of jazz and creative music from local performers. Let's go to the highlights... Thursday, September 3 Erin Bode concludes her two-night engagement singing standards at Jazz at the Bistro, and guitarist Dave Black and friends will perform at Nathalie's. Friday, September 4 The Dave King Trucking Company will make ...

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Recording

The Dave King Trucking Company - Good Old Light (Sunnyside, 2011)

The Dave King Trucking Company - Good Old Light (Sunnyside, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland

Drummer Dave King is the lynchpin of many a group, notably The Bad Plus collective and his own Happy Apple. This new group merges his influences from the music of Nashville to the hard-hitting jazz of John Coltrane. King has the reputation of a bit of a brute behind the kit, something of a diabolical crossbreed between Elvin Jones and Keith Moon, but as this album demonstrates, he has a lot more at his disposal than raw power. He is ...

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Contest

Announcing the Winners of the "Dave King - Indelicate" Contest

Announcing the Winners of the "Dave King - Indelicate" Contest

Source: Michael Ricci


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Contest

Enter the Sunnyside "Dave King - Indelicate" Giveaway Contest

Enter the Sunnyside "Dave King - Indelicate" Giveaway Contest

Source: All About Jazz

All About Jazz members are invited to enter the Sunnyside Records “Dave King - Indelicate“ giveaway contest starting today. We'll select FIVE winners at the conclusion of the contest on February 25th. Click here to enter the contest

(Following Dave King at AAJ automatically enters you in the contest.)

Good luck! Your Friends at Sunnyside Records

About Dave King and Indelicate Play the piano drunk like a percussion instrument until the fingers begin to bleed a ...

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

View With A Room

Blue Note Records
2022

buy

Broken Shadows with...

Intakt Records
2021

buy

Squint

Blue Note Records
2021

buy

Stick Insect

Mahakala Music
2021

buy

Compass Confusion

Pyroclastic Records
2020

buy

Chapter Five

From: Equanimity: A Futuristic Jazz...
By Dave King

Dream and Guess

From: Compass Confusion
By Dave King

Videos

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