Since last year's hurricane Katrina, New Orleans guitarist and vocalist Davy Mooney has had a very eventful musical life. In September of 2005 he was the only resident of Louisiana to participate in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Guitar Competition, performing with Teri Lyne Carrington, Chris Potter, Bob James, and James Genus before a panel of judges that included John Pizzarelli, Bill Frisell, Russell Malone, Pat Martino, and others. Mooney advanced to the finals of the competition and placed third overall, winning a $5000 scholarship.
Mooney then made his way to New York, where he has been residing among a small community of displaced New Orleans jazz musicians in the Astoria area of Queens. Recently, Mooney made a duo guitar recording with one of the judges of the Monk competition, John Pizzarelli, which will be released in early 2007. He has also been featured with the trumpet player Nicholas Payton on the international stage, including a performance in Poland this past October. He has continued to return to his home in New Orleans to perform at Snug Harbor (where he was slated to play on Sunday, August 29th, 2005, the day before Katrina hit!) and other local venues, and he still considers New Orleans his musical and spiritual home, although the excitement and opportunities of New York are second to none.
Before the hurricane, Mooney had recently graduated with a Master's Degree in Jazz Studies from the University of New Orleans after spending two years participating in the Louis Armstrong Quintet, a group funded by a grant from the Louis Armstrong foundation to teach jazz to high school students in the New Orleans Public Schools. While playing in the group, Mooney had the opportunity to play with a series of great trumpet players, including Nicholas Payton, Mark Braud, Wendell Brunious, Maurice Brown, Randy Brecker, Charlie Miller, and Jeremy Pelt. The group was also invited to play at the 2005 North Sea Jazz Festival.
Before the Armstrong Quartet experience Mooney had independently released two CDs of his original music: his debut, 2002's “In This Balance of Time...”, which features the rock solid Peter Harris on bass, and the sprightly swinging Simon Lott on drums, and 2003's “Luckless Pedestrian,” featuring Harris and Lott as well as bassist Tommy Sciple on 5 of the ten tracks.
Growing up in New Orleans, Mooney had the opportunity to perform and study with many great musicians, including Nicholas Payton, Mark Braud, Wendell Brunious, Maurice Brown, Randy Brecker, Jeremy Pelt, Adonis Rose, Michael Pellera, Jason Marsalis, Christian Scott, Wendell Brunious, James Singleton, John Boutte, Marcos Nimrichter, and many others. He studied jazz guitar with Hank Mackie and Steve Masakowski, and attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts--an arts high school with distinguished graduates including Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, and Harry Connick, Jr.--where he was instructed by Clyde Kerr Jr. and Kent Jordan. After high school, Mooney attended the University of North Texas, where he studied guitar with Fred Hamilton and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Jazz Studies
While at the University of North Texas, Mooney played in the Grammy-award nominated One O'Clock Lab Band, accompanying such brilliant musicians as diverse as Terry Gibbs, Michael and Randy Brecker, Greg Bissonette, Russ Ferrante, the Woody Herman band with Frank Sinatra Jr., and Byron Stripling. He also traveled widely throughout Texas, from San Angelo to Waxahachie, and everywhere in between.
He moved back to New Orleans in the summer of 2001, and began teaching at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, playing guitar with the Hot Club of New Orleans--a wonderful swinging combo inspired by Django Reinhardt and his Quintet of the Hot Club of France--and performing his own music with the Davy Mooney Trio and Quartet. He has appeared at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival annually with trumpeter Clyde Kerr Jr.'s sextet as well as with the Hot Club of New Orleans. The Hot Club has also appeared at the 2005 Ascona Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and performed at Lincoln Center in New York City.
