David Gilmore

Over the past decade guitarist and composer David Gilmore has recorded and performed with some of the most highly influential and innovative artists in modern music today including Wayne Shorter, Dave Douglas, Muhal Richard Abrams, Sam Rivers, Steve Coleman, Don Byron, Cassandra Wilson, Uri Caine, Randy Brecker and David Sanborn. He has appeared on over 50 recordings and been a major presence on the international touring scene. In the Spring of 2001 he released his first recording as a leader entitled Ritualism, which has already received major international critical appraise and was nominated for Debut CD of the Year in 2001 by the Jazz Journalists Association. Mr. Gilmore was also recently voted into the Rising Stars category in DownBeat Magazine's Critic's Poll.

Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Gilmore sought out music at a young age experimenting with piano, drums and percussion before discovering the guitar at the age of 15. After a few years of private study with Boston local guitar gurus John Baboian and Randy Roos, Gilmore moved to New York to attend New York University, where he studied under the tutelage of sax titan Joe Lovano and pianist Jim McNeely. Shortly after his graduation in 1987, Gilmore began touring and recording in earnest with many of the members of the fledging M-Base Collective, and soon after began to find himself in many other diverse musical situations, recording and/ or touring with Ronald Shannon Jackson, Trilok Gurtu, Graham Haynes, Robin Eubanks, and Lonnie Plaxico. In the early 1990’s he became an active member of the popular jazz/fusion group Lost Tribe, co-producing their first two recordings for the Windham Hill Label.

Over the years he has also lent his skills to a variety of pop/ commercial acts including Japan’s Monday Michiru, Me’shell N’Degeocello, Melissa Etheridge, Joan Osbourne, Mavis Staples, Issac Hayes, Boz Scaggs, Tommy Lang of Austria, Rise Robots Rise, and toured extensively with multi-platinum selling artist Joss Stone. In 1995 Gilmore got the call to join sax legend Wayne Shorter’s group, and appears on Mr. Shorter’s Grammy Award winning album, High Life on Verve. He can be found most recently on recordings by Christian McBride, Carolyn Leonhart, Don Byron, Ron Blake and Uri Caine.

As a composer, improviser and guitarist, Gilmore is committed to pushing the boundaries of improvisational music, at the same time without alienating the uninitiated listener. His music reflects the diverse musical influences and experiences he has assimilated throughout his career. The exploration of rhythm is a major component of his music, utilizing many non-Western approaches and integrating them into a modern framework. Gilmore was a recipient of the Chamber Music America New Works Composer Grant, enabling him to compose a commisioned work entitled “African Continuum” which was performed in public in the Spring and Fall of 2003. His playing has been compared to guitarists with styles as diverse as George Benson, Wes Montgomery, Jimi Hendrix and Leo Nocentelli.

His most recent recording effort entitled Unified Presence features Christian McBride, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Ravi Coltrane and Claudia Acuna, and is scheduled for Early 2006 release through RKM Records/ Koch International.