David Sancious
David Sancious was born in Long Branch, New Jersey on November 30th 1953 to Jimmie and Stelma Sancious. David’s father was an electronics engineer and his mother a school teacher.
An early interest in music was shown when at 4 years old David was able to pick out a few notes on a small plastic guitar his parents had given him, and play along to a Calypso record his father used to play frequently.
Two years later when the family relocated from Asbury Park to Belmar ,N.J. , a piano was included along with the purchase of the new house. After the boxes and furniture were brought in , his mother sat at the piano and began to play beautiful classical piano selections , much to his amazement. The effect was instantaneous . “Music became the most interesting and beautiful thing in the world to me, and being able to express all that beauty and magic was all I wanted.”
After teaching David herself for the first year, his mother made arrangement for piano lessons with a focus on classical piano repetoire. Being the youngest of three boys and having a father and mother with very different musical tastes, the house was filled with music of all genres. Everything from Mozart to James Brown on a daily basis.
Early musical influences ranged from the piano preludes of Chopin and Beethoven to the music of John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Folk music , R&B , and Rock were equally influential . The folk music of Odetta and the blues stylings of B.B. King inspired him to take up the guitar at 9 years old. “I played acoustic guitar for a few years and made some progress. Then one day my brother came home with the first Jimi Hendrix album ( “Are You Experienced” ) and instantly I became very serious about the guitar “.
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