Dave Douglas
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Dave Douglas (born March 24, 1963) is a U.S. jazz trumpeter and composer. He is generally acclaimed for his perfomances and especially his songwriting, which often draws on many non-jazz musical styles.
Since 1993, Douglas has recorded twenty albums as a bandleader. He has also performed and recorded with dozens of musicians, perhaps most notably with various John Zorn ensembles. With his own groups, Douglas has pioneered new settings for the trumpet in jazz and expanded concepts of what the music (and music in general) can be. In more recent years he has explored collobrations with modern dance, spoken word/poetry, and film.
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Early years
Douglas grew up in the New York City area and attended Phillips Exeter Academy, a private high school in New Hampshire. He discovered jazz while on an abroad program in Spain. After graduating from high school in 1981, he studied at the Berklee School of Music and New England Conservatory, both located in Boston, Mass.
In 1984, Douglas moved to New York to study at New York University (NYU) and finish a degree in music. Meanwhile he played with a variety of ensembles and came to the attention of the famous jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader Horace Silver. Douglas played with Silver for from 1987-1990.
1990s
In 1993, Douglas began performing with John Zorn in his Masada quartet. The band is one of the finest in jazz, and reflects the influence of saxophonist/composer Ornette Coleman, and Jewish folk musics.
Since the mid 90s, Douglas has led a variety of groups simultaneously. His first album as a leader, Parallel Worlds (1993), featured the composer backed by a string trio performing his own compositions and music by Webern, Kurt Weill and Stravinsky. Meanwhile Douglas formed two new groups, the Tiny Bell Trio, and his Sextet. The former performs what Douglas calls "Balkan improvisations." It is rather unusual in its instrumentation (trumpet, guitar, drums) and blends Eastern European folk influences with jazz. The Sextet features the classic instrumentation of trumpet, tenor sax, trombone, piano, bass, and drums. This group focuses on the music of great jazz composers and Douglas pieces inspired by those musicians. Their first release was a tribute to the late trumpeter Booker Little.
In 1996, Douglas co-founded Sanctuary with Cuong Vu, Anthony Coleman, and other musicians of the New York downtown scene of the time. The group involved sampling and DJ improvisations in addition to jazz.
In 1997, Douglas started a quartet featuring trumpet, violin, accordion, and bass. The group would eventually be called Charms of the Night Sky after the title of its first recording. Eastern European and Jewish folk musics as well as jazz are strong influences on their music, which is generally mellow and relaxed. Their debut includes a number of tracks with Douglas and accordionist Guy Klucevsek performing as a duo.
Also in 1997, Douglas founded another quartet. The Dave Douglas Quartet performs wild, freewheeling music, influenced by the bands of Ornette Coleman and John Zorn.
2000s
In 2000, Douglas released his most famous album, Soul on Soul. It is a tribute to composer and pianist Mary Lou Williams, featuring original arrangements of her music for the Sextet and new pieces inspired by her work. The album received great praise, and Douglas won the Down Beat critics polls for trumpet, composer, and album of the year in 2001. Douglas also released albums featuring Charms of the Night Sky and the Dave Douglas Quartet in the same year.
In the early years of the decade, Douglas worked often with the Trisha Brown Dance Company. El Trilogy, an extended musical work accompanying modern dance, was performed from 2000-2001.
Witness was released in 2001. A nine part suite with political overtones, it is an ambitious, and successful work. It features a band made up of trumpet, sax, two electric pianos, electronic percussion, bass, and drums. It includes a 20 minute track entitled "Mahfouz" in which singer Tom Waits reads an excerpt from the works of the Egyptian writer after whom the piece is named, as well as pieces dedicated to Edward Said and Taslima Nasrin.
More recently, Douglas founded the Dave Douglas New Quintet and Nomad. The Quintet is a trumpet and tenor sax-led group but with Fender Rhodes electric piano. Their first album, The Infinite (2001) featured Douglas originals and pieces by or inspired by popular musicians Rufus Wainwright and Thom Yorke. This was followed up by 2004's Strange Liberation by the same group with special guest Bill Frisell on guitar. Formed in 2003, Nomad is made up of trumpet, clarinet, cello, tuba, and drums. It includes Marcus Rojas, one of the finest tubists in jazz, classical, or any other kind of music. With this band, Douglas performed his suite Mountain Passages, commissioned for the Italian Sound of the Dolemites Festival. The suite features a variety of different influences including Italian Landino music, New Orleans jazz, and other musics, and is to be played from 9 to 12,000 feet above sea level.
Douglas has also started a new band called Keystone, which will perform works influenced by the silent film actor and director Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle. The project includes pieces to be performed with Arbuckle's films. This ensemble is made up of trumpet, tenor sax, wurlitzer (electric piano), turntables, electric bass, and drums. Douglas will premiere this project in October of 2005.