| As a young child Dave’s Canadian parents adopted him from Ecuador.At the age of three his mother encouraged him to play the ukulele while she accompanied him on piano and by the age of eight he had graduated to playing piano, drums and saxophone. At ten years old he gave his first concert, later deciding to focus on becoming a master guitarist. In high school Dave played in a jazz ensemble, which resulted in his first recording. At fourteen Dave got a taste of life as a blues man while playing with the Robert Penn Blues Band from Detroit.After graduating from high school Dave moved to Los Angeles to seek his fortune, there he composed and recorded the soundtrack for a children’s movie produced by Arnold Dobrin. At this point Dave realized a deep longing to connect with his aboriginal roots and musical heritage. As a result Dave spent several years traveling throughout North America, Japan, Europe as well as Ecuador, studying rhythms and fingerstylings with several well -respected Andean groups.
Quickly recognized as a prodigy by his mentors, Dave has had the opportunity to play with Jamaica’s ‘First Couple’ of Jazz, Sonny Bradshaw and Myrna Hague and The Jay Douglas All-stars,Pee-Wee Ellis,Salome Bey,Jackie Richardson, Jamaica To Toronto sat in with Jose Feliciano, Jorge Pardo, played on tracks by King Chango. In 2004 Dave played with the Missassauga Symphony Orchestra, and accompanied Ukrainian virtuoso violinist Vasyl Popadiuk."Papaduke's" concert was filmed during the Montreal Du Maurier Jazz fest wich will be released on public television in the states next year and has performed on Rez Bluez season 1 and 2 for APTN network and Sun TV.Dave also cowrote ,arranged and performed the theme for the travel show Don't Forget Your Passport on the OLN network. Dave has also opened for legendary Jamaican reggae singer Burning Spear,Los Van Van and Colombian fusion group, Aterciopelados.The 2007 recording of Choclo y la Orgia Cosmica is Dave’s latest cd which features a mixture of Ecuadorian rhythms:Afro,native and mestizo fused in a contemporary style,it was released and performed in Ecuador February 2007 with 20 musicians on stage.
After many years of traveling abroad Dave returned to his beloved Canada to reconnect with family and form a new band with which to showcase his vast talent and ethno- musicological background. The bass player, keyboardist and drummer rounding out the group hail from, Louisiana, Iran and Germany-Ghana and are well respected artists in their own right; together they create an explosive synergy. Dave alternates between two hand crafted custom double-sided guitars made especially to accommodate his unique fingerstylings. The first guitar has 12 nylon strings and 35 frets on one side and 18 steel strings on the other, which is capable of producing Bandolin and harp-like sounds. The second is a six-string electric guitar on one side and fretless electric on the other side, which produces slap-guitar sounds. In addition Dave plays a variety of stringed instruments including, Mandolin, Bandolin, Tres, Cuatro, Charango and Cavaquinho. Dave composes and arranges all of his own music by masterfully weaving elements of Flamenco, Jazz, Congolese Soukous and San Juanito polyrhythms into soulful Delta and Chicago Blues stylings brought to life by his truly alchemical touch. The band is in the biginning of rehersals for the next cd to be recorded november-december and for release early 2009 .They are expanding the sound to include harmonium,andean sikus(pan pipes all sizes)violin and new guitars being built in Ecuador.
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