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 DAVE
DANA
DAVE DANA (a/k/a David Dannenberg) was born in New Haven, Connecticut
and grew up in West Haven. Dave's first interest with music came at an
early age. Influenced by his mother, who was a pianist, he began playing
the piano at an early age and then started playing the ukulele at the
age of 11. Soon thereafter, Dave was introduced to the guitar, and he
has never looked back since. His early influences were Elvis Presley and
Jerry Lee Lewis, however, he later was introduced to jazz and was
inspired by such artists as Johnny Smith, Mundell Lowe, Kenny Burrell,
Grant Green, Hank Garland, Joe Pass, Richie Garcia, Billy Bean and Wes
Montgomery.
David studied with several influential people, including Frank
D’Amato, Vincent Bredice, Jimmy Raney, Joe Diorio and Linc Chamberland.
One of Dave’s first paying gigs was with drummer Charlie Smith’s
group, (Smith was the drummer on the only existing video of Charlie
Parker) which included Fred Tinsley on bass.
Dave toured with the Billy Fellows quartet and played with them in
various locations, including The Americana in Puerto Rico, the El San
Juan in Puerto Rico and The David Frost Show in NYC.
Dave played his first reading gig with Henry Mancini during his
second year of college. Shortly thereafter, he played with the Supremes
and was hired immediately to play with Stevie Wonder and other Motown
acts, including, but not limited to gigs at the Apollo and Regal
Theatres.
Dave was “on the road” with Stevie Wonder. After touring with Stevie
Wonder, Dave toured with Leslie Uggums.
While gigging with Leslie Uggums, at Jim and Andy’s bar Dave ran into
Rick Stepton who told him Buddy Rich was looking for a guitar player and
that he should come down and play. That night Dave read Buddy Rich's
book cold and he was hired on the spot.
The Buddy Rich Orchestra: From 1969-1970, during his tenure with The
Buddy Rich Orchestra, Dave recorded on two of Buddy Rich's albums (Buddy
and Soul Live and Studio). Some of the many performances he played while
on the road with Buddy included Basin Street West in San Francisco, the
Johnny Carson Show, The River Boat (NYC), Newport Jazz Festival in1969,
Baltimore Jazz Festival, and Izzy’s in Vancouver in British Colombia
1969, and Esquire Show Bar in Montreal.
In 1976 Dave went to Colombia on US State Department Tour with Claude
Williams. While in Colombia Dave played the Media Torta Festival and the
Cartagena Festival.
In the late 1970's early 1980's Dave was called to Las Vegas for a
year’s contract with Copeland Davis. Here he befriended and performed
with Jimmy Bruno, James Moody, Lockjaw Davis, Joe Williams, Sammy Noto,
Carl Fontana, Gene Harris, and Carmen McRae.
Dave was soon hired to play with the Las Vegas Hilton Orchestra
following Jimmy Bruno. There he played with many talented musicians,
including James Moody, and he backed many celebrities, including
Liberace, Tina Turner, Lou Rawls, and Tony Orlando, Julius La Rosa, and
Tony Bennett.
While in Las Vegas, Dave also played at the Hacienda Monday Night
Jazz Special, which was sponsored by the Monk Montgomery's Las Vegas
Jazz Society. There he played with Gene Harris, Eddy Harris, Marlena
Shaw, Lockjaw Davis, Carmen McRae and Carl Fontana.
While in Vegas, in 1979 Dave also performed with the jazz band
(“Eagle Eye” Shields Band) backing the Redd Fox show at the Landmark
Hotel.
And in his "spare" time, Dave also studied arranging and guitar with
Joe Lano.
Back to Connecticut in 1983, due to the death of his father, Dave
woodsheded jazz while gigging in theatres playing shows with celebrities
like Juliet Prowse, Bernadette Peters, Buddy Hackett, and Regis Philbin.
From 1984-1987 Dave ran the Quinnipiac Jazz Festival in Hamden, CT.
During that time, he brought in and performed with Paquito D'Rivera,
Toots Thielmanns and James Moody.
In 1988 and 1988 Dave toured with Laco Deczi's group, Jazz Cellua,
throughout Germany. During this tour, they played several festivals,
television shows and concerts. During this time Dave recorded on Laco's
album, Jazz Cellua New York.
From 1992 to 1997, Dave landed his own jazz gig with Bobby Buster,
and later Mark Templeton at the Foxwoods Casino in their Atrium Lounge
as a vocalist/guitarist. He learned several hundred vocals on that gig
and did two vocal CDs, Meloncholy Moon, featuring Mike Ledonne on
piano, and Tootsie Bean on drums, and For Analise.
Since then Dave has been leading his own jazz groups and doing
various stage band work with a variety of artists such as Marylin McCoo,
Jimmy Webb, Rich Little and Michael Amante.
Dave has played at Carnegie Hall twice, and on one of those occasions
he took Jim Hall’s place and opened for a group including Tom Harrel,
Vincent Herring, and Steve Turre.
Dave is currently teaching at The Neighborhood Music School and The
Hartford Conservatory of Music.
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