At 13 Dave’s mom asked him if she bought a piano would he make time to practice ( and not give up his love of sports) and he said yes. So in comes a baby-grand and a tired old lady piano teacher who taught him a very uninspired “Down by the old mill stream”. Dave then heard the kid next door playing “12st Rag” and insisted mom hire Craig Safan’s (who would go on to compose the theme song for  the hit TV sitcom “Cheers”) teacher Helene Mirich and the rest is history. Ms Mirich taught a mixture of theory and improvisation that led Dave to his first bandmates “The Fabulous Unknowns” (kids from his Carthay Circle neighborhood in WLA). The bass player Ron Friedman’s dad Sam Friedman (aka Sunny Forest)  was a pharmacist by day and songwriter/jazz pianist at night and it was Sam who taught Dave the Boogie-Woogie. The “Unknowns” played at parties and dances through Junior High and Fairfax High and would close their sets with “12 st Rag” and their shows with the “Boogie Woogie”.

Then on Oct 28, 1964 everything would suddenly change for the better. That was the day when a friend took Dave to the now famous T.A.M.I. Show at the Santa Monic Civic Auditorium This show included performances from music legends Chuck Berry, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, The Beach Boys, James Brown and the Famous Flames and closing with the Rolling Stones! For years afterwards the Stones would remember their horror at having the great James Brown. After witnessing this once in a lifetime collection of talent, Dave knew that music would be an important part of his life forever, and this crystalized when he heard John Lennon singing the lyrics to “All you need is Love” on the radio in his room. “There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done” and Dave thought why not copy the Beatles?

By the time he entered UCLA ཽ, Dave was a regular on the Sunset Strip and all of it’s night clubs, including the world famous Whiskey A Go Go – where, as luck would have it, he witnessed “The Jimi Hendrix Experience.” Not only did Dave get truly “experienced” that night, but this Baptism would continue to the very next day, when Jimi Hendrix appeared at a noon concert at UCLA and lit his guitar on fire not five feet from where Dave and his new band – “Pot Luck ” were sitting in the front row. The very next week, at the same UCLA Student Union and from the same front row seat, Mike Bloomfield of the legendary “Electric Flag” with Buddy Miles on drums, parted the curtains 10 minutes late into the scheduled start of their noon concert, and asked the crowd of 2000 if there “was an organ player in the house”! Dave ran on stage (he was actually “pushed” by his bandmates) and, once more, the rest is history. Dave soon thereafter signed a record deal with Warner Bros. Records as the main writer of “Kindred” and toured the United States opening for “Three Dog Night” whose song “Joy to the World” was a worldwide sensation.

Then the band had a fateful gig in Aspen CO for New Years Eve. The band fell in love with CO and eventually 4 of the members would move there. Even though Dave had this Clio award-winning Bluefield Music Design music production company he upped and moved lock stock and barrel to Aspen,CO. in Aug 1991 -He was still doing music production but he was now ready to pursue his main love – playing the grand piano. He became centrally entrenched in the vibrant Destination Resort music scene playing the Grand in up-scale Hotel lobbies and parties with his band The Uptown Strutters. – featuring a unique blend of jazz standards (thanks to mom) / blues and rock that has created a wide variety niche all it’s own.