| Dave Burrell | |
| Birth Name: | Herman Davis Burrell |
| Birth Date: | September 10, 1940 |
| Birth Place: | Middletown, Ohio, U.S. |
| Genre: | Jazz |
| Instrument: | Piano |
| Years Active: | 1970s–present |
| Associated Acts: | Untraditional Jazz Improvisational Team, The 360 Degree Music Experience |
| Website: | daveburrell.com |
Herman Davis "Dave" Burrell (born September 10, 1940)[1] is an American jazz pianist. He has played with many jazz musicians including Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Marion Brown and David Murray.
Born in Middletown, Ohio, United States, Burrell grew fond of jazz at a young age after meeting Herb Jeffries.[2] Burrell studied music at the University of Hawaii from 1958 to 1960, then, beginning in 1961, attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, graduating with degrees in composition/arranging and performance in 1965.[3] While in Boston, he played with Tony Williams and Sam Rivers.
In 1965, Burrell moved to New York City, where he worked and recorded with Grachan Moncur III, Marion Brown, and Pharoah Sanders. He also started the Untraditional Jazz Improvisational Team with saxophonist Byard Lancaster, bassist Sirone, and drummer Bobby Kapp. In 1968, Burrell co-founded The 360 Degree Music Experience with Grachan Moncur III and Beaver Harris and recorded two albums with the group. The following year, Burrell began an association with Archie Shepp, with whom he would play the 1969 Pan-African Festival in Algiers,[4] and with whom he would go on to record nearly twenty albums.
Burrell's first album as a leader was High Won-High Two (1968), produced by Alan Douglas. Echo and La Vie de Bohème were recorded for BYG Actuel in Paris in 1969. He recorded Round Midnight for Nippon Columbia.
In 1978 he composed a jazz opera entitled Windward Passages, in collaboration with Swedish poet and lyricist Monika Larsson, with an album of the same name, based on the opera, released in 1979 on Hathut in Switzerland. Their touring and recording collaborations resulted in Daybreak (1989), Brother to Brother (Gazell, 1992), In Concert (Victo, 1992), and Windward Passages (Black Saint, 1993). Burrell appears on Murray's DIW albums Lovers, Deep River, Ballads, Spirituals, Tenors, Remembrances, and Picasso, recorded between 1988 and 1993.
Burrell tours and performs as a soloist and as a leader of a duo, trio, and larger ensembles. He recorded for the High Two label from Philadelphia. His 2004 album Expansion (with bassist William Parker and drummer Andrew Cyrille) was acclaimed by NPR, Down Beat, Village Voice, JazzTimes, The Wire, and others. Splasc Records in Italy released a studio solo piano recording, Margy Pargy in 2005. In 2006, Burrell released Consequences (Amulet), a live duet set with drummer Billy Martin, and Momentum (High Two), featuring bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Guillermo E. Brown. RAI Trade, Italy, did a live recording of Burrell's and Larsson's collaborations, Dave Burrell Plays His Songs, featuring singer Leena Conquest, that was released in 2010.
In 2022, it was announced that Burrell had donated his archive to the Center for American Music in the University of Pittsburgh Library System.[5]
| Year recorded | Title | Label | Personnel/Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1965? | High | Douglas | With Norris Sirone Jones (bass), Bobby Kapp and Sunny Murray (drums), Pharoah Sanders (tambourine) | |
| 1968 | High Won-High Two | Black Lion | With Norris Sirone Jones (bass), Bobby Kapp and Sunny Murray (drums), Pharoah Sanders (tambourine) | |
| 1969? | La Vie de Bohème | BYG Actuel | With Eleanor Burrell (vocals), Ric Colbeck (piano, trumpet, harp), Claude Delcloo (chimes, drums, tympani), Beb Guérin (bass), Grachan Moncur III (trombone, chimes), Kenneth Terroade (flute, tenor sax) | |
| 1969 | Echo | BYG Actuel | With Arthur Jones (alto sax), Grachan Moncur III (trombone), Sunny Murray (bass, drums), Archie Shepp (tenor sax), Alan Silva (bass), Clifford Thornton (cornet) | |
| 1970 | After Love | America | With Bertrand Gauthier (drums), Michel Gladieux (double bass), Ron Miller (mandolin, double bass), Roscoe Mitchell (reeds), Don Moye (drums), Alan Silva (violin, cello, electric cello) | |
| 1973 | Dreams | Trio Records | With Motoharu Yoshizawa (bass) | |
| 1973 | Only Me | Trio Records | Solo piano | |
| 1976 | Wildflowers 3: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions (reissued on - Complete): one track | Douglas / Casablanca | With Stafford James (bass) and Harold White (drums) | |
| 1977? | Black Spring | Marge | Solo piano | |
| 1977 | Teardrops for Jimmy | Denon Jazz | Solo piano | |
| 1978? | Dave Burrell Plays Ellington & Monk | Denon | With Takashi Mizuhashi (bass) | |
| 1978? | Lush Life | Denon | With Takashi Mizuhashi (bass) | |
| 1979 | Windward Passages | Hathut | Solo piano; in concert | |
| 1979? | Round Midnight | Nippon Columbia | With Takashi Mizuhashi (bass) | |
| 1981 | Live at the Black Musicians' Conference, 1981 | NoBusiness | With Marion Brown (alto sax) | |
| 1989 | Daybreak | Gazell | With David Murray (bass clarinet, tenor sax) | |
| 1990 | The Jelly Roll Joys | Gazell | Solo piano | |
| 1991 | In Concert | Victo Records | Victo | Duo, with David Murray (tenor sax); in concert |
| 1993 | Windward Passages (Black Saint) | Black Saint | With David Murray (bass clarinet, tenor sax); Monika Larsson (vocals) added on one track | |
| 1993 | Brother to Brother | Gazell | With David Murray (bass clarinet, tenor sax) | |
| 2000 | Recital | CIMP | With Tyrone Brown (bass) | |
| 2001 | Live at Caramoor | Sonoris | Solo piano; in concert | |
| 2003 | Expansion | High Two Records | With William Parker (bass), Andrew Cyrille (drums) | |
| 2003 | Conception | Somerealmusic | With David Tamura (tenor saxophone) and Joe Chonto (drums) | |
| 2005? | Margy Pargy | Splasc(H) | Solo piano | |
| 2005 | Consequences | Amulet | Duo, with Billy Martin (percussion); in concert | |
| 2005 | Momentum | High Two | Trio, with Michael Formanek (bass), Guillermo E. Brown (drums) | |
| 2008? | Esquisse for a Walk | NTCD | with Daniel Huck | |
| 2010? | Plays His Songs | RAI Trade | with Leena Conquest (vocals) | |
| 2013? | Darlingtonia | Jazzwerkstatt | with Silke Eberhard | |
| 2014? | Turning Point | NoBusiness | with Steve Swell | |
| 2018 | 1.11.18 | Otoroku | Solo piano |
With Albert Ayler
With Marion Brown
With Stanley Cowell
With Henry Grimes, Roberto Pettinato, and Tyshawn Sorey
With Duo Baars-Henneman
With Noah Howard
With Khan Jamal
With Stafford James
With Giuseppi Logan
With Grachan Moncur III
With David Murray
With Sunny Murray
With Alessandro Nobile and Antonio Moncada
With William Parker
With Odeon Pope
With Roswell Rudd
With Pharoah Sanders
With Archie Shepp
With Sonny Sharrock
With Alan Silva
With Bob Stewart
With Steve Swell
With Clifford Thornton
With Le Tigre des platanes
With Patty Waters
With Bobby Zankel
With The 360 Degree Music Experience