“Home grown Dave Mathews, he can play everything” – Etta James
“And we have David K. Mathews on keyboards, who was with Tower Of Power and Etta James before us. He’s become imperative to the band because he’s got knowledge of everything from Otis Spann and McCoy Tyner to Randy Weston and Eddie Palmieri” – Carlos Santana
DAVID K. MATHEWS | The Fantasy Vocal Sessions Vol. 1
David K. Mathews, The Fantasy Vocal Sessions Vol. 1, on Effendi Records, is the label’s 1st release by the long-time Etta James and current Santana keyboardist. Mathews has been playing professionally since 1975, performing on the Piano, Electric Piano, Hammond Organ, Clavinet and Synthesizers. He has been the Keyboard Player with Santana since 2010. Dave was the organist/pianist with the legendary Queen of Rhythm & Blues, Etta James, from 1988 thru 2009. Prior to his tenure with Etta James, he played with East Bay Funk pioneers Tower of Power, replacing original organist Chester Thompson. He toured with the group for 2 years, from 1983 to 1985.
The Fantasy Vocal Sessions Vol. 1 is a collection of standards from the great American songbook performed in a typical small group jazz setting. The vocalists featured on this album have all been an important part of Dave’s musical life throughout the years, from 1979 to the present day. The singers include rock legend Steve Miller, Maria Muldaur of “Midnight At The Oasis” fame, long-time Santana vocalist Tony Lindsay, Amikaeyla, jazz vocal phenom Kenny Washington, and a host of others. Saxophonist Wayne de Silva is featured on many tracks, and the rhythm section is anchored by veteran east coast drummer Akira Tana, bassist Peter Barshay, and beloved S.F. Bay Area guitarists Jim Nichols and Carl Lockett.
The regal presence of Etta James looms large over this unusual and invaluable album. Mathews had been touring and recording with the R&B legend for nearly two decades, when in 2007, he came up with the idea of getting James into the studio with a stripped-down rhythm section. After so much time on the road, “we were family,” he recalls, “suddenly I had this realization that I had been playing with one of the greatest singers of all time, and why didn’t I get her to sing a couple of songs for my own album project? After all of those years I was so used to being around her that I’d kind of taken for granted the incredible place that she occupied in the world of American music. I was getting ready to book a session, but then Etta’s health really started to decline, the economy crashed, I lost my savings and suddenly I could barely pay my bills. For Etta it became a struggle just to make her gigs, and she finally had to stop performing in spring of 2009. We were never able to make that session happen, and after 20 years I was out of a gig.” Mathews’ hard times came to an end in 2010 when he took over the Santana keyboard chair (once again following in the footsteps of Chester Thompson, whom he’d replaced in Tower of Power three decades earlier). He’s been on the road with the iconic guitarist ever since.
Known in the San Francisco Bay Area as an eclectic musician with the ability to play many musical styles in an idiomatically correct fashion, Dave has worked and/or recorded with such diverse artists as Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin, Ruben Blades, Gloria Estefan, Pitbull, India Arie, Dave Matthews, The Gypsy Kings, Nas, Wyclef Jean, Shelia E, Boz Scaggs, Maria Muldaur, Ray Obiedo, Taj Mahal, Charles Brown, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis, Robert Cray, Robben Ford, Toots Thielmans, Jimmy Witherspoon, Plas Johnson, John Handy, Houston Person, Red Holloway, Bill Watrous, Bonnie Raitt, Peabo Bryson, Cold Blood, David Grisman, Otis Clay, Albert Collins, Otis Rush, The Memphis Horns, Vassar Clements, Gatemouth Brown, Huey Lewis, Anne Hampton Calloway.
Further credits include impromptu performances with Herbie Hancock, George Duke, Dr. John, Tito Puente, Jose Feliciano, Armando Peraza, George Benson, The Marsalis Brothers, Bobby McFerrin, Jaco Pastorious, Marcus Miller, Jack Bruce, Esperanza Spalding, Ronnie Wood, Delbert McClinton, Chaka Khan, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Lew Soloff, Warren Vache, Paquito De Rivera, Harold Land, Kenny G, John Sebastian, Gregg Allman, Phoebe Snow, Bernard Purdie, Paul Butterfield, Al Kooper, Rufus Thomas, Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste, Leo Noncentelli, George Porter of The Meters, Mike Clark, Steve Smith, Bernie Worell, Roomful of Blues, Cornell Dupree and Joey DeFrancesco.
Let’s meet the cats!
Nicolas Bearde
Inhabiting a sparsely populated zone between masculine R&B fervor and cool jazz crooning, Bearde is an effortlessly soulful Bay Area treasure who knows that vulnerability and passion go hand in hand. He honed his improvisational skills in the late 1980s as a founding member of Bobby McFerrin’s innovative a cappella group Voicestra, and while often pulled towards R&B he’s increasingly found himself performing in jazz settings through his work with Nat Adderley Jr.
Amikaeyla Gaston
A jazz artist who weaves together a dizzying array of influences, Amikaeyla grew up in Washington DC absorbing classical music from her mother, a conservatory-trained pianist, and jazz from her father, an amateur trumpeter and conguero. Before moving to the Bay Area in 2007 she fronted a 14-piece West African band, belted soul in a horn-laden 10-piece R&B combo, explored ragas in a 12-piece classical South Indian ensemble, and sang standards in a straight-ahead jazz quintet. She’s recorded with powerhouse players like Howard Levy and Victor Wooten (founding members of Bela Flecks’ Flecktones), Mike Stern and Dennis Chambers, earning five Washington Area Music Association Awards (Wammys) with her 2004 album Mosaic. “She’s a fearless improviser, and she’s got a beautiful spirit,” Mathews says. “I love her tone. We’ve done a couple of projects and she’s becoming one of my go-to singers.”
Steve Miller
This Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee needs no introduction, and his presence here shouldn’t come as a surprise. He grew up in a jazz-loving household where Les Paul and Mary Osborne were close family friends, and he acquitted himself well on his 1988 jazz
project Born 2 B Blue (Capitol). Mathews met the singer through saxophone great John Handy, and when Miller heard about the project he eagerly offered to participate.
Maria Muldaur
Steeped in American roots music, Muldaur learned blues at the feet of golden age belter Victoria Spivey, crooned jazz with Benny Carter and Kenny Burrell and laid down New Orleans funk with Dr. John. Though her 1973 Warner Bros. debut went platinum powered by her hit “Midnight at the Oasis,” she’s always been more interested in following her muse than in chasing musical fashion. She delivers two timeless performances here, ache-filled and
sensuously world weary.
Glenn Walters
One of the project’s revelations is Glenn Walters, a Bay Area institution who first made his mark in the early 1970s with the beloved but doomed Hoodoo Rhythm Devils, a swamp-rock band that came achingly close to making it big. Best known as a blue-eyed soul singer, he came up in the Midwest as a singing drummer with the family band and knows his way around the jazz canon, particularly ballads. He offers a pair of sublime performances, breathing new life into the rarely covered Heinz Roemheld/Mitchell Parish chestnut “Ruby” (a minor hit for Ray Charles in 1961), and infusing the oft-interpreted Hoagy Carmichael/Johnny Mercer
classic “Skylark” with a rueful charm.
Tony Lindsay
A soul singer with a big, warm, flexible voice, Lindsay possesses a classic R&B sound that can evoke the soaring cadences of Stevie Wonder, the sleek funk of Prince, or the romantic balladry of Teddy Pendergrass. Growing up in Kingston, N.Y. in the early 60s, he started performing at the age of eight, leading a doo wop combo even though he was the youngest kid in the group. He’s best known for a two-decade-plus run with Santana, including the 1999 megahit Supernatural.
Kenny Washington
Mathews calls Washington the greatest male jazz singer in the world, an opinion shared by just about every musician with whom he’s shared the stage (including pianist Geoffrey Keezer, vibraphonist Joe Locke, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, and vocalist Kim Nalley). The New Orleans native has spent the past two decades ready for major label attention, but has somehow avoided the spotlight. His poise, emotional insight, and supple phrasing make Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life,” a song oft sung but rarely elevated, into the album’s most arresting track.
Frank Jackson
With a vast treasure trove of songs at his fingertips, a smooth delivery informed by Nat “King” Cole, and a buoyant, unflappable spirit, Jackson embodies the jazz glories of San Francisco’s past. In the years after World War II, the Texas native backed T-Bone Walker, Ruth Brown and Jimmy Witherspoon when they came through town, then played regularly with jazz royalty as one of the house pianists at Jimbo’s Bop City in the Fillmore, where he played with Charlie Parker and John Coltrane. At 91, his voice has lost some of its flexibility and fine-grained texture, but his sweet soul comes through clearly.
John Laslo
The only non-professional in the mix, Laslo taps into Sinatra’s simmering pathos on “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.” A college friend of Joe Farrell’s, Laslo has spent his life close to the jazz scene. Mathews first heard him sing at a regular jam session run by veteran drummer Vince Lateano and was struck by his musicality. “He was the antithesis of the overly “profound” (read affected) jazz singer,” he recalls. “I liked his emotional honesty and
simplicity.” In his late 80s, Laslo’s not selling or buying anything. He’s telling his story with unassuming style.
Renata “Reni” Simon
A Memphis native now based in Northern California, Simon started her career as part of the Stax fold, singing demos for Eddie Floyd and other Stax artists. In the mid-1970s she was a vital part of the Bay Area scene, touring and recording with Elvin Bishop (including the hit single “Fooled Around and Fell In Love”), and singing background with Van Morrison, Steve Miller and others. Her heartbreaking legato version of “We’ll Be Together Again” is a soul tour de force, and a loving tribute to her departed parents. “She was one of the first great singers I worked with,” Mathews says. “It was through Reni and her husband at the time Bill Slais that I met Mic Gillette and Doc Kupka and the rest of the Tower of Power guys. She retired from singing about 15 years ago, but you wouldn’t know it. She did the song in one take, early in the morning of day one at the studio and we didn’t have to do anything to her vocal.”
Tracks
I Want To Talk About You
Piano – David K. Mathews
Vocals – Nicolas Bearde
Tenor Saxophone – Wayne de Silva (solo)
Guitar – Jim Nichols
Bass – Peter Barshay
Drums – Akira Tana
Alfie
Piano – David K. Mathews
Vocals – Amikeayla Gaston
Tenor Saxophone – Wayne de Silva (solo)
Guitar – Jim Nichols
Bass – Peter Barshay
Drums – Akira Tana
Blue Skies
Piano – David K. Mathews (solo)
Vocals – Steve Miller
Guitar – Jim Nichols
Bass – Peter Barshay
Drums – Akira Tana
Oh Papa
Piano – David K. Mathews (solo)
Vocals – Maria Muldaur
Guitar – Jim Nichols
Bass – Peter Barshay
Drums – Akira Tana
Ruby
Piano – David K. Mathews
Vocals – Glenn Walters
Tenor Saxophone – Wayne de Silva (solo)
Guitar – Jim Nichols (solo)
Bass – Peter Barshay
Drums – Akira Tana
Smile
Piano – David K. Mathews (solo)
Vocals – Nicolas Bearde
Guitar – Jim Nichols (solo)
Bass – Peter Barshay
Drums – Akira Tana
When Sunny Gets Blue
Piano – David K. Mathews
Vocals – Tony Lindsay
Tenor Saxophone – Wayne de Silva (solo)
Guitar – Carl Lockett (solo)
Bass – Peter Barshay
Drums – Akira Tana
Lover Man
Piano – David K. Mathews (solo)
Vocals – Maria Muldaur
Guitar – Jim Nichols (solo)
Bass – Peter Barshay
Drums – Akira Tana
Lush Life
Piano – David K. Mathews
Vocals – Kenny Washington
Tenor Saxophone – Wayne de Silva (solo)
Guitar – Jim Nichols
Bass – Peter Barshay
Drums – Akira Tana
The More I See You
Piano – David K. Mathews
Vocals – Frank Jackson
Guitar – Jim Nichols (solo)
Bass – Peter Barshay (solo)
Drums – Akira Tana
Congas – Derek Rolando
We’ll Be Together Again
Piano – David K. Mathews
Vocals – Renata (Reni) Simon
Tenor Saxophone – Wayne de Silva (solo)
Guitar – Jim Nichols
Bass – Peter Barshay (solo)
Drums – Akira Tana
Skylark
Piano – David K. Mathews
Vocals – Glenn Walters
Tenor Saxophone – Wayne de Silva (solo)
Guitar – Jim Nichols
Bass – Peter Barshay
Drums – Akira Tana
In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning
Piano – David K. Mathews (solo)
Vocals – John Laslo
Guitar – Jim Nichols
Bass – Peter Barshay
Drums – Akira Tana