Biography
When critics write that David Vest "pounds the piano like Jerry Lee Lewis in his prime," they're not talking about imitation. There's nothing being "re-created" here, this is no "tribute" act. David has always played this way, since his first gig back in the mid-1950s.
Maybe what all the comparisons really mean is that a David Vest show is as close as anyone's likely going to get to experiencing what it all felt like when it was new.
When David came on the scene, American music was dominated by three great piano players, all Southerners: Fats Domino, Little Richard and Lewis. Fats, the eldest, was only 15 years older than David.
Although most people don't realize it, piano players down south were jumping around and "going wild" long before the Killer hit the charts. "I think the first time I saw anybody kick a piano bench and let his hair fall in his face was Hovie Lister, at an all-nite gospel singing in 1951 or 1952," recalls David.
On New Year's Day 1962 his band opened for Roy Orbison. He backed Big Joe Turner and jammed with Bill Black's Combo and the Tommy Dorsey Band before turning 21. He saw Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed, and John Lee Hooker in the prime of their careers. In 1966, when "96 Tears" was Number One on the charts, ? and the Mysterians dropped by the studio in Birmingham where David was recording.
Later he would receive the "direct laying on of hands" from piano legends like Big Walter The Thunderbird, Floyd Dixon and Katie Webster. He has toured with Jimmy T99 Nelson and Lavelle White. Along the way he wrote the first songs ever recorded by country legend Tammy Wynette, played for a gospel quartet, backed Red Foley and became the first American artist ever to record an album in Romania.
He kept right on playing his two-fisted Gulf Coast barrelhouse boogie through the 70s, 80s and 90s, when most piano players had given up and switched to B3 organ or synthesizer.
From 2002 through 2006, David shared lead vocals and frontman duties in the Paul deLay Band, culminating in his performance on an award-winning live CD, which reached the Top Ten nationally on Billboard's blues chart.
After deLay's untimely death, Vest joined forces with Kenny 'Blues Boss' Wayne and D.K. Stewart to form Northwest Pianorama.
David's many festival appearances include Seattle's Bumbershoot, the Arkansas Heritage Festival, the Waterfront Blues Festival, the Winthrop Rhythm & Blues Festival, the Edmonton Labatt's Blues Festval, the Baltimore Blues Festival, Houston's Juneteenth Festival, the Ritzville Blues Festival, the Salem Arts Festival and the New Orleans Jazz Heritage Festival (with Miss Lavelle White).
In 2005, an Oregon Public Broadcasting "Art Beat" feature on David Vest was voted a "Viewer Favorite," beating out Pink Martini and other NW notables.
Amazingly, considering the rigors of the road, time has done little to diminish David's level of energy, skill and drive. He continues to write nearly all his own songs, and to bring audiences to their feet when he performs them.
"I could go all around the world and never find another piano player like David Vest." - Jimmy T99 Nelson
Instrumentation
David Vest, vocal and piano, backed (usually) by the award-winning rhythm section from the Paul deLay Band:
Peter Dammann, guitar
Jeff Minnick, drums and vocal
Dave Kahl, bass
Plus horns, depending on the gig
Discography
The Last of the Best (Criminal, 2007)
Serve Me Right To Shuffle (Trillium, 2005)
Way Down Here (Trillium, 2003)
Links
| http://www.davidvestband.com |