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Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band Formed in 1991, The Dave Matthews Band is composed of the widely varied musical interests of five musicians to create a uniquely impressive sound that combines the influences of folk, Jazz, rock, world beat, and reggae. South African David Matthews, the band's lead guitarist, began to assemble the players in 1991 to accompany him on a demo tape of original songs. Matthews, at the time was a bartender at a Charlottesville, Va. Jazz venue, called Millers. Matthews decided to approach the area musicians he most respected, and invite them to listen to his musical ideas. He approached Leroi Moore and Carter Beauford first, two musicians that he respected greatly. After listening to a few songs he had recorded, They decided to make a Before joining The Dave Matthews Band, Leroi played Jazz at many night spots in the Charlottesville-Richmond area. Leroi, was trained in the classics, one reason for the band's sometimes classical sound. Leroi plays a Haynes closed hole C foot flute, a Yamaha Soprano saxophone, as well as Selmer Alto and Tenor Saxophones. Prior to joining Matthews and Moore, Carter Beauford had been playing Jazz drums since his childhood. His father played trumpet in a Jazz band, and Beauford grew up with Jazz music surrounding him. Other than his father Beauford names Jazz Greats Jhon Coltrane and Miles Davis to be among his biggest influences in music. After playing the drums through college, Carter abandoned his musical aspirations and began teaching history. But he soon went back to music. He signed with a fusion Jazz band called Secrets, which lasted from 1984 to 1990. Secrets grew to have a huge following on the Virginia Jazz circuit, including Dave Matthews. After the band dissolved, Carter went to California to try out for the Arsenio Hall Show. After he failed to make it into the Arsenio band, Carter landed a job on pianist Ramsey Lewis's BET Jazz show, "Bet on Jazz.” In January of 1991, Carter moved back to Charlottesville, playing random gigs and taping the BET show. When Matthews heard Carter was back in Virginia, he decided to approach him about making the demo tape. Matthews, Beauford, and Moore then approached Stefan Lessard, who at 16, was already an accomplished upright bass player The trio asked Stefan to play electric bass guitar for the newly forming band. Lessard was already a very well respected bass player in the Jazz circles of Virginia. He converted to the electric bass for the band. The bass is really the only non “acoustic” instrument in the band. Sometimes, though, Lessard uses the upright. Stefan considers revolutionary bass player Jaco Pastorius to be his greatest musical influence. While recording the demo one of the tunes seemed to need a supporting violin, the group then sought out Boyd Tinsely who was a classical violinist until 1985, when he switched over to rock and roll. Before joining Dave, Carter, Leroi, and Stefan, Boyd played with a few local outfits. He had his Boyd Tinsley Band, which he continued to play with until 93, and he played with Down Boy Down, an acoustic duo that played fraternity parties and college bars around Charlottesville. After playing with the new band on the demo tape, Tinsley approached Dave and Carter and asked to join. Now for seven years the band has been playing a very different brand of pop. With Beauford’s funky back beat and the unconventionalism of saxophone and violin lead instruments, The Dave Matthews Band is very different from today’s typical three chord pop music. Five musicians coming from such different backgrounds is what makes this While the band hardly can be considered fusion the influence of Jazz is especially prevalent in the style of the Dave Matthews Band’s music. When listening to the band it is obvious that the tambour is closely related to Jazz. The guitar is primarily used as a rhythm instrument, playing the same riff or progression repetitively. This leaves room for the saxophone and the violin to take the lead as the improvisational instruments. The presence of a violin is especially rare in today’s popular music and can be compared to the introduction of instruments such as the French horn during the cool period of Jazz during the early fifties. Often the melody lines are played in unison by sax and violin before having Tinsley and Moore each take a turn at an improvisational line, this closely resembles the Bop styles of artists such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. See the first example, “Ants Marching,” call and response between the saxophone and violin can be also be heard in this example, this type of style was made popular in Jazz but originated in African tribal traditions. Improvisation has had a large impact on the Dave Matthews Band and other pop music. While improvisation holds its roots in classical music it was rather obscure, and it took Jazz to make it a popular musical style. Improvisation is very obvious when comparing two recordings of the same song “Two Step” in examples two and three. Another example of the influence Jazz had on the Dave Matthews Band is the singing style of Matthews. Dave commonly uses a wordless style of singing which involves the substitution of real syllables and nonsense words in the place of an instrument. Many Jazz artists are prolific in this type of “scat singing.” Louis Armstrong was the first to record this type of singing in 1926 in a song called “Heebie Jeebies.” Matthews can be heard using a scat type of singing in examples, four, “Minarets,” and five, “#36.” A popular definition of Jazz includes the idea that the music “swings,” again the song #36 (example number six) shows this trait. Better than any of today’s popular bands The Dave Matthews Band finds the balance between composition and improvisation, which is really what Jazz is all about. The Dave Matthews Band combines the influences of many different types of music creating a Bibliography:

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