David Drazin

Description

I perform solo piano concerts in many musical styles: jazz/blues, theater and film music and international and dance music.

Work Sample

Bass Goin' Crazy, December 4, 2021, 6:31, solo piano performance recorded during Chris & Heather's Calendar Show, Fitzgerald's Nightclub, Berwyn, IL. Bass Goin' Crazy was composed and originally played by boogie-woogie piano pioneer Albert Ammons in 1939.

The General, November 10, 2010, 14:13, The National Archives in Washington, D.C. presented a special series of public programs titled "Discovering the Civil War: Part Two, Consequences." I played my original arrangements of Civil War-era songs in a hot jazz piano style of the 1920s called Harlem Stride and I also improvised to accompany a screening of Buster Keaton's classic 1927 silent film. Afterward, I participated in an audience question-and-answer session.

Cold Duck Time, February 7, 2010, 4:02, recorded at Family Piano Company, Waukegan, IL, for their Joplin's Java coffee house live concert series. The novelty of my playing Eddie Harris' funky jazz composition Cold Duck Time is that I sustain the acoustic bass pattern in my left hand while simultaneously playing the saxophone melody in my right hand. Then I play jazz improvisations.

Boogie Woogie (1920s - 1940s), Jazz - Rock/Funk (1960s - 1970s) and silent film accompaniment (1890s - 1930) are probably not considered by anyone to be the same, but ideally all three shows would be audible to a discerning listener as having been performed by one identifiable player. In those disparate moments I was fortunate to enjoy being well received by the audiences for each of the three shows.

History

I have worked as a iazz and blues pianist performing both solo and as an ensemble member for over four decades, mostly in the Midwestern United States. I've also performed on the East and West coasts, plus Northern Italy, as a silent-film accompanist.

Artistic Vision

In the course of 48 straight years of working as a pianist, I've been able to morph my piano playing to fit Jazz from 1917 - 2022; Blues; Rock and Roll; Western Swing; Dance Band; Comedy and Cabaret songs; silent film accompaniment; ballet class accompaniment and original compositions in those types. When being heard by the respective audiences for all those types, they should all be able to say after a minute or two, I hear David playing, not a copy of someone else.