David Becker (born 20 October 1961) is an American jazz guitarist and leader of the David Becker Tribune. He is also a graduate of the

Musicians Institute Musicians Institute (MI) is a private for-profit music school in Los Angeles, California. MI students can earn Certificates and – with transfer of coursework taken at Los Angeles City College – Associate of Arts Degrees, as well as Bachelor ...

Career

David and his brother

Bruce The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been ...

(drummer) formed the David Becker Tribune and toured Germany in 1984. After touring the colleges that same year, the band signed with MCA and released its debut album '' Long Peter Madsen'' in 1986. In 1988, Siberian Express (MCA), produced with

Ken Caillat Kenneth Douglas Caillat ( ) is an American record producer. He is best known for engineering the Fleetwood Mac albums '' Rumours'', ''Tusk'', ''Mirage'', ''Live'', and '' The Chain Box Set''. Life and career Caillat was the president of 5.1 Ent ...

was released and reached No. 3 on '' R&R'' and the track "Anja" reached No. 1. This was followed in 1990 and 1991 by two albums, '' Third Time Around'' and ''In Motion''. In 2001, the band released one of the first

DVD-Audio DVD-Audio (commonly abbreviated as DVD-A) is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio uses most of the storage on the disc for high-quality audio and is not intended to be a video delivery format. The st ...

recordings, ''Germerica''. Some of the tracks were co-produced by drummer

Mark Schulman Mark Schulman (born September 4, 1961 in Los Angeles, California) is an American musician and corporate speaker. He performed with Cher as her tour drummer on her D2K Tour. Schulman is also a session drummer as well as a music producer, audio en ...

. In 2004, ''Where's Henning'' reached No. 34 on the '' JazzWeek'' chart. A solo album, ''Euroland'', and a duo with jazz guitarist

Joe Diorio Joseph Louis Diorio (August 6, 1936 – February 2, 2022) was an American jazz guitarist. He performed with Sonny Stitt, Hal Crook, Eddie Harris, Ira Sullivan, Stan Getz, Pat Metheny, Horace Silver, Anita O'Day, and Freddie Hubbard. In recent ye ...

, ''The Color of Sound'' (Acoustic Music), followed in 2005. ''Batavia'' was released world wide on August 6, 2010 to coincide with the 65th anniversary of the dropping of the

atom bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

in Japan. The compositions were influenced by Becker's mother's family in Indonesia and their internment in a Japanese

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. ''Batavia'' was voted one of the Best World Music recordings of 2010 by World Music Central.org. In 2013 ''Distance Traveled'' was released and reached No. 18 on the

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

charts. In July 2015, Becker released the solo album ''The Lonely Road'' (Acoustic Music Records). In 2018, Becker recorded a duo outing with former

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

guitarist, Brad Rabuchin as a tribute to the late guitarist John Abercrombie. ''For John'' was released in June 2019. A new book of 25 Guitar Etudes penned by Becker, ''Etudes You Can Use'', was released in March 2021. In August of 2021, Becker joined drummer Chris Bowman ( Ornette Coleman) and bassist Jim Donica ( Maynard Ferguson) to record a improvised set of music. The album, Continuum was released August 7, 2022. Becker also released a new solo recording, Planets in October 2022.

Other projects

At the 2015 Winter

NAMM The NAMM Show is an annual event in the United States that is organized by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), who describe it as "the industry’s largest stage, uniting the global music, sound and entertainment technology commun ...

show, Heritage Guitars unveiled the David Becker H- 575 Signature model. Becker also appears on the

Colbie Caillat Colbie Marie Caillat (; born May 28, 1985) is an American singer-songwriter. She rose to fame through social networking website Myspace. At that time, she was the number one unsigned artist of her genre. After signing with Universal Republic ...

album, '' Breakthrough'' as well as her album '' All of You''. He produced an

Attila Zoller Attila Cornelius Zoller (June 13, 1927 – January 25, 1998) was a Hungarian jazz guitarist. After World War II, he escaped the Soviet takeover of Hungary by fleeing through the mountains on foot into Austria. In 1959, he moved to the U.S., wher ...

tribute album released by Enja in 2015. The album includes Ron Carter,

Pat Metheny Patrick Bruce Metheny ( ; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer. He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works, and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progre ...

Mike Stern Mike Stern (born January 10, 1953) is an American jazz guitarist. After playing with Blood, Sweat & Tears, he worked with drummer Billy Cobham, then with trumpeter Miles Davis from 1981 to 1983 and again in 1985. He then began a solo career, ...

, and John Abercrombie. In September 2019, Becker appeared in a podcast together with Country legend

Vince Gill Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American country music singer, songwriter and musician. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman of the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s and as a solo artist ...

Discography

The David Becker Tribune *'' Long Peter Madsen'' (1986) * '' Siberian Express'' (1988) * '' Third Time Around'' (1990) * '' In Motion'' (1991) * ''Nevsky Prospekt'' (1995) * ''Germerica'' (2001) * ''Where's Henning?'' (2004) * ''Euroland'' (2005) * ''The Color of Sound'' (2005) * ''Leaving Argentina'' (2007) * ''Batavia'' (2010) * ''Distance Traveled'' (2013) * ''The Lonely Road'' (2015) * ''Sounds of the World'' (2015) * ''Kiwi Dreams'' (2018) * ''For John'' (2019) * ''Continuum (2022) * ''Planets'' (2022)

Books/DVDs

*2005: ''Getting Your Improvising Into Shape'' (

Mel Bay Mel Bay (February 25, 1913 – May 14, 1997) was an American musician and publisher best known for his series of music education books. His '' Encyclopedia of Guitar Chords'' remains a bestseller. Biography Early life Melbourne E. Bay was bo ...

) *2010: ''Playing in Shapes'' (Fingerprint) *2013: ''Rhythmic Motifs for Comping and Soloing'' (Fingerprint) *2015: ''Transitions to Jazz'' (Truefire) *2021: ''Etudes You Can Use'' (DBT)

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Becker, David 1961 births Living people American jazz guitarists Musicians from Cincinnati Musicians Institute alumni Guitarists from Ohio American male guitarists 20th-century American guitarists Jazz musicians from Ohio 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians 21st-century American guitarists 21st-century American male musicians