David Valdez - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Bio: Relocated to Portland from NYC in 2000 after living in Santa Cruz, Santa Fe, Arcata, Oakland and Boston. Studied arranging and harmony with Ray Brown at Cabrillo College '84-'86, Jazz performance major at Berklee College of Music '86-'89. Studied saxophone with Joseph Viola, Jimmy Mosher, George Garzone, Bob Mover and Paul Contos. __________ "Since moving to town from New York City, David Valdez has shown himself to be a rigorously adaptable player and a jazz gent who can make things happen. With his broad shouldered alto tone he builds his solos architecturally like very few players in town. His Latin Quartet explores some rhythmically challenging turf and may be one of the tightest new additions on our jazz bulletin board.'' Bill Smith, Willamette Week______ Saxophonist David "Carlos" Valdez is a full-throttle player with a rich knowledge of both bebop and latin jazz. Lately he's served as the quiet linchpin in a scene that has encompassed local and not-so-local greats as Nancy King, Robert Moore, Bob Mover, Lawrence Williams, Dred Scott, and many more. You can hear in the warmth of his tone and the urgency of his wail, time-well spent in the jazz salt mines of NYC, the Bay Area, and beyond.Tim DuRoce- Strong Week____________ "Alto saxophonist David Valdez is one of the blazing lights of PDX's vastly underrated Latin music scene (alongside Al Criado, Ramsey Embick, and Reinhardt Melz, among others). Having worked with players both young (Danilo Perez, Kurt Rosenwinkle, Charlie Hunter, John Medeski) and older (Clark Terry, Dave Holland, Slide Hampton, Pharoah Saunders, Mal Waldron, Bob Moses), he's equally at home in bop, blues, and utter free blowing and muscles subtly into tunes with a Sonny Criss energy."- Willamette Week -------------------------Festival and concert appearances: Monterey Jazz festival (7 years, CA) , North Sea Jazz festival(Holland) , Telluride Jazz festival , '86 World Expo at Tskuba(Japan) , Boston Globe Jazz festival , Tanglewood Music festival , Yamano Jazz festival , Bradford Jazz festival , San Jose Jazz festival , Santa Fe Jazz festival , Jazz under the Stars, Be-Bop and Brew, Cathedral Park Jazz festival (4 years,OR) -----------------------Clubs performed at (1996-2005): The Knitting Factory, Smalls, Blue Note, Cleopatras Needle, Savoy Lounge, Dharma, The C Note, Birdland, The Up and Down, Pearls, Enricos, Yoshis, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Ryles, The Willow, Tritone, Jazz D'Opus, Jimmy Maks, Blue Monk, LVs Uptown, Alladin,

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 5/3/2006
Band Website: davidvaldez.blogspot.com
Band Members: Pere Soto-Guitar, Randy Porter-piano, Salvador Toscano-Drums, Dan Robbins-bass ____________________________________________________________ ____Performances and/or recordings with: Danilo Perez, Kurt Rosenwinkle, Charlie Hunter, Clark Terry, Larry Grenadier, Slide Hampton, Pharaoh Saunders, John Medeski, Dave Holland, Josh Roseman, The Either/Orchestra, The Four Tops, Nancy King, David Friesen, Graham Conah, Kitty Margolis, Rebecca Parris, Roy Hargrove, Donny McCaslin, Alphabet Soup, Ben Monder, Dmitri Metheny, Peter Apfelbaum, Jim Black, Mal Waldron, Bob Mover, Dave Fuiczynski, Gorge Rossi, Toshiko Akioshi/Lew Tabakin, Bill Berry, Mark Levine, Matt Wilson, Dominique Eade, Eddie Marshal, George Garzone, The Drifters, Gary Smulyan's Saxophone Mosaic, Alan Jones, Eddie Henderson, Vince Wallace, Larry Schneider, Victor Mendoza, Glen Moore, Dennis Rowland, Mick Goodrick, Rick Margitza, Ben Allison, Bob Moses, Mundell Lowe, Joseph Viola Double Quartet, Trinity Royal College Chamber Jazz Ensemble, Scott Amendola, Will Bernard, Jay Lane, Kenny Wollesen, Jeff Ballard, Paul Anka, Little Anthony, the Bloom Daddies, Kim Clarke, Ronnie Burrage, Sylvia Cuenca, Chuck Clark, Dred Scott, Kenny Brooks, Esiet Esiet, John Gunther, Liberty Ellman, Heather Bennett, Lawrence Williams, Pere Soto, Mel Brown, James Zitro, Bert Wilson, Gary Versase, John Stowell, Vagabond Opera, Klezmocracy, Kosono, Quartet Barbette, Hedzoleh Soundz, Bobby Torres Latin-Jazz Project, John Butler, Aldoush & Human Exchange, Patty Waters, Dave Frishberg, Tom Pereira, Art Lillard, Bob Reynolds, Robert Moore
Influences: Bird, Cannonball, Trane, Charles Macpherson, Lee Konitz, Johnny Griffin, George Garzone, Phil Woods, Dick Oats, Frank Strozier, Gary Bartz, Joe Henderson, Warne Marsh, Stanley Turrentine, Rich Perry, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Criss, Sonny Stitt, Steve Grossman, Jimmy Mosher, Johnny Hodges, Albert Ayler, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Gigi Gryce, Bob Berg, Charlie Mariano, Clifford Jordan, Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis, Gene Ammons, Jimmy Forest, Jim Pepper, Joe Lovano, Joe Henderson, Larry Schneider, Eddie Harris, Fred Lipsius, Herb Pomeroy, Sonny Criss, Gene Quill, Eric Kloss, Herb Pomeroy, Lawrence Williams.
Record Label: Diatic Records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

The Essential Casa Valdez- best of the blog

The Essential Casa Valdez For the improvising musician By David Carlos Valdez Jazz Harmony for Improvisation- chord/scalesTo quickly find scales for these common chords-C7 11 ...
Posted by David Valdez on Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:31:00 PST

check out my blog at www.davidvaldez.blogspot.com

the real blog is at www.davidvaldez.blogspot.com
Posted by David Valdez on Sat, 17 Feb 2007 10:32:00 PST

Randy Porter's Be-Bop harmonic devices

I had my first private lesson with pianist Randy Porter today. It's been years since I had a formal lesson with anybody. Randy has one of the deepest harmonic and rhythmic concepts I've ever encounter...
Posted by David Valdez on Wed, 08 Nov 2006 12:30:00 PST

Jazz Society of Oregon Musician of the month interview

Musician of the Month (May, 2006)Interviewed by Rita RegaName: David ValdezInstrument: Alto and Tenor SaxophoneEarly Years/Education: Grew up in Santa Cruz, California when the schools still had fundi...
Posted by David Valdez on Thu, 04 May 2006 12:35:00 PST

George Russell's 'Lydian Chromatic Concept'

The other day while playing a jam session I noticed that the guitarist had written some key centers on top of all the ii-7/ V7 /ones. Meaning that over the D-7/G7/Cmaj7 he had written C major. Many Ja...
Posted by David Valdez on Thu, 04 May 2006 12:28:00 PST

Digital Patterns- Jazz by the numbers

At some point in almost every Jazz musician's development he/she usually works on digital patterns. By digital we mean both fingers and numbers. Digital patterns can be helpful for learning to play ov...
Posted by David Valdez on Thu, 04 May 2006 12:26:00 PST

8th note lines & practice tips

My college housemate Dimitri Metheny would use a kitchen timer when he practiced his trumpet. He would play for 15 minutes and then take a ten minute break. As a brass player this allowed him to pract...
Posted by David Valdez on Thu, 04 May 2006 12:25:00 PST

Yogic breathing for musicians

Playing a wind instrument requires serious breath control. Anything you can do to help you develop this control is worth investigating.While living in Santa Cruz I spent some time studying Yoga and Ve...
Posted by David Valdez on Thu, 04 May 2006 12:23:00 PST

Writing Sets

Writing sets- the bigger pictureTim Price just sent me a link to a good article he wrote on his Blog about writing sets. As a bandleader this is very important. Players usually don't learn to do this ...
Posted by David Valdez on Thu, 04 May 2006 12:22:00 PST

Innovation or Emulation?

If you learn all the 'rules' and study what you're told to study, you will end up sounding like someone else. The thing to do is start developing a personal way of playing from the start. This is true...
Posted by David Valdez on Thu, 04 May 2006 12:21:00 PST