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R.I.P. David Shelander 9/3/13 - My mentor, dear friend, and one of my favorite people

Bio by Billy Garrett on the day of David Shelander's passing (edited for YouTube limitations):

At about 6'6", David Shelander was a giant literally and figuratively. He compensated for his height, which some might have found intimidating, with his gentle, ingratiating manner. His smile was constant and contagious and he preferred everyone around him to be smiling, too. He was super-intelligent and his sharp mind informed his wry wit. He was hilarious. He had a million stories and, amazingly, most of them were true.

David was a giant musically, too; whether playing jazz standards, New Orleans funk, traditional ragtime, R & R, Pop, R & B...whatever, David was the most tasteful pianist/keyboardist I've ever worked with. He always knew the right part AND sound to use on a song or passage. I loved how he would throw in THAT ONE NOTE that would tweak your ear, get your attention and put a smile on your face. He could burn up a piano solo when called for, but his style took a lot from Ellington, Basie and Jobim in the economy of his playing. He would sometimes just lay out completely for 32 bars, and it was always perfect.

His credentials are impressive and bona fide. The following is incomplete, obviously, with gaping holes in his history, and gleaned from my conversations with David over the years and others who knew him.

He was born on January 5, 1954, in Gainesville Texas, near as I can reckon on this night. He grew up in McAllen, Texas, and graduated from the University of North Texas with its renowned music department. Right out of college in the Seventies he found himself playing synths on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show with Doc Severinson and the Tonight Show Orchestra. Funny story: he told me about the time Dizzy Gillespie was on the show and, after Dizzy comes out and plays a song with the band, Johnny's chatting with Diz and Johnny comments on how Dizzy's head seems to inflate like a balloon when he blows into his trumpet. Dizzy replied "That's nothing. You ought to see my ass." The crowd laughed for fifteen minutes straight. Johnny fell out of his chair. They had to stop taping the show the hysterical laughter went on so long and, of course, the bit never made it to air. You couldn't say "ass" on TV in the Seventies. My retelling does not do the story justice. You had to hear David tell it to get the full impact.

David did a duet record with Symphony Sid Page (you wanna see some creds? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Page) from Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks fame. He gave me a copy of it when I told him I was a huge Hicks fan.

Later, Dave played with The Gap Band. The bomb drop sound at the beginning of "You Dropped a Bomb on Me" was all Dave. At some point he also played for a long time with the Australian multi-platinum, schmaltz duo, Air Supply. He did not speak much of this dark period.

David at one point backed up the great jazz singer, Carmen McRae. He told me that, at the rehearsal with her, she called some standard (I can't remember which). They started the tune and, after a few bars McRae says "You're not gonna play it like THAT, are you?" David replied, "How would you like me to play it?" So she sat down at the piano and played it for him the way she wanted it, and that's how he played it. Piano lesson with Carmen McRae...priceless.

He went on to play with Texas blues great Gatemouth Brown for thirteen years and Bonnie Raitt for a long time after that. David turned down a steady gig with the Neville Bros. and went with Gatemouth cuz Gate had more gigs at the time and Dave needed the work.

In recent years, David traveled the world with The Supremes', Mary Wilson, and the Temptations', Richard Street, with The Motown Review. He was always off to Disney World or California or England or some far-flung corner of the globe for gigs. I couldn't keep up with him. Nobody could.

In between globe-trotting David was active in the Pensacola Jazz Society and always up for a gig if there were a few bucks and some joy involved. He just loved to play.

Every year or so he would take off to Brazil to recharge his musical batteries, usually with New Orleans piano maestro, Tom McDermott, with whom he was understandably real tight...two piano monsters. I am blessed to have gotten to hang with David the night before he died.

David was an entrepreneur with his fingers in who knows what all endeavors. He had a computer business thing going on and had just recently gotten a deal in Los Angeles for a TV show he was developing, The Last Ship (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2402207/).

These remembrances do not begin to scratch the surface of David's life.

I will forever be blessed for having had the opportunity to play with David Shelander as much as I did, which was not nearly enough. There is no replacement for him. My heart goes out to everyone who knew and loved him.