A brief tribute to Dave Carpenter

What an inspiration! RIP Mr. Carpenter.

 

Dave Carpenter was incredible. There are YouTubes of him playing with Buddy Rich during the set when it’s just Buddy, Dave and Bill Cunliffe playing a feature, specifically playing All Blues. Dave’s conception was very deep then when he was only into his early 20’s. Later, before his untimely death, he was playing a lot of upright in L.A. He was a great upright bassist as well. I know musicians who were with him on Buddy’s band and they all agreed his ears and ability were phenomenal. Dave died way too soon, even so he deserves so much more recognition.

 

I got to hang out with Dave for some time around '98-'99. A very cool guy. He even got me a gig shooting for B-Band which led to me meeting some of LA's studio heavys like Carl Verheyen, Tim Pierce and even Larry Carlton. I also went to many of his gigs including Andy Summers, Mose Allison & Alan Holdsworth. Heady times to say the least. Here are a couple of studio shots:




And one with him playing live with Alan Pasqua & Peter Erskine:


After moving away from LA I tried to reconnect with him. Unfortunately, he passed before that ever happened.

 

Thank you for these pictures. They are incredible! A number of my friends were on the same edition of the Buddy Rich Band that Dave was in. There are many stories of his unbelievable musical talent not to mention the fact that everyone thought he was a great guy.

 

I got to hang with Carp a bit as we played with a lot of the same people. I thought he was especially great with Allan Holdsworth (on the Sixteen Men of Tain album). A great loss for sure - his presence in the LA scene is greatly missed.