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David Sills

Chosen as an L.A. Times "Best Bet", David is making a name for himself as one of the finest young jazz musicians in the L.A area. "It was soon apparent that Sills, 26, is not your usual young saxophonist. His airy well-pitched sound carries hints of Stan Getz and Lester Young, and he plays with a patience that speaks of maturity. He goes straight to the heart of a lyric, forgoing the flashy excess of youth, developing the story line during his solos with touches of warm melodicism and the occasional flurry of notes." - Bill Kolhase In the L.A. Times

David's commitment to the integrity of the music is shown in his Naxos Jazz Compact Disk, Journey Together, featuring jazz giants Alan Broadbent, Darek Oles, Joe LaBarbara and Larry Koonse. This thoughtful and swinging album shows David to be a talented arranger, expert bandleader and inspired soloist. David's first album, Hanging Five debued to critical acclaim in 1997. And David has done it again with a fabulous new CD called Bigs, also on the Naxos label. This one features the same band as 'Journey Together' and is available in all of the usual locations.

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3
Album Review

David Sills Double Guitar Quintet: Natural Lines

Read "Natural Lines" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Los Angeles-based reed player David Sills has usually led a quintet with guitar, piano, bass and drums. Most of his recent performances have taken place in venues lacking a piano, so he began adding a second guitar. The change in instrumentation had a side benefit, opening up new musical possibilities and colors. Having two guitars in the rhythm section is common in rock music, but unusual in jazz, so it offers a novel listening experience (especially for jazz guitar fans). ...

4
Album Review

David Sills: Blue's the New Green

Read "Blue's the New Green" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


Saxophonist David Sills opens his Blue's the New Green with tenor sax titan Sonny Rollins' tune, “No Moe." But Sills doesn't use Rollins' musculature or his burly tone. He rolls more in the mode of sax men Joe Henderson or Stan Getz--or, to take it back further, Coleman Hawkins or Ben Webster, with a smooth, vibrato-less delivery. Sills is steeped in the tradition of those who came before him, without being mired there. As in previous outings, Eastern ...

115
Album Review

David Sills: Green

Read "Green" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


With tenor saxophonist David Sills, three big “s" words come to mind: Swinging, soulful, and...surfing?"Check out the cover photo on his Green CD. You might think it a re-release of a forgotten Chantays--of “Pipeline" fame--album from 1963. The guy on the surfboard--David Sills himself--is cutting into a bottom turn on a clean, overhead steel blue wave, with, it appears, a tube in his immediate future.Surfing aside, Sills proves himself a saxophonist/composer riding deep in the jazz ...

162
Album Review

David Sills: Down the Line

Read "Down the Line" reviewed by Jack Bowers


One of the great things about jazz is that there's always room for persuasive new voices, especially those who've mastered the vocabulary and know how to swing. Saxophonist David Sills, now in his mid-thirties, qualifies easily on both counts, as he shows consistently on Down the Line, evidently his second album as a leader of his own group, although Sills has recorded with a number of other first-rank musicians.

Sills has enlisted a clever and congenial front-line partner in alto ...

168
Album Review

David Sills: Eastern View

Read "Eastern View" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


With a solid organ trio backing him, tenor saxophonist David Sills grabs your attention with his very first solo on Eastern View 's opener, the Sills-penned (as are all the songs here) “New Break." The tune opens with an organ-supplied bass groove backed by shimmering cymbals; then the guitar and sax enter, peeling off some tangy mid-tempo lines, until the accompaniment pulls back and Sills steps out front, with a somewhat restrained (nicely so) and articulate, straightforward monolgue in front ...

133
Album Review

David Sills: Bigs

Read "Bigs" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Naxos' press release calls tenor saxophonist David Sills “a unique composite of Stan Getz, Joe Henderson and Warne Marsh." Not much pressure on that young man's shoulders, is there? Well, if Sills is feeling any pressure on Bigs, his second album for Naxos, it's never apparent; in fact, he's as loose and unflappable as Steve Irwin, television's zealous crocodile hunter, who never flinches no matter how imminent the danger. While the ghosts of Getz and Henderson are always close at ...

146
Album Review

David Sills: Bigs

Read "Bigs" reviewed by Dave Nathan


Tenor sax man David Sills when he came to the stylistic crossroads, obviously took the fork marked Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins and Stan Getz instead of the one marked Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. This decision is reflected on his second release for the Naxos label. He is joined by a quartet of jazz veterans, Alan Broadbent, Larry Koonse, Darek Oles and Joe LaBarbera. Sills hasn't ignored all forms of modern jazz. Not in the least. “Waiting for ...

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"A meeting of Stan Getz and Joe Henderson, a style in which smooth reserve and technical ability combine in a single cool-to-the bone sound." - LA Times

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Natural Lines

Gut String Records
2019

buy

Blue's the New Green

Gut String Records
2013

buy

Green

Origin Records
2007

buy

Down the Line

Origin Records
2006

buy

Eastern View

Unknown label
2004

buy

Bigs

Unknown label
2002

buy

Green

From: Green
By David Sills

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