Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Dave Black is Beatle-ing on his acoustic guitar for a Sunday-afternoon crowd at Alpha Brewing Company in South St. Louis, one of three gigs this day. He’s wearing his trademark short-brimmed cap backward, like a beret.
First comes “I Will.” Then he ventures into “She’s Leaving Home,” another of the Beatles’ slower songs. Lowering his head like a fullback toward his guitar and bobbing, Black takes the plaintive melody and chords into a new galaxy of notes, only to improvise his way into Miles Davis’ moody seminal jazz piece “So What.” He ends by circling back to the Beatles tune.
The arc between the Fab Four and Davis captures the career of one of St. Louis’ best and busiest guitarists, and arguably its most versatile. He plays rock, jazz, blues, country, Latin, classical, klezmer… “He plays so many different genres and plays them so well,” says guitarist Aaron Burlbaw, founder of the group Acoustik Element.
Black caught the guitar bug at age 7 while watching the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, in 1964. “I was taking a bath,” Black recalls. “My mom yelled, ‘Hurry up and come out here—you’ll miss it!’ I was naked, dripping wet. It was like a baptism. The audience was going crazy. It was the emotion the Beatles generated. I couldn’t break it down as a kid.”
He eventually broke down the Beatles and much more, evolving from teenage rocker into adjunct professor of jazz studies at Webster University. But Black gently rejects the jazz-guitarist label. “I’m a guitarist, period,” he says. He enjoys musical genres besides jazz but also finds them financially necessary. Hired for a wedding reception band, he’ll shred the B-52s’ “Love Shack” on request.
The general public can find Black regularly gigging at such places as Scarlett’s Wine Bar, The Dark Room, and the Pat Connolly Tavern. (This month, he plays a jazz dinner at The Dark Room, 5:30 p.m. March 5.) Frequent collaborators include jazz singer Joe Mancuso, guitarists Javier Mendoza and Farshid Etniko, and flutist Margaret Bianchetta. As a member of a group called Bach to the Future, he blends classical music with rock and jazz.
Other musicians point out a certain humility that makes Black so beloved. St. Louis guitarist Ian Lubar, one of Black’s former students, remembers how his professor asked him for his musical opinion while they were playing together once. “The fact that Dave wanted to know what an 18-year-old thought was a confidence-builder,” Lubar says.
“There’s no ego. I think that’s why he works so much,” says Burlbaw. “No matter what show he’s at, he wants to play his best. He puts his head down and starts shaking—he’s in the Dave Black zone.”
Mark Your Calendar
8 shows to watch Dave Black in action
March 5: 5:30 p.m. at The Dark Room
March 11: 7:30 p.m. at Scarlett's Wine Bar
March 12: 5:30 p.m. at The Dark Room
March 12: 8 p.m. at The Pat Connolly Tavern
March 18: 7:30 p.m. at 33 Wine Shop & Bar
March 19: 5:30 p.m. at The Dark Room
March 25: 7:30 p.m. at Scarlett's Wine Bar
March 26: 5:30 p.m. at The Dark Room