David Becker (born 20 October 1961) is an American jazz guitarist and leader of the David Becker Tribune. He is also a graduate of the Musicians Institute.[1][2]
Career
David and his brother Bruce (drummer) formed the David Becker Tribune in 1982. In 1984, they recorded a self titled EP at Warner Brothers studios[3] and then toured Germany. After touring the US colleges for four months that same year, the band[4] signed with MCA and released its debut album Long Peter Madsen in 1986. The album was recorded and mixed by Grammy winning engineer Chet Himes[5] (Christopher Cross)[6] In 1988, Siberian Express (MCA), produced with Ken Caillat was released and reached No. 3 on R&R and the track "Anja" reached No. 1.[7] This was followed in 1990 and 1991 by two albums, Third Time Around and In Motion.[8][9]
In 2001, the band released one of the first DVD-Audio recordings, Germerica.[10] Some of the tracks were co-produced by drummer Mark Schulman.[11] In 2004, Where's Henning reached No. 34 on the JazzWeek chart.[12] A solo album, Euroland, and a duo with jazz guitarist Joe Diorio,[13]The Color of Sound (Acoustic Music), followed in 2005.
Batavia[14] was released world wide on August 6, 2010 to coincide with the 65th anniversary of the dropping of the atom bomb in Japan. The compositions were influenced by Becker's mother's family in Indonesia and their internment in a Japanese concentration camp during World War II. Batavia was voted one of the Best World Music recordings of 2010 by World Music Central.org.[15] In 2013 Distance Traveled was released[16] and reached No. 18 on the CMJ charts.[17] In July 2015, Becker released the solo album The Lonely Road (Acoustic Music Records). In 2018, Becker recorded a duo outing with former Ray Charles guitarist, Brad Rabuchin as a tribute to the late guitarist John Abercrombie. For John was released in June 2019.[18] A new book of 25 Guitar Etudes penned by Becker, Etudes You Can Use, was released in March 2021.[19] In August of 2021, Becker joined drummer Chris Bowman (Ornette Coleman) and bassist Jim Donica (Maynard Ferguson) to record a improvised set of music. The album, Continuum was released August 7, 2022.[20][21]
Becker also released a new solo recording, Planets[22] in October 2022. In August 2024, Becker released Gravitationally Bound, which was recorded in Immersive Sound by Ken Caillat and Claus Trelby.[23] Becker also appeared on the cover of the October 2024 issue Jazz Guitar Today.[24]
