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Dave Pell

Dave Pell started the octet after playing with most of the bands in the big band era, including Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and the like, he was a featured star of the Les Brown Band of Renown for 13 years. Shorty Rogers and Marty Paich were the first arrangers that came up with the unique sound of the band that was basically the four soloists from the Les Brown Band and the rhythm section.

The Dave Pell Octet was one of the bands credited with the creation of the West Coast Jazz scene in the 1950’s. The band became an instant success and was a showcase for the great new West Coast arrangers, including John Williams, Bill Holman, Bob Florence, Johnny Mandel, Andre Previn, Med Flory and many more. The Dave Pell Octet arrangements are once again being made available from Dave at his Jazz/Dance arrangements site because of the resurgence of interest from schools all over the world.

Best know as the leader of The Dave Pell Octet. Dave has recorded over thirty albums with his band. He also recorded 2 CD’s with his group Prez Conference in celebration of Lester Young featuring "Sweets" Edison and Joe Williams.

Dave's other credits encompass the full scope of the professional music industry from sideman to bandleader, music publisher, producer, jazz musician, label owner and music supervisor for many films

Dave Pell: Four Classic Albums

by David Rickert
March 29, 2013

If you were to wander up and down the West Coast in the fifties you were more likely to find Dave Pell playing dances on college campuses than in clubs. Despite filling his octet with seasoned musicians who could really cut loose when given the chance, Pell's studio recordings always have a hint of crepe and balloons about them. They represent the extremely well-mannered style of West Coast jazz,and are pleasant almost to a fault.The first ...

Album Review

Dave Pell: Remembers John Kirby and Big Small Bands

Read "Remembers John Kirby and Big Small Bands" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
November 5, 2012

Historical recreations of music are nothing new. Every tribute recording ever released is one. In the 1980s and '90s, classical music went through its “period instrument-performance practice" phase, where the entire Baroque, Classical and early Romantic repertoires were recreated using instruments and metronomic markings from the 18th and 19th Centuries. In the late 1950s, jazz was going through an interesting transition that had its genesis a decade earlier in Miles Davis' famous Birth of the Cool (Capitol, 1957). In 1949, ...

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Live Review

Dave Pell: Sunday Jazz at The Lighthouse

by Jim Santella
February 24, 2005

Dave Pell Octet The Lighthouse Café Hermosa Beach, California February 20, 2005

Sunny Hermosa Beach has played host to great jazz for over 50 years. Originally, it was the regular Sunday jam sessions lasting from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. that brought overflowing crowds to The Lighthouse in the early 1950s, as members of Stan Kenton's Orchestra descended upon the beach community for weekly jazz outings. Howard Rumsey and a group of ...

Recording

Backgrounder: Dave Pell Octet 'Plays Rodgers & Hart'

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
October 21, 2022

I received so much email yesterday about the octet format that I figured I'd end the week with a Backgrounder by the Dave Pell Octet. The octet's arrangements in the 1950s were designed to give the eight musicians a West Coast big band sound—a miniaturized Les Brown Orchestra if you will. Prior to Dave Pell, there was the Dave Brubeck Octet in San Francisco in 1950. And that's it if you type “octet" into Tom Lord's Jazz Discography. There were ...
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Video / DVD

New Videos: Dave Pell Octet

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
April 8, 2021

Between 1943 and 1947, tenor saxophonist Dave Pell started out recording with big bands led by Bobby Sherwood, Tony Pastor and Bob Crosby. Then in late '47, he joined the Les Brown Orchestra, where he remained until 1955. In '53, Dave began recording with an octet he formed made up of Brown bandmates. Here's what Dave told me about the formation of the octet when I interviewed him in 2009: JazzWax: What caused the shift to smaller jazz groups? New ...
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Obituary

Remembering Dave Pell’s Devotion To His Hero

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
May 19, 2017

Saxophonist and bandleader Dave Pell, a prominent figure in the west coast jazz of the 1950s and ’60s, died on May 8. He was 92. Pell recorded extensively with his octet and the tribute group Prez Conference. Over the years the collective members of those bands included Art Pepper, Red Mitchell, Harry Edison, Mel Lewis, Benny Carter, John Williams and other leading musicians of the day. Pell’s devotion to his hero Lester Young extended to the rescue of Young’s instrument. ...
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Interview

Dave Pell (1925-2017)

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
May 10, 2017

Dave Pell, a Los Angeles tenor saxophonist who was instrumental in promoting the West Coast's contrapuntal jazz sound that emerged in the early 1950s through his leadership of his many octets and who owned one of Lester Young's two saxophones, died May 8. He was 92. Dave was a dear and remarkably upbeat and cheery friend. A call to his home in Canoga Park, Calif., would invariably lead to stories about the jazz life in Hollywood in the 1950s, punctuated ...
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Interview

Dave Pell on Boots Brown

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
June 25, 2013

Yesterday I posted about Shorty Rogers and his rock-and-roll recordings for RCA as Boots Brown and His Blockbusters. Those recordings included the cream of the West Coast jazz scene, including tenor saxophonist Dave Pell. Today, I gave Dave a buzz to find out why Rogers—and everyone else—bothered and shunned credit. First, a word about Dave, who was an instrumental part of the West Coast jazz sound in the '50s. He was one of the first to have success with the ...
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Performance / Tour