Close Encounter: Chris Dave & The Drumhedz

Close Encounter_ Chris Dave & The Drumhedz from Melbourne International Jazz Festival on Vimeo.

Recorded live at The Channel, Arts Centre Melbourne on Thursday 7 June as part of the 2018 Melbourne International Jazz Festival Close Encounters series. Facilitated by Rick Howera.

Join Chris Dave & The Drumhedz as they treat audiences to a fascinating chat on percussion, the music industry and collaboration.

One of the most revered and inventive musicians of his generation, Chris Dave returned to the Festival with his genre-defying outfit The Drumhedz, on the back of their long-awaited debut album release on Blue Note Records.

Once described by Questlove as his “worst nightmare” and named one of the 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time by Rolling Stone, Dave’s sublime musical fluency and ground-breaking approach to the kit has put him a league of his own. Since cutting his teeth in the world of gospel music, he has gone on to collaborate with jazz legends (Sonny Rollins, Wynton Marsalis) pop royalty (Justin Bieber, Adele) and neo-soul pioneers (D’Angelo, Maxwell, Robert Glasper).

Featuring a rotating lineup of musicians at the razor edge of next-generation jazz, The Drumhedz sound is an amalgamation of R&B, funk, rock, jazz, hip-hop and electronica, foregrounding Dave’s experimental song structures and revolutionary approach to rhythm.

Chris Dave was born in Houston, Texas and began his music career in the late 1980s. He started out by playing in church and credits jazz music as his strongest influence. As a teenager, he was exposed to jazz legends like Miles Davis and John Coltrane when listening to music with his father. Chris Dave blossomed on the drums, eventually graduating from Houston’s prestigious High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

He studied at Howard University in Washington D.C. where he met acclaimed producers and former Prince associates Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Through this relationship, Chris Dave’s professional career began as he started working with R&B band Mint Condition and has gone on to become one of the most sought-after drummers of his generation.