History Lessons
DAVID LONGORIA
GRAMMY® WINNING trumpeter/singer/producer
Many people don't know this but the true origin of David Longoria as a performer dates back to his teen years on the streets of Seattle.
David learned to play the trumpet with the teaching help of the folks, wonderfully generous with their time at the Renton corps of The Salvation Army, Young David played daily throughout the Christmas seasons at the Salvation Army's Christmas Kettles outside of the local Sears, K-Mart, and other local businesses to raise money for needy people in the area. He had been playing the trumpet for about 4 years when he decided that he could share his talents on the street corners and other public places. So he took the bus from his house in Renton to downtown Seattle every Saturday Morning where he would play his trumpet to appreciative audiences who threw money in his trumpet case. He soon met a new friend, John Halvorson, a talented trombone player who shared David's love for playing traditional jazz songs and showtunes. They began a regular weekly performance every Saturday in front of Bartell's drug store on 5th and Pine downtown Seattle, under the monorail terminal. They became an iconic piece of Seattle lore of the end of the 70s and early 80s. They often moved the act to the Pike Place Public Market for a few hours too where additional appreciative crowds helped fund and encourage the duet's young careers.
Realizing they got more attention when they dressed up, David and John purchased formal wear, in fact white ties and tails to wear each week for their street performances. They decided to call themselves a name that blended the classical look with their wild and fun street performing style: The Seattle Street Symphony. Asking the crowd for favorite songs became a steady source of inspiration as they learned they could improvise any tv show theme, ad jingle, song from a musical or hymns and dixieland jazz songs. They developed a large following of people who were often shopping or working in the downtown Seattle area and were featured in virtually every newspaper, local magazine, and appeared on all of the local tv talk and news shows.
Red Skelton
One Saturday David and John were playing to a crowd of a dozen enthused listeners and as they moved on, celebrity and comedy great Red Skelton walked toward them. David was shocked to see this Hollywood icon on the street of Seattle.
"Red Skelton!" David explained "What you YOU doing here on the streets of Seattle?
Without missing a beat Red said "looking for YOU!" David would later reflect that t was truly an amazing meeting such a great comedian and artist. Red was very complimentary about David and John's music that day.
Sarah Jones
One day an elderly black lady was pulling her personal shopping cart from the monorail terminal across the alley from the boy's corner. David noticed her and greeted her with "hello and happy Saturday to you!" to which she responded "hello young man and smiled". He followed up with "can we play your favorite song for you today?" She shook her head and said "you wouldn't know my favorite song".
David smiled at the challenge. "But you see we know every song ever rotten. oops I mean ever written". She came back with my favorite song is not jazzy like the devil songs you boys are playing." "OUCH!" David thought. "What song is your favorite that is clearly NOT the Devil's?"
"My favorite song is a hymn and I'm sure you really don't know it" David played into that. "I guess you'd hafta go to church to learn those wouldn't you?" "Oh yes. and see I told you you wouldn't know it". a small crowd had gathered and were enjoying the playful exchange.
David pretended to be unaware of the genre and baited her again. "tell me your favorite and I will rack my brain and ... maybe I do know it" She answered it's a beautiful old hymn called "Just A Closer Walk With Thee". David appeared perplexed and repeated the name as though it was foreign to him. As she started to wave and walk away, he summoned her back.
"Does it sound like this?" and he started the hymn in a beautiful and sweet slow melody, soon joined by the bass line added by John. After a few lines she got the biggest smile on her face and nodded. at the end of the song, she thanked them and said "that was beautiful. you've made my day." David said thank you and asked "is it ok if we jazz it up now?"
"NOOOO!" she shouted and added "it was perfect just the way it was and jazz is the devil's music." David said oh ok. My name is David and this is John. What's your name?" "I'm Sarah Jones and I've seen you out here every Saturday. But this music was nice, but not the jazz." This began their friendship. Every Saturday David would watch and when she exited the Monorail they would stop playing jazz and when she got close, David started to play Sarah's song. Every week it brought a smile and a wave or nod. After a few months Sarah was enjoying her song played sweetly when David asked if he could "jazz it up just a little now that we know each other". She pondered and revealed that her son was also a trumpet player and he got caught in the Devil's music but every day he is trying to get out. David's understanding lead to Sarah's eventually allowing them to jazz it up "just a little bit". For the next few years, every Saturday they played her song for her, slow and sweet the first time... them a gentle jazzy verse after.
One Saturday, David told her she wouldn't be seeing them any more Saturdays as he was moving to Los Angeles to pursue his music career. She said "you should look up my son when you get there." David pulled out his notebook to write her son's information, "What's his name?", David asked. Sarah responded with "Quincy", and she began spelling it out. Q...U...I...N...C...Y...
David felt himself expressing a shocked look. "Sarah Jones, your son is Quincy Jones?" She nodded proudly.
It was a few years later when David was doing a recording session with Quincy Jones and other music icons when this story surfaced. It was the day before Mothers Day and the musicians were all discussing how they would be honoring or visiting their Mothers the next day. David told stories of busking on the streets of Seattle and becoming friends with Sarah Jones. Quincy looked shocked to hear these stories. He said "I remember when she told me every Sunday when I called her, about her trumpet playing friend that played jazz on the streets of Seattle, and that he was so sweet that he always played her favorite song for her."
David said it had slipped his mind to tell Quincy as it had been some years since this happened but the Mothers Day conversation reminded him. Quincy thought for a minute and said "ok David if it's really you that she was talking about every week, what was her favorite song that you played?" "Just A Closer Walk With Thee. And don't jazz it up!" Quincy laughed and nodded as he reminisced.
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DAVID LONGORIA
biography
Grammy® Award winning trumpeter David Longoria bought his first trumpet on layaway at Ben's Loan, a local pawn shop in his hometown of Renton, Washington over the span of a year and a half of weekly payments when he was 10.
– the price, $65 was a sum “hard to raise in a hurry when you’re ten and poor,” he says. Amazingly, he still plays the same gold plated trumpet to this day. The two have been on an amazing journey, starting every Sunday at church and including practicing every day of his childhood in his front yard. He still apologizes to his childhood neighbors.
Growing up in a family rich in love, yet financially challenged meant that David couldn't afford private lessons to learn the trumpet. The local Renton Salvation Army offered free music classes where David was taught how to read music and the fingerings for the trumpet. "I appreciate so much the loving mentorship of the officers there, Brigadeers Charles and Edith Bennett who gave freely of their time and teachings to lift me up and help me to learn music", David says, adding "to this day I still try to continue that spirit of giving, sharing with others by teaching young people to play and cherish music." David discovered he could earn money playing on a street corner in Seattle on weekends, which helped him learn to improvise and play hundreds of requested songs on the spot. For his street corner performances he was joined by trombone player John Halvorson and together they dressed in formal tails and took on the moniker The Seattle Street Symphony. Their weekly performances soon got the notice of Seattle Rock radio station KZOZ who enlisted them to perform at local festivals calling them the KZOK Born To Horn Street Band.
The trumpet led David to a multi-faceted career that found him playing for legendary pop and rock artists, including Foreigner, James Brown and Marvin Gaye. Making his solo recording debut at 17 with his Montage album, he was indie before it was cool, selling several thousand copies across the U.S. and Canada before moving to Los Angeles to continue his career.
Starting with regular performances at Magic Mountain with his own Dixieland style jazz group called the Walt Dixie World Quartet, he took inspiration from the recordings of Louis Armstrong, Al Hirt and others. David’s ease switching between musical styles led to a busy career working in music for TV, film and commercials. David's debut solo single Deeper Love features dance music icon Cece Peniston. It climbed the US Billboard dance music charts and quickly became a club standard, playing all over the world every night since its release in 2005.
Dynamically fusing stylistic ideas from his classical background and a distinctive flair for melody and improvisation with today’s freshest cutting edge dance vibes, David Longoria released his Latin-driven album Baila! followed by his groundbreaking edm and jazz blended album The Journey. It was designed to chronicle one's life. Events that we all share over the years.
The Journey brought David's song“Angels,” a Hollywood Music in Media Awards winner for Best EDM Song.
“Like many of the jazz musicians I grew up admiring, including Miles Davis, I’m always looking to create musical ideas and sounds that haven’t been done before and that are relevant to what’s happening today,” David says. “EDM is everywhere these days, but the people listening and dancing to it may not know how well it works with jazz and catchy melodies. I wanted to introduce to them just what a live trumpet can do with catchy, accessible melodies.”
The compelling album The Journey cover, shot by Michael Jackson’s former photographer Harrison Funk in the desert outside Las Vegas, represents both David’s ambitious quest and that of every person to find his or her purpose amidst a choice of pathways.
In 2020 David created an album with his own fresh take on classic jazz songs called MOOD. Guests on the highly acclaimed album include Barbara Morrison, Promise Marks, Freda Payne, Poncho Sanchez, and Marc Antonelli.
"I wanted to answer all the fans who ask 'what's the perfect album to put on for a nice evening with a romantic dinner?'" So I chose some wonderful guest artists to join me and some iconic songs, David says, adding "and I'm very proud of the results",
Released in 2022 was David's jazz album "A Better Place", featuring his song "Make The World A Better Place" which is a theme he often shares in songs and concerts. "It's important for me to say something with my music that can help people and lift up those around us", David explains. "More important than just showing off on my trumpet, I want to make music that touches people and gives hope. "
During the 2021 worldwide shutdowns David pulled together a big band and created a fun jazzy romp with his tongue-in-cheek single "Bitcoin Billionaire" which has gathered a lot of attention because of it's fun theme of the fantasy of crypto currency making one rich. It brings a smile to audiences everywhere.
While all of these releases were coming out...
WE ARE ONE
David wrote and produced his iconic song of unity called We Are One.
"It was the 35th anniversary of Michael Jackson & Lionel Richie's collaborative hit We Are The World where they brought voices together to benefit the needy in Africa and I thought it was about time I should bring current voices together to heal some of the divide in our country and our world, David explains. It started out as a small collaboration after inviting 20 artists to join me and kept on growing until we finally released it with 750 Music Artists from the 1950s to now. From The Coasters, Drifters, Platters, Pointer Sisters, Freda Payne, to The Dazz Band, The 5th Dimension, Peaches & Herb, 3 Dog Night, Peabo Bryson, Dallas Lovato, Barbara Morrison and many more."
“We Are One” is now the “biggest song in the history of pop music” based on the number of artists contributing.
The song is the springboard of a new movement David has created, whose mission is to bring people together to promote unity, using music and concerts, involving different races and cultures, broadening the vision of acceptance and support for each other. David and his team at www.weareconcerts.org are bringing together performers from different races and cultures,
They are launching the song and concerts in cities most affected by racial divisions over the past years, including New York, Baltimore, Seattle, Dallas and many others. David believes that bringing local students, choirs and national artists together is a great way to support and encourage one another. “We believe that in this way, kids and communities, both as performances and audience, will experience first-hand the power of unity,” says David, who has donated an average of 100 live concert performances per year for kids as part of the LIFT program.
In the We Are One Concerts, David and his team are bringing several high school choirs to perform together with national recording artists in each city. Each choir performs a song with the artists, then all will join for a memorable finale with everyone together singing “We Are One.” David’s goal for this ambitious project is to reach a million kids over the next two and a half years, in live, broadcast and streaming concerts.
In 2025, fresh with his GRAMMY® AWARD, David Longoria is performing in concerts, festivals and on television with exciting fresh releases scheduled throughout the rest of the year.
David Longoria Fans
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