A1Blues.Com » 092 – David Maxwell

Hear the David Maxwell interview and music from his CD Max Attack.

2009 Blues Music Awards nominated David Maxwell for The Pinetop Perkins Piano Player Award.

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David started listening to classical music when he was young, because of this it lead him to begin playing piano. Later in high school he started learning about jazz and popular music, while continuing on with classical music. David would be involved with different jam sessions with friends from school. One of the friends was a trombone player who later would become the leader of Canned Heat, Alan Wilson. Like Alan, David was getting interested in the blues. Hearing Muddy Waters, Skip James, Son House, and Howlin’ Wolf, among others, got him interested in the blues. David also made it clear that they also would listen to Jazz, abstract music, and India music because they were very open minded to most any kind of music. After hearing Muddy Waters with Otis Spann in concert, that pretty much got David hooked on the blues.

From the late 60’s on, he worked around Boston with artists like Bob Margolin, who he was in a band with. When artists like Muddy Waters, Big Mama Thornton, Jimmy Rogers, or John Lee Hooker came to town he’d back them. He even worked in Freddie King’s band for about a year and a half. David continued to play around town with a lot of different artist, as well as touring with some. He spent a few years playing with Otis Rush, and that took him to Europe and Japan. David played on James Cotton’s 1997 Grammy-Winning Record Deep in the Blues. Plus he was in a trio with James Cotton that toured for three or four years.

David Maxwell’s current CD is called Max Attack it’s a piano based combination of upbeat blues as well as jazz blues. The songs have an old time feel to them with a sophisticated sound. David’s piano playing reminds me of what it must have been like to walk into an old time bar with a piano player going to town on those keys. The band is out of sight, as you would expect with featuring artists like Hubert Sumlin, James Cotton, and Kim Wilson among others. When you combined David’s amazing piano playing with this band’s amazing sound you will always have something that wows you. “What’s the Use of a Broken Heart” has Liane Carroll singing a duet with David that is just so beautiful. “Twisted Tendons” is fun all out boogie-woogie that really gives you a chance to hear what David is able to do on the piano. “Moving Out of His World” is a real show stopper. The atmosphere the band creates is amazing, then when you have Ronnie Earl and Duke Robillard playing off of each other it just takes it to another level. David Maxwell writes the all songs, and sings on most of them, plus there are three instrumentals. David has some humorous lyrics in some of the songs that keep you entertained. Not like you need that with such great music going on, but it is one more thing that makes this a superb record.