David F. Gibson, whose precise and hard-driving beat powered legacy editions of the Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Cab Calloway orchestras, and other bands big and small, died on July 30. He was 72.
C. Calloway Brooks, director of the Calloway band, announced his death, proclaiming Gibson “truly one of the absolute best and greatest big band drummers of the last several decades.”
He had a strong and flexible style, and keen instincts about how to quicken the metabolism of a band. “He knew the perfect thing to play at the perfect time,” says WRTI jazz host and saxophonist Josh Lee, who played with Gibson in the Basie band. “I remember his ride cymbal being a lot of fun to play with. His beat was really versatile, and he was able to fit in wherever.”
Gibson’s main tenure with the Basie organization came in the 1990s, when it was led by saxophonist and arranger Frank Foster. “Dave had a fire to his playing that could really drive a big band,” attests saxophonist Doug Lawrence. “He did it spectacularly with the Basie band. The band was on fire with Frank Foster at the helm and Dave driving the band from the drum chair.” For a sense of that urgency, here is a version of Foster’s tune “Little Chicago Fire,” from the 1992 Basie Orchestra album Live at El Morocco.
David F. Gibson was born in Philadelphia on March 7, 1953. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Temple University, and established a local reputation. Along with work around the jazz scene, he contributed to area television programs, including the Philadelphia Community Access Media show “Time of Deliverance.”
Among his contributions to the Philly jazz legacy is a brief but meaningful affiliation with saxophonist and composer Odean Pope. The Saxophone Shop, the acclaimed 1985 debut by Pope’s Saxophone Choir, features Gibson on drums; his exacting dynamism uplifts an Eddie Green composition titled “Heavenly,” with Green on piano, Gerald Veasley on bass, and Pope leading a cohort of eight fellow saxophonists, including Robert Landham and Bootsie Barnes.
Gibson also worked extensively with Frank Foster’s Loud Minority Big Band, and with the Illinois Jacquet Big Band, the Lionel Hampton Big Band, the David Murray Big Band and others. The Radam Schwartz Organ Big Band billed him by name on its self-titled 2020 album (which he also co-produced).
He also logged considerable time behind jazz singers, including the smooth baritone Joe Williams and the Grammy-winning jazz vocalist and pianist Diane Schuur. It was on Schuur’s bandstand that Doug Lawrence first played with him. “Much to my enjoyment, Dave brought that same fire to his small group playing as well,” Lawrence tells WRTI. “The hard-swinging drive was right there, at all times. Diane loved his playing and he stayed with her trio for years.”
Lawrence was among a handful of artists who enlisted Gibson in small-group settings, including an organ trio, a quartet and a sextet. “Everyone knows Dave from his time with America’s two greatest big bands (Basie and Ellington),” Lawrence says, “but I think it’s important for people to know about his smaller group playing with such long-time colleagues as Joey Cavaseno, Frank Foster, James Zollar, myself and many others.”
A 2015 short film by Aja Vickers captures the Doug Lawrence Sextet in the studio and around the streets of New York. With a front line of Lawrence on tenor saxophone, Lauren Sevian on baritone saxophone and Bruce Harris on trumpet, the band is smoothly powered by Gibson’s attentive drumming.
“Dave wasn’t just an incredible drummer — he was the heartbeat behind my music for years,” wrote saxophonist Joey “G-Clef” Cavaseno in a tribute on social media. “His passion was raw, his musical intuition unmatched; he always knew exactly where I was going before I got there. When I thought I’d stepped away from jazz for good, it was Dave's relentless encouragement and unwavering belief that brought me back. He was more than a friend; he was a guiding light, an irreplaceable force of love and rhythm.”
