David Tamura was a Japanese-American multi-instrumentalist based in New York City, US. He was a member of Von LMO's band on the album Red Resistor, which was described as "brilliantly tight". He had played with many musicians on the New York noise rock scene.https://elliottlevin.com/event/1749111/340587225/eighty-pound-pug-daniel-carter-barbiana-complex-elliott-levin He died on June 24, 2023 at the age of 69.
He was one of the main forces behind The Jazzfakers, where he played guitar, keyboards, and saxophone; one reviewer writes "it's him that provides the powdery, blues-rich tenor melody that boards the loose-boned march of Oh Rise New, adding a recognizable jazz voice to the restless buzz-keyboard swirls and mosquito-drill guitar, the rambling bass tune and the childlike organ which hangs and fidgets on a single disruptive chord". Of his release Mystic Mountain, with Marc Edwards, Grego Applegate Edwards wrote "David Tamura adds a welcome and contrastively volcanic tenor sax. But then the threesome of Karl Alfonso Evangelista, Colin Sanderson and Alex Lozupone, the three on very high-crank electric guitars, Alex (who also is leader of the band Eighty-Pound Pug that I have happily covered here) on combo electric guitar and bass."http://gapplegateguitar.blogspot.com/2016/03/marc-edwards-slipstream-time-travel.html In April, 2023, Tamura recorded an album with the group Toadal Package, which was called Final Entrance in a tribute to Last Exit.
Upon his death, Rachel Mason wrote: "He just had a true genuine quality of kindness - despite the appearance of being some kind of underground-street-gangster. This sight of him was a character out of Quinten Tarantino movie. Exuding cool. Arms filled with tattoos, and a jet black hair almost looking like fire folding around his face. Arms that were Crazy guns- and then the saxophone. He busted it out and he was just a full fledged experimental jazz machine. He really was A Comic book action hero."https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/133263
Partial discography Charles K. Noyes and David Tamura - duets (1978) Von LMO - Red Resistor (1996) Julian Cope – Copendium: An Expedition Into The Rock 'N' Roll Underworld (2012)* Ron Anderson / Robert L. Pepper* / David Tamura / Philippe Petit – Closed Encounters Of The 4 Minds (2012) Scott Rifkin's Music for the Free World (feat. David Tamura, Yuko Pepe & Sky Hall) (2013) Dave Burrells Conception - (featuring Dave Burrell, Joe Chonto, David Tamura) (2013) Gene Janas / Matt Luczak / Gene Moore / David Tamura - Music On Monroe Street: Live At Downtown Music Gallery (2014) Zilmrah - Looming Big Brother On Acid – Big Brother On Acid (2014)
with The Jazzfakers Jazzfakers (2010) Two (2011) Here Is Now (2012) Hallucinations (2016) Little Water Radio Recordings (2021)
with Eighty-pound Pug Poodle: Live And Totally Improvised At Spectrum (2013) Video from 2013: Eighty-pound Pug Opening Track at Spectrum 1 When The Flowers Bloom In Baltimore (Live In New York City) (2015) Speechless w/ Nonoko Yoshidahttps://www.downtownmusicgallery.com/Main/news/Newsletter-2016-01-29.html (2015) Thoughts w/ Daniel Carter (2016) An EP, an LP and a Single (2016) First Meetings
with Pas Musique Reconstruction "Venemous" Movie, directed by Robert L. Pepper
with The Chonto/Tamura Sonic Insurgency w/ Kidd Jordan (2011) Promises Kept w/ Sabir Mateen
with Marc Edwards Marc Edwards & Slipstream Time Travel, Mystic Mountain: Trouble in the Carina Nebula (2015) Marc Edwards & Slipstream Time Travel, There’s a Problem in the Keyhole Nebula! (2016)
David Tamura + Toadal Package Final Entrance (2023)
References