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Described by Rolling Stone magazine as "one of the best, robust listening experiences you're likely to have all year" and by The Independent as "the best in jazz coming out of Ireland today", David Lyttle is a MOBO Award nominated jazz drummer and composer. Starting out as a child performer at the age of four with his family band, he first reached a national audience as a jazz drummer in the band of legendary Irish jazz guitarist Louis Stewart, before going on to perform around the globe and collaborate with the arts world's upper echelon, including jazz giants Joe Lovano and Kurt Rosenwinkel, hip hop visionaries Talib Kweli and Soweto Kinch and film great Liam Neeson. David has brought his unique performance concepts to the U.S., where he carried out a coast-to-coast residency in his red Cadillac DeVille, performing jazz for cowboys, UFO tourists, bikers and the unsuspecting public; and China where he spent six weeks as the British Council's Musician In Residence and made a further two visits with his solo 'Tapes & Drums'. He has performed in the groups of jazz icons of today such as David Kikoski and Jesse van Ruller, and his work has been written about in Rolling Stone, The Guardian, The Times, The Independent and The Examiner. THE LONG STORY David Lyttle began performing professionally at the age of four in his folk group the Lyttle Family, playing bongos, bodhran and mini lambeg drum. At eight years old he added drum kit and by ten years old he was also studying cello and uillean pipes. At eighteen he began focusing on the drum kit after taking an interest in jazz. Over the next three years David received scholarships to study at Skidmore Jazz Institute (New York) and the Banff Centre (Canada), whilst also studying for a BMus at the University of Ulster. After graduating, David was offered a government grant to write a PhD thesis at the University of Ulster, becoming a doctor of music in 2009. During this time he also took lessons in New York with Jeff 'Tain' Watts, John Riley, Ari Hoenig, Ralph Peterson and Carl Allen.
In 2012 released his second album Interlude, which was influenced more by hip hop than straight-ahead jazz. First heard on BBC Radio 1's Introducing, it helped earn him an international reputation as a producer and songwriter on the rise. Brought to millions by its Channel 4 album advert campaign with HMV, Interlude featured David on drums, keyboards, bass, cello and vocals, alongside some of his heroes, contemporaries and family, including sister Rhea, mother Anne, Soweto Kinch, Jason Rebello and Pino Palladino. David toured Interlude in Ireland, Britain and the U.S. in 2012 and 2013, with highlight shows at the London Jazz Festival and historic Hollywood music venue The Hotel Cafe. In June 2013 David released the dance music single 'Celebrate' with Interlude vocalist Rhea, Northern Irish recording artist Duke Special and the percussionists of Beat Carnival, a Belfast arts organisation where David was the 2013 Musician-In-Residence. The track was playlisted by the majority of Ireland's radio stations.
Also during 2015 David was Musician-In-Residence at the Nerve Centre, Derry, as part of the city's legacy initiative following its designation as UK City of Culture in 2013. The residency was primarily about collaboration and included the roots album Say & Do with Northern Irish singer/songwriter VerseChorusVerse, formerly of And So I Watch You From Afar, which went to No. 1 in the Amazon UK blues chart in November 2015. David's nomination in the MOBO Awards for Best Jazz Act was a major breakthrough and led to a busy touring year in 2016 with his trio, including dates throughout the UK and Ireland, and in Austria, Germany and Holland. He was also Artist-In-Residence at the MAC, Belfast, with Moving On Music, for three months, acting as a mentor to emerging Northern Irish jazz artists.
In 2018 David made appearances in eight countries with his original music trio featuring Scottish pianist Steve Hamilton, his standards trio featuring Kurt Rosenwinkel and Michael Janisch, and in European guitar icon Jesse van Ruller's trio. He visited China twice with his 'Tapes & Drums' show, which features solo improvised drums alongside a taped Mandarin account of his experiences in China in 2017. He carried out a residency in New York funded by the Jerwood Foundation during which he recorded citizens of the city's thoughts on change. These tape recordings were used for 'Tapes & Drums, New York' which David filmed for YouTube and also performed live. Following this, David was commissioned by Falcarragh Winter Jazz Festival in Donegal to created an Irish language edition of 'Tapes & Drums'. Titled 'Tapes & Drums as Gaeilge', it featured poems written by local children on the theme of home. Between August 2018 and summer 2019 David performed 80 dates bringing jazz to new Irish audiences, including many remote island communities, featuring talented up-and-coming Irish jazz performers. This has been a focal point of Jazzlife Alliance, a new arts organisation under David's artistic direction. From November 2019 until the arrival of Covid-19 he performed in Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Jamaica. During lockdown, David collaborated with film great Liam Neeson in a much-publicised reimagining of Van Morrison's 'On Hyndford Street', as part of Hot Press magazine's celebration of the music legend at 75. WHAT THE PRESS SAY ABOUT DAVID'S MUSIC "...genre-spanning...sophisticated and sharp...one of the best, robust listening experiences you're likely to have all year." - ROLLING STONE (on Faces) "...Northern Irish music legend...an underground music star...Ireland's leading jazz musician." - HOT PRESS "...the best in jazz coming out of Ireland today." - THE INDEPENDENT "...a gnarly post-pop saxophone trio driven by the leader's grooves, but given Lyttle's energy and starry musical connections...you never know who might turn up." - IRISH TIMES (on David Lyttle Trio feat. The Murray Brothers) "...infectious...hypnotic, soulful and terrifically rhythmic. One of the most inventive Irish releases of the year." - HOT PRESS (on Faces) "David Lyttle is one of the island's most forward-thinking and celebrated instrumentalists." - DONEGAL NEWS "...ambitious in its distillation of folk and urban, acoustic and electric, pop, jazz and rap sources...huge variety in sound and tone...Lyttle achieves musical coherence all the same...an impressive achievement..." - JAZZWISE (on Faces) "New Orleans funk, uber-catchy pop and gospel-tinged soul rubbing shoulders with smouldering jazz improvisation and contemporary urban rhythms and vocals...Potentially the feel-good cross-over album of the year." - ALL ABOUT JAZZ (on Faces) "...classy...slick...exceptional..." - MOBO (on Interlude) "...exceptional...incredible...soulful..." - DAILY MIRROR (on Interlude) "...a veritable one-man industry...every indication of being the most curious, inventive and niche-averse artist in the country. [Interlude is] beautifully-produced...stellar. A rare sort of treat to come out of Ireland. Superb." - HOT PRESS (on Interlude) WHAT THE PRESS SAY ABOUT DAVID'S DRUMMING "...extraordinary.." - TIME OUT "...one of the world's great contemporary drummers." - ALL ABOUT JAZZ "...brilliant..." - IRISH TIMES "...unfailing...prolific..." - JAZZWISE "...shit hot...incredible..." - DAILY MIRROR "The word 'awesome' is vastly overused but it might just fit." - JAZZ JOURNAL "David Lyttle is one of the island's most forward-thinking and celebrated instrumentalists." - DONEGAL NEWS "He drums with such discretion and awareness...allowing the music to breathe with a tonal sense that's as refreshing as it is creative." - THE HERALD, SCOTLAND "...Ireland's leading jazz musician." - HOT PRESS "...electrifying..." - LONDON JAZZ NEWS "...endlessly inventive...outstanding." - EVENING EXPRESS, SCOTLAND "...dazzling poly-rhythms, creative cymbal dynamics, and sensitive brushwork...he has earned his place in the jazz drums lineage established by artists like Max Roach, Elvin Jones and Art Blakey." - EJAZZNEWS "...a hip new generation hard bop style grounded in the musical universe of Art Blakey, feeding the style of new masters such as Brian Blade into the mix of his own polyrhythmic sound..." - MARLBANK "...Ireland's top drummer...a loose-limbed leprechaun." - BEBOP SPOKEN HERE |
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