David Loeb – The Music Man

BY JUDY TARTE, PRESIDENT, LAS VEGAS JAZZ SOCIETY
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DEBORAH MYERS WAIT LOEB

David Loeb, director of the Division of Jazz and Commercial Music and a professor of music at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, School of Music, is a multifaceted talent in many genres.

During his 19 years as director of the Division of Jazz and Commercial Music at UNLV, Jazz Studies, students have earned over 24 prestigious DownBeat Magazine Student Music Awards, performed at the acclaimed Monterey Jazz Festival and Midwest Clinic, and garnered outstanding CD reviews from JazzTimes Magazine. His intent is not just to garner these awards but to offer his students opportunities for learning the intricacies of the music business. For example, one of the main reasons he was involved with the Family Guy show in L. A. is that he’d arranged for UNLV students to go to the studio. There they’d see firsthand what those sessions were about, the immediacy, the importance of sight-reading and interpretation no matter what the musical style.

At the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, he was musical director and conductor for Twyla Tharp’s Sinatra Dance With Me and Steve Wynn’s Showstoppers, a musical extravaganza featuring a cast of 35 dancers and singers, plus an on-stage 31-piece orchestra. In these roles, he was able to bring together veteran players with students to share in the experiences of actual performances. In Las Vegas at The Smith Center, he performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Las Vegas Philharmonic. He was musical director, conductor, and pianist for Larry Rosen’s Jazz Roots series with Clint Holmes, Kirk Whalum, Take 6, and Nnenna Freelon.

His personal philosophy and advice to students are primarily…“love what you do; no matter what the style of music, immerse yourself in it, be open at every level, personally, musically, artistically, spiritually and try to push aside your personal preferences and embrace every kind of music.”

His jazz pianist career includes performing with such luminaries as Arturo Sandoval, Nancy Wilson, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Williams, Tom Harrell, Anita O’Day, Bill Watrous, Tom Scott, Bobby Shew, Paul Horn, Natalie Cole, Joe Farrell, Pepper Adams, Ray Brown, Joe Locke and many others.

Loeb on piano for Clint Holmes at Myron’s Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center

As a session pianist in Los Angeles recording studios, Loeb has played for more than fifty shows, including the previously mentioned Family Guy, Hill Street Blues, Quantum Leap, and The Emmy Awards, and movies including Ted, The Birdcage, and Pocahontas.

Loeb also played on recordings, television shows, or movie soundtracks for Bette Midler, Herbie Hancock, Robin Williams, Norah Jones, Jim Carey, Jennifer Holiday, Curtis Mayfield, Alan Menken, Bonnie Raitt, Smokey Robinson, Jerry Lewis, Whitney Houston, Connie Francis, Randy Newman, Dionne Warwick, and many others.

He was the principal keyboardist with The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, accompanying diverse musical artists including Andrea Bocelli, Audra McDonald, Gil Shaham, Patti LuPone, Placido Domingo, Jewel, James Galway, Kristin Chenoweth, Joshua Bell, Jessye Norman, and Quincy Jones.

Loeb was the pianist with Questlove, Ben Wendel, Angela Brown and other musical artists on the Grammy Award-winning recording, Ask Your Mama, composed by Laura Karpman. He has been Ben Vereen’s musical director since 1980 as well as conductor and pianist for Vereen’s performance with The National Symphony Orchestra and for Dee Dee Bridgewater with The Philadelphia Orchestra.

David Loeb and the a cappella group, Take 6.

He has listed one of his most memorable professional experiences as being the conductor and co-musical director for the CBS television special saluting Frank Sinatra’s centennial: Sinatra 100: An All-Star Grammy Concert, with a lineup which included Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Usher, Harry Connick Jr., Alicia Keys, Celine Dion, John Legend and many more.

Loeb received the distinguished Nevada System of Higher Education Regents’ Creative Activity Award and holds a master of music degree in jazz and contemporary media from the Eastman School of Music, and a bachelor of science in music education from the West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Loeb conducts the CBS television special Sinatra 100: An All-Star Grammy Concert.

NOW…his passion is teaching: seeing the spark, the “aha” moments when the students “get it.”

“Hearing the beautiful music coming out of them——the absolute artistry they exude that’s completely fresh, spontaneous, and completely genuine——there’s no greater feeling in the world for me than that. At this point in my life, I enjoy that a thousand-fold times more than when I’m performing something. I have so much I need to work on myself to keep inspiring them.”

Loeb conducts Steve Wynn’s Showstoppers