Dave Kahl


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Dave Kahl

Three-Time CBA "Muddy Award" Winner

 by Rick Hall    
Article Reprint from the August 1999 BluesNotes   

    Dave Kahl is one of the most prolific and seasoned Blues sidemen performing in Portland today. His passion for music, particularly the Blues, ranges back 35 years to his early teenage days when at 13 his interest for music was sparked by his older brother Sam. Actually, his mom got Dave started in music at a very early age when in kindergarten the accordion salesman showed up on the Kahl's doorstep. But, the accordion kinda got in the way of things like fishing and other boyhood triumphs. So, for the longest time Dave had a real sour taste in his mouth about really playing anything. Later on in the 5th grade, he tried trumpet and played it for a couple of years. He even tried the piano for awhile, but constantly was stymied by one thing or another. It was a real "searching out" for Dave.  He really wanted to play the saxophone, he thought.

    Eventually, that trumpet of Dave's was traded in for a guitar for his brother Sam so he could start taking lessons. Dave states, "All of a sudden my interest was jolted. Here I go into my brother's lessons and sat down to watch and Mr. Hardy was really cool because he would always make everything apply. So, it was like what do you like. Let's listen to that. Let's learn to play that. Let's break it down. And, the one that hit me was, OK, listen to the bass part. One day he looked over to me and said, 'you've been watching this. Take this guitar and play the bass line. Play this part.' My brother would strum and play the chords on his guitar. And, I'm kinda of intrigued and perplexed at the same time, thinking bass, what's this bass thing? I was 13 at the time. To me bass was always this upright thing. It really never dawned on me that there was a bass guitar thing. I got excited, thinking, that's a cool part. One thing led to another and I'm hearing more and more coming out of that part. I started to notice more of the bass parts on the recordings my brother had. He had an extremely wide range of musical taste. He had me listen to Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus, both incredible Jazz cats, and Muddy Waters, the "More Real Folk Blues" album. When I heard that recording I'm saying wow, what is this? This is real different. Sam said, 'just shut up and listen.' Sonny Rollins had all this stuff happening that I had no way of understanding. Mingus had this incredible heavyweight depth about his music. And, all of a sudden here's Muddy with this simple, primal, power. As a student, I found it accessible because I could hear it and feel it and follow the progression. With Muddy it was the whole thing that captivated me. The notion that here's this raw, stinging guitar and this bass line that pushed, but yet was ever so simple and then the story. It was like a play, every little piece came together to support the story. 

    From there, one thing led to another and I wanted to know what else was like this. I found, through Sam, John Lee Hooker, and one of his favorites, Son House. Because of Sam's leadership I got an incredible amount of schooling."

    At the time Dave was growing up musically there were all the British bands playing this basic Blues stuff: The Rolling Stones, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, Fleetwood Mac and one of his very favorites, The Animals. All this music was raw and primal; basically, Blues covers or Blues-rooted original compositions and it had a heavy impact on many musicians of the times, Dave included.

    Dave's a native Oregonian who went to high school at David Douglas, the class of '69. Portland musician, Dover Weinberg was a classmate of Dave's. By the time he started high school, needless to say, Dave was playing bass. When he turned 16, he got a call to try out with this band, and he got the job which lasted for about nine months. Dave termed it a variety act; a bunch of teenagers playing covers. They had some good gigs opening for the hot Northwest acts around at some of the bigger venues in the area. The band was called The Fire. Dave relates, "I really didn't like it that much. I loved the guys I was playing with, but it was too 'pretty'; too neat a package. I've always resisted that formula approach to things. It was made to be palatable; yes, it was successful; yes, we were making money; yes, it got me out of a bunch of school; yes, I got to travel all over the place. And, I was treated good, too, yet there was just something missing and I quit! I quit to go play Blues gigs for a lot less money. I really enjoyed those gigs a lot. The next thing I knew I'm hookin' up with not only my brother and my buddy Ed Snyder, but with Dover. Dover and I used to hang together. I might say to a certain extent that I was Dover's first real corruptive influence (Ha!). Dover Weinberg, now there's an incredible (keyboard) player with an incredible talent and wealth of musical knowledge. He put a mark on the Northwest music scene that probably would have been substantially diminished had he not chosen to play music. We played in several bands together in high school. Later on, after high school, Dover and I lived together with a bunch of other musicians in a big old house at 37th and Morrison. He and I had this little trio and we called it Wing Tips. This house was full of musicians; we were all in different bands. A lot of people would hang out at that house. Those were good days. If we weren't gigging, then we were hanging out at the house reading charts and playing music together. During that time I learned to play the upright bass by just hanging out at the piano with my bass and reading the charts and hoped it would come along OK. It was then that I realized the best thing I could ever hope to do was maintain time. There were certain fundamental things about playing bass that I always loved. That ability to marry itself to both the rhythmic portion of it and the harmonic portion. That was when I really discovered the power of the instrument.

    Later on I was playing gigs here and there, but for the longest time I'd question my ability. I didn't know if I should really be doing this or not. I went through a lot of time when I said to myself I'd better do the right thing and get a real job. I was playing music at the time and going to college."

    After awhile, Dave just basically stopped playing. He'd gotten disgusted with the music scene. He still had the desire to play, but was still questioning his ability. When he encountered certain situations it became bothersome to him that a lot of those encounters were too serious. He knew it was a good thing to be serious about playing, but not at the expense of having fun, too. There was a certain consistency about the music scene. People made it more important than it needed to be. Dave relates, "you've got this pendulum. You've got insecurity, the thing that allows you to feel the human condition. Then, you've got to have a pretty substantial ego to overcome that insecurity and lay it bare before the public. So, the whole battle is how extreme do you let that pendulum swing. I acknowledge a certain movement in that pendulum, but I try to maintain as small an arc as possible. Now as a player, I know my limitations, but I'm no longer judgmental of it. That allows me a certain consistency and forthrightness in realizing what my job is. My doubts came when band members were high on the ego side of the pendulum and I'd question myself by saying I must be wrong, because I'm not driven like you guys to do what needs to be done. I basically stopped playing for about six years because of that."

    Ultimately, Dave never lost the desire to play and started filling in on some gigs here and there. He even went up to Mt. Hood and sat in with Larry Pindar and Mike Cross. They had this little quartet thing that would happen regularly. Everything was cool and he was having fun doing it and thinking to himself that this is how it's supposed to be. Then he got a call from Lloyd Jones. Lloyd had just recently put together The Lloyd Jones Struggle and needed a permanent bass player. Larry and Mike recommended Dave to Lloyd and he auditioned and got the spot in The Struggle. That was in 1986.

    During the time Dave quit playing, which was from 1980 through 1985, Dave met his future wife Lynn while he was working at a health spa. They were married in 1989 and have a 10 year old daughter. Dave says, "It's my family that keeps my feet on the ground. They're my life savers!"

    Dave continues, "Lloyd opened up an awful lot for me. Musically, he opened up a hell of a lot. I got to play behind a number of Blues heroes with Lloyd and the band. I remember the first time I got to play behind Charlie Musselwhite, I was 34 years old.  Half my life before that I BS-ed my way into a Musselwhite concert and now there I was playing with him on stage asking if I'm doin' OK. He said, 'you're doin' fine'. I couldn't tell him however, that the 17 year old kid was still in there, at least not 'til much later. But, Charlie said something and it nailed it for me. He said, 'Hey, I'm just a man, just like you tryin' to do a job.' Charlie's got this way of boiling it down to the bare essentials. It was then that I realized my expectations of music or this lifestyle was not too lofty. Basically, the idea of just being real was a substantial part of it. One must make a determination whether it's a musical style you're supporting in the purist sense or is it a story. There's a reason why there are certain performers I like and set them up at a higher level.

    The reason I love Lloyd, Curtis (Salgado), Paul (deLay), Duffy (Bishop), Lily (Wilde) and Linda Hornbuckle is because there's a story to be told and whatever it is, these people put themselves into the part ... they pass the story along with emotion, as well as some tangibility and it's ultimately passed from one generation to the next. The contention that I've had with some people in the business is that they're so steeped in the music part of it that they forget they're supporting a story line. Muddy Waters might have sung a five beat phrase in a four beat bar and nobody stopped him. If you're on your toes and listening to the story, you've already made the adjustment. It's the whole idea that the Blues is not a thing. It's an attitude or condition. Rudy Draco, one of the horn players in Lloyd's band, said it this way, and I just love it, 'we are harmonically and rhythmically supporting a story line that is presented in either an eight or 12 bar format where each part is an average of 4 beats.' And, I think that says it all. I love that approach "

    Dave played with The Lloyd Jones Struggle for about two years and then moved on to play with Bill Rhoades & The Party Kings. From there, he played in The Margo Tufo Band, which was kind of a melting pot for a number of great local musicians. Eventually, Dave left Margo's band and was in the process of starting a floor covering business with his brothers when Jim Mesi, who was working at Denny's Music at the time, approached him about getting a band together. This was in 1989 and Dave had just become a father at the time and was in business with his brothers and wasn't really sure if he'd have time to be in another band. However, Jim and Mike Moothart came to him and said, "how do you feel about workin' with Paul Jones (Lloyd's brother) on drums." He said, "no problem" and they said, "fine you're in the band". Well, the band took off from the start and they ended up playin' five or six nights a week. Between the business and the band, Dave ended up with virtually no days off for about two years. He finally parted the Mesi band and took time for his family and worked the floor covering business. But, being a musician, he still wanted to play. And, around 1994, he and Paul (Jones) approached J. C. Rico, a singer they'd jammed with on Tuesday nights at The Tillicum, about putting a band together. There was Paul and Dave handling the rhythm section, Clair Bruce on keyboards, John Crane on guitar and later Paul Brainard. And when Clair left, Charlie Grant was added on keys. J. C. Rico, a big man with a gifted voice handled the vocals. It was a "killer" group of musicians who played solid Blues and R&B. That group lasted for several years, but finally self-destructed. There were a lot of personal problems on the part of the band members that led to the demise of the J. C. Rico Armed & Dangerous Band. 

    The Clair Bruce Band grew out of that demise which was a good gig for Dave until Clair took a full time job and then that was over too. Dave then got an opportunity to rejoin Lloyd Jones on a temporary basis which grew into almost another two-year stint with The Struggle.

    Since his second run with Lloyd, Dave's worked filling in with various Blues acts around town. Working with bands like The Party Kings, Jimi & The Bluesmasters with Myrtle Brown and Kita Montgomery. Dave even got an opportunity last Fall touring with The Terry Evans Band briefly, playing bass with Portland's own, Jesse Samsel Band which backs up Terry Evans when he's on the road. He played in Canada with Terry and went with him on the road back to The King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Arkansas last October.

    Recently, Dave has joined The Duffy Bishop Band.   He explains, "I talked to Chris Carlson (the guitarist in the band and Duffy's spouse) prior to going on the road with Terry and told him that way back when I was with the Mesi Band, I walked across the grounds at the Waterfront Blues Festival when Duffy Bishop was playing. I'd heard her once or twice before, but that was the first time I'd really heard her and I turned to my wife and said, 'I want to play with her!' I told Chris I wanted to play in The Duffy Bishop Band. And, when I came back from the road, sure enough, the opportunity was there. Playing with Duffy is great, however, we're not playing too much right now because she's up in Seattle doin' a musical play. But, of late, I get to play with Chris and my ol' schoolmate, Dover Weinberg at Dover's Jam on Tuesday nights at It's A Beautiful Pizza on Belmont and I love that! It's just great. There's no ego about it. It's playing music for the sure joy of it!  It's as close to remembering why I got into music in the first place. "

    Dave Kahl plays music because he truly loves it! It shows when he performs and it shows when he talks about it. Dave's one of the "real people" in the business, no pretenses, no illusions, no BS. As music fans, we are all better off for having Dave Kahl playing music right here in The Rose City. He's a gentleman an entertainer, a professional, and a real human being. Dave is continually evolving and growing and that's some of the best stuff life has to offer.  He's living it!

 

© 1999 Cascade Blues Association