How long can a piano player’s fingers keep tickling those ivories? How long can he continue to belt out blues tunes to packed houses? How long can he win awards and write songs? Surely it must slow down at some age. It should, but not for David Vest, the amazing blues piano player, singer and writer. He’s 75 years old and going like a southern dervish – okay, a northern dervish, for although he started in the deep South, he’s now a Canadian.
Time has barely put a dent in David’s energy, skills and creative drive. He continues to bring audiences to their feet and to demonstrate why he has been called “one of the greatest living boogie-woogie piano players.” And his mental acumen continues unabated with songs and wisdom pouring from his pen.
David Vest is an authentic, Southern-bred boogie-woogie piano player, blues singer and world-class entertainer. Born in 1943, David grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. He came from poor roots as his father was a sharecropper. But music, and especially blues, coursed through David’s veins from his early days. His grandmother bought him an upright piano for $50 and his father would drive it on the back of his flatbed truck to David’s next performance, often in a local field.
His first paying gig was at age 13. By the time he opened for Roy Orbison at age 18, he was already a Gulf Coast roadhouse blues veteran. He backed Big Joe Turner in the 1960s and later toured with Jimmy T99 Nelson, Floyd Dixon and Lavelle White, as well as the rockabilly group Bill Black’s Combo. David was also the co-leader of the Paul deLay Band. Along the way, he picked up five Muddy awards from the Cascade Blues Association, including best keyboard player. According to the award organizers, David is “Blues Piano Perfection.” No question, David had settled into a solid career in the American blues scene.
Canada his home when he fell in
love with a BC woman; Canadians
have fallen in love with his music.
Photo by Regina Akhankina.
But then a black-haired Canadian girl named Annie changed the landscape. In late 2003, the two met in Portland, Oregon, and David soon became a frequent visitor to Victoria, where Annie lived. One of their first dates involved typical Vancouver-Island culture: they savoured cups of tea at Murchie’s, a well-known tea shop in Victoria. In 2005, the couple married. David moved to Victoria and he and Annie live happily there today. He re-oriented his career and has been extremely successful in his newly adopted country. Although he still speaks with just a trace of southern twang, he has become a true-blue Canuck. And Canada appreciates the multi-talented relative newcomer.
Greg Baert, David’s agent since 2008, helped David re-establish and knows him well. Baert says, “David is a consummate, astonishing musician, one of the best piano players in my lifetime, and I know piano.” In addition, Baert revealed a side of David of which most people are unaware. “In addition to his tremendous musical ability and dry wit,” Baert says, “David has a super intellect.” He explained that David has a Ph.D. in American literature and is a published writer. As though that isn’t enough, he also speaks French and is computer savvy. And he has a legendary knowledge of rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, blues and musicians, especially those from Alabama. I was awestruck and completely surprised, for I had had two lengthy interviews with David, who had not mentioned these formidable talents. What a modest guy!
I met David for the first time at his condo in downtown Victoria. Wearing a black shirt and jeans, he lounged at a large shining black Kawai conservatory grand piano, which crowded the living room. His round face, which often broke into an infectious smile, is topped by thick, black hair heavily laced with grey that was combed straight back. A hint of a grey goatee hangs below his lower lip.
A measure of David’s success is that all four albums he’s released in Canada since 2012 have placed in the top three in the Roots Music’s Top 50 Canada Album Chart. “I had no idea there was an audience here for my kind of music,” he says. “The positive response to it has astonished me. It’s something I would never have imagined.”
A Songwriter of the Year nominee, David’s songs have been covered by artists ranging from Tammy Wynette to the legendary Downchild Blues Band. Downchild’s cover of his song “Worried About the World” was a No. 1 hit on the Roots Music blues chart.
David had an exciting career and in his younger days was shot at, robbed and threatened with death. He compared these adventures to his experiences in his new country, “I didn’t quite envision touring Ontario, Manitoba and northern Saskatchewan in January, but I’ve done it — more than once!”
What keeps him so young and energetic?
“The music, a happy life and good friends,” he says. Adding, “Also coming to Canada has rejuvenated me. It felt like coming home. I’m loving it and I’m here to stay.” What about lifestyle and exercise? “I used to play softball and tennis, but now it’s just walking. I do a lot of walking. I quit smoking more than 35 years ago and don’t drink any alcohol at all.”
He explained his philosophy. “Blues is about feeling. If you’re ‘feeling no pain,’ if you’ve numbed all feeling, you’ve stepped away from the blues. If you’re drinking how can you feel?” He remembered some big shows, and the famous stars were all healthy and sober. “The audience can get blasted, but not the players. It’s a great misconception that musicians are party animals.”
Annie Bowers at his concert at
Hermann’s Jazz Club in Victoria.
Photo by Regina Akhankina.
One of the biggest satisfactions of David’s career is feeling accepted by the older blues musicians he looks up to and respects. Of course, he is also pleased by the five Muddy awards he received in the US and feels they are huge tributes. But he is particularly proud of the five Maple Blues awards he’s received since moving to Canada. He proudly held up the most recent one he received in Toronto for Piano Player of the Year for 2018.
And what about the future?
“I’m going to keep playing,” he says. “In addition, I’m looking at new directions for the blues. I’d like to play the blues as a guest artist with symphony orchestras and write some new music for that situation. And I’d like to call more attention to blues artists as songwriters.”
Clearly, age is not slowing down David’s activities nor his ambitions.
Awed by his longevity, I wondered how long he could maintain this phenomenal level of activity. “I’m going to keep going ‘as long as the flavour lasts’ to quote Jimmy T-99 Nelson,” he says.
David says he doesn’t feel slower, although the number of gigs he does is down to about 30 per year. In fact, David feels he is gaining momentum. “I’ve the good fortune to be in music where age doesn’t matter. In blues, the older musicians are more revered. Old age is not a disadvantage.”
David gave a hint of his possible goal by noting that Pine Top Perkins lived to 97, when he was still touring with about 200 gigs a year. “We played together at his 90th birthday, and he could still bring the heat.”
David Vest is a true inspiration and a cherished addition to the Canadian blues landscape. I plan to be around to watch him play on his 90th birthday.
Sidebar – A Chat with David
If you were to meet your 20-year-old self, what advice would you give him?
“Protect your hearing. Play what you believe in and ignore what’s fashionable or not. Be true to yourself. Remember Bob Dylan’s words, ‘Sometimes no one wants what you got.’”
Who or what has influenced you the most? And why?
“I have been most influenced by the character of the older blues people I met. Jimmy Nelson would not let you badmouth another musician. ‘Wait ‘til he’s here,’ he’d say. I learned the concept of ‘necessary respect’ from them. Floyd Dixon, who has since passed away, once borrowed my piano. Afterwards, he tried to pay me, but I said no, feeling he had increased the value of the piano by using it. But Dixon insisted because he needed to show the ‘necessary respect.’ Little Richard felt the same way and used the same phrase. Katie Webster, the Queen of Swamp Boogie, after hearing me play, said ‘I knows it when I hears it.’ I was flattered as it was one of the nicest things ever said to me. Later, she suffered a stroke and had to use a walker. She fought, though, and worked her way back to performing. I was moved by her courage. I learned to realize that it’s not wild drinking and drugs, but character and courage that are important. Blues are part of the community; they’re at the table, and you’ve got to respect it. Often, the people who have the least, contribute the most.”
What does success mean to you?
“Never having had to do anything I would call work, not like my dad who was a sharecropper.
“Success means enjoying the music I play, and also having an audience. I opened for Roy Orbison in 1952 and he had a very small audience that night. But he still put on a full show because he appreciated the audience.”
What are you most grateful for?
“Having discovered what I’m supposed to be doing in life, accepting the path, and being given the ability to do it.”
To catch one of David’s shows, see the schedule on his website at http://davidvest.ca/shows/
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