At 18, he’s got soul

These days, it seems, just about every kid you meet has some sort of musical aspirations. Many want to be hip-hop stars, rhyming to the beat, while others play guitar or bass or keyboards in a local garage band, hoping to be the next big thing in contemporary or country music. Most other instruments, both wind and stringed, are represented in school bands: marching band, jazz band or orchestra.

I was fortunate enough to meet a young man recently who has found his own path and who is talented enough to become well-known in music circles throughout southeastern Louisiana. He’s not only a fine musician, he also writes his own songs, both music and lyrics.

David Gambino, who lives in Bush, is 18, but he has the poise and confidence of someone much older. He is a consummate musician who plays the saxophone, flute, clarinet, drums and a little trombone and piano just for fun. The son of local restaurant owner Tony Gambino and his wife Lennice, David has just graduated summa cum laude from Covington High School, with a 4.1 grade point average, reflecting the one honors course he took in English IV. He, along with four other students, was inducted into the Covington High School Hall of Fame.

David played at Birdie’s Roadhouse in Varnado the other night, open mic night, where he was sitting in as a sideman with most, if not all, of the bands, adding a soulful or jazzy flavor to whatever song they were playing.

“I can’t wait ‘till I’m really old and I can tell my kids that I knew Birdie,” he said with a laugh. Comfortable in just about every genre of music, it’s soul and funk that he really grooves to and he listens to oldies stations almost exclusively. His favorite group of all time is Tower of Power, but he’s also taken with a local group, Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, out of New Orleans, a group of classically trained musicians who play everything from guitar to fluegelhorn to electric cello and, according to their Web site, “steal as much from Beethoven as we borrow from The Meters.”

“When I was a little kid,” David said during a break at Birdies, “my grandmother played big band and 40’s music in the kitchen and we would walk around the house dancing to big band music. That’s one of my earliest memories.”

Growing up, he said, he and his 15-year-old sister, Annie, also a talented musician and singer, listened to a lot of oldies, ‘40s from grandmother Ceciel and ‘60s and ‘70s from their mom. Whatever the genre, there was always music of some sort playing in the house.

So it’s no wonder that David just couldn’t wait to be able to join the band at school. He started in third grade with the recorder.  By the fifth grade, students were able to pick an instrument and he was all set to play the trombone. But for some reason, he said, when he wrote down the instrument he wanted to play he wrote “saxophone.” He’s not sure to this day, he says, why he did that.

But it turned out to be a good choice. David’s formed his own “garage band” recently, consisting of guitar, bass, drums and, of course, sax. Named “Clockwise,” the band is still looking for members – another guitar player, maybe a singer, but especially some horns. He’s looking to replicate some of that Tower of Power sound. His musical idol is former TOP lead sax man Norbert Stachel, who, like David, plays tenor sax. Recently, David said, he needed a new mouthpiece for his instrument and, on a whim, he looked up the email address for Stachel and asked his advice. To his surprise, Stachel emailed him back and gave him some ideas, but also gave him his phone number and invited him to give him a call. They struck up a friendship over the phone and were able to meet at Jazz Fest in New Orleans this spring, and David was able to purchase a mouthpiece directly from Statchel. That was a dream come true, said David. That mouthpiece, he said, was “like an epiphany in my mouth.” Finding the right mouthpiece to go with the right reed and the right instrument is what it’s all about for horn players.

Soon David will be heading off to Southeastern Louisiana University, where he will be a freshman in the music department, majoring in Music Education. He received a five-year music scholarship as well as a four-year honor scholarship to Southeastern.

He will enter school as a freshman, but because of his several years in Southeastern’s Community Music School and the Northshore School of the Arts, he will jump right into junior status after his first semester.

His ultimate goal in life, and he has many, is to be a band director, teaching other up-and-coming musicians to hone their skills and find their chops. He’s ready to work hard in school to earn first his bachelor’s degree and to go on from there to get his master’s and finally a Ph.D.

Throughout his life, his parents have supported him in every way. “I couldn’t have done it without them,” said David. But now it’s time for him to move on, leave the nest and soar on his own. He’ll be living on campus at SLU with another sax player from Hammond High School.

You can catch him at Birdies Roadhouse in mid-September (call for the date) and he also plays at Palmettos on the Bayou in Slidell and the Sing Sing Club in the French Quarter in New Orleans.