Dave Guy bio

Like many of the greats before him, trumpeter Dave Guy has a distinct tone and sensibility that set him apart from his peers. Raised in NYC’s East Village, he began to develop his voice as a player at LaGuardia Arts High School, and he continued to refine it during his studies at the Manhattan School of Music and The New School. After a few stints with live hip-hop group Dujeous, he toured with The Sugarman 3, an organ-driven soul jazz group. Through those gigs, he was recruited to play with the late great Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, touring with and recording on all of her albums until her untimely passing. During those years, he lent his playing to records from the likes of Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, Pharrell Williams, the Menahan Street Band, Lee Fields, Al Green, and many others. Today, Guy is best known as the trumpeter playing with Black Thought, Questlove, and the rest of The Roots crew—on tour, in the studio, and on TV with Jimmy Fallon.

With his first solo LP on Big Crown Records, Guy is stepping from a band’s flank straight to the front—with a well-deserved light shining directly on him and his sound. The record mixes his musical influences with the energies of the city that raised him, creating a New York jazz sound that pushes the boundaries of the genre by incorporating shades of hip-hop and soul. It began while The Tonight Show was on hiatus due to the writers’ strike. Guy started recording at NYC’s fabled Diamond Mine studio with friends and longtime collaborators Homer Steinweiss and Nick Movshon. What started as just looking to make music and create quickly took shape and direction, and they ended up laying down something wildly special and authentic: an album of songs that captures different moods and an invitation into the world as Guy sees it and feels it.