David Ervin

David Ervin (born March 16, 1961) is an American pop and jazz synthesizer pioneer and jazz pianist from Altadena, California, USA. He took after his musical father, Dee Ervin , a.k.a. Big Dee Irwin, (who was a singer, songwriter/artist who led Doo-Wop singing group, "The Pastels" and recorded duets with Little Eva, in the early 60's) combined elements of rock, funk and soul with the newly emerging digital keyboards and analog synthesizers and along with a handful of other recording keyboard/synth musicians and programmers, brought new colors and dimensions to the west coast recording scene while adopting and inserting stylistic elements of early jazz pianists like Earl"Fatha" Hines and Teddy Wilson. His recording credits include Albums by Tina Turner, Natalie Cole, Phyllis Hyman, Gladys Knight and the Pips, various albums by the Jacksons, including hits by Jermaine and Michael, to jazz and blues artists, Bobby"blue" Bland (songwriter), Bobby Womack (songwriter) , The Crusaders and Joe Sample. Ervin was often responsible for performing nearly complete rhythm tracks for these 80's and 90's recordings as the newly developed digital synthesizers and sequencers were being used to replace the drums, bass, horns, strings and almost any other sound that previously required acoustic musicians. He continues to play and teach jazz piano in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.