BIO
Dave Reiss is a Nyack, NY based musician (bassist, guitarist and vocalist), music director, producer, songwriter, educator and live sound engineer. He is known for his reliability, leadership and dedication to playing to the song. He has a simple, soulful, melodic style with a playful, sensitive approach to constructing and evolving rhythms and motifs.
His band Dave Reiss & Friends has been a fixture of the Hudson Valley music scene for the last decade. Dave also plays bass and guitar with tons of artists throughout the Northeast, mostly in the Funk, Soul and Reggae world. He is music director and bassist of the Bobby Deitch Band, plays guitar with Denroy Morgan, co-leads funk band Mr. Breakdown and plays bass and guitar with I Anbassa and Anita Antoinette.
As a solo performer, Dave Reiss delivers an honest, heartfelt acoustic take on classic and original soul, rock and blues with nods to Paul Simon, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty and Jimi Hendrix. He also mixes in instrumental electric guitar arrangements of famous songs, expressing the melody, harmony and rhythm of the tunes with his two hands. "I'm excited with how it's allowed me to more fully inspect and better express how I hear music. Every person hears things their own way and I think one of the exciting parts of following musicians is getting to hear songs through their lens."
For the past decade, he's played incessantly with all types of musicians. Dave always strives to find common ground and work together to play the best, most cohesive, beautiful music possible. He is intense on the stage, known visually for mouthing the rhythms he is playing.
Dave is also a private music educator. He is a self-described expert beginner and intermediate guitar and bass instructor. He also teaches groups of students how to play together and collaborate as a band. He is a live sound engineer and co-owns Safe & Sound Productions - a company that rents and operates audio equipment, lighting, and anything else needed for all types of live events.
Dave was always intrigued by music. First as an eager fan and as a casual trumpeter in elementary school. What led to his eventual desire to be a musician...Maybe it was when he discovered the African-American blues tradition through his 'Simpsons Sing The Blues' cassette, or when he first heard Michael Jackson, or when his cousin Eric gave him a mix tape of hip hop laced with jazz and funk roots. It came to a head at the end of freshman year of high school, when he decided to take out his father's guitar from his closet. He started investigating the possibilities of playing and creating music and hasn't stopped since.
When shuffling through his dad's old chord sheets and 'how to play guitar' guides, he found one 'how to play bass' book. His dad, Ira, explained that if you play bass, you get to play with great musicians. Dave's early career has revealed the deep truth in that as he has been privileged to play with many exceptional musicians.
Dave enjoys playing all genres and particularly loves to play music that grooves hard including funk, soul and reggae. Much of what resonates with him are rhythms, tones and melodies with their roots in Africa. He hears music from more of a song crafting sensibility, but is comfortable playing progressive music and exploring new boundaries. And he loves to improvise.