Dave Maffris was born and raised in Chicago, where he began to study classical piano at age 6. After 7 years of study, Dave began to teach himself rock and pop music. Gifted with a great ear, Dave was playing top 40 songs at parties, etc. Dave's first band, The Sonics, was formed while Dave was in High School, and rapidly became the leading band in the town of Evanston, IL. The Sonics had recording contract and tour offers, and won many a "battle of the bands," playing R&B and Pop standards and some original songs.
Dave began songwriting around this time, and taught himself to play acoustic guitar while in college. Dave performed in Chicago as a singer-songwriter of mostly original tunes during the 70's and then gravitated to Jazz music, largely due to the influence of pianists such as Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, and others. Dave subsequently continued playing pop music, jazz, dixieland, and fusion throughout the 70's and 80's, particularly after Dave moved to Boston.
Currently Dave occasionally plays with a Jazz Quartet called the Harvest Jazz Band, and recently released his first solo release, Dreamer. Dreamer features a blend of soft and funky jazz, somewhat between the genres of smooth jazz and instrumental pop. Dave's songs feature strong melodies, tight structure, and are always easy to listen to. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.