Dave Matthews Band

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Dave Matthews Band

Rock band

Recalling the first time he played with the musicians who would eventually fill out his band, Dave Matthews remarked in Guitar World, “We all got together just to jam and I was blown away…. I had never experienced anything like it before. What immediately appealed to me was the spontaneity of their playing. Everything just flows for them.” The other musicians—violinist Boyd Tinsley, saxophonist LeRoi Moore, bass player Stefan Lessard, and drummer Carter Beauford—were excited by the results of that April 1991 gig as well, and within a matter of weeks the players coalesced under the banner of the Dave Matthews Band. The group quickly embarked on a wave of furious touring that sparked a devoted cult following and, a few years later, a contract with recording giant RCA. Since then, two well-received albums—1994’s Under the Table and Dreaming and 1996’s Crash—have firmly established the Dave Matthews Band as one of rock and roll’s most talented and versatile musical groups.

Native of South Africa

Matthews was born in 1967 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The son of a physicist, he grew up in comfortable surroundings but was appalled by the country’s political system of apartheid. By the time he graduated from high school, he had participated in a number of marches and other activities designed to end apartheid. “There would be people singing the most incredible music in the face of police with tear gas and bats,” he recalled in an interview with the Boston Globe’s Steve Morse. “The singing gives a sense of being completely invincible, which is not true, but it is in a way. It keeps the spirit of the people up. A lot of that hope and spirit is going to save that country, and has enabled the guilty people there to be forgiven.”

After graduating from high school, Matthews left for the United States, eventually settling in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his mother. “I got an inscription letter from the South African army and said, ‘I’m out of here, ‘” he told Guitar World. “This, of course, was when apartheid still ruled, and I wasn’t going to serve in that army.” Over the next several years he worked on his songwriting and guitar playing, supporting himself as a bartender. After a while he became acquainted with LeRoi Moore and Carter Beauford, two highly regarded local jazz musicians. “I served both LeRoi and Carter a lot of drinks,” Matthews recalled in Guitar World, “and somewhere along the way I told them about this tape I was making and asked if they’d be interested in doing some recording, maybe playing out a little. I didn’t ask for any commitment—I wouldn’t have dared. They were both

For the Record…

Band members include Dave Matthews (acoustic guitar and lead vocals), Boyd Tinsley (violin), LeRoi Moore (saxophone), Stefan Lessard (bass guitar), and Carter Beauford (drums).

Group formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, 1989; made first appearance as band in Charlottesville on Earth Day, April 1991; toured throughout early 1990s, including withH.O.R.D.E. festival; releasedRem ember Two Things and EP Recently on own Bama Rags label; after signing with RCA, released Under the Table and Dreaming, 1994, which went triple platinum; participated in 1996 H.O.R.D.E. tour; released Crash, 1996.

Awards: Two Grammy Award nominations, 1994, for single “What Would You Say.”

Addresses: Agent —Red Light Management, P.O. Box 1911, Charlottesville, VA 22903. Record company— RCA Records, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.

older than me, and much better musicians. And when I met Stefan [Lessard], he was some kind of bass prodigy. He was still in high school and was playing upright bass with both Carter and LeRoi, cats twice his age.”

Birth of Dave Matthews Band

Once the musicians got together, they quickly realized that Matthews’ pop-folk-African music sensibilities and the other players’ jazz background made for a tantalizing mix. “We gelled in a really profound way,” said Matthews in Guitar World, “and it was obvious to all of us that we should stick with it, keep exploring and see what we could come up with.” A short time later, the musicians added violinist Boyd Tinsley to the stew, and the fledgling band began making plans to play live.

Over the next few years, the Dave Matthews Band became a fixture on the college concert circuit in the Southeastern United States. Dazzled by the band’s high-energy stage presence and unquestioned musical chops, a devoted grassroots following soon emerged. As the band’s visibility increased, much was made of Matthews’ South African background, since three other members of the band—Moore, Beauford, and Tinsley—are black. However, Matthews expressed little patience with suggestions that the fact of his birthplace somehow made their collaboration illegitimate. “It’s such an absurd idea that by virtue of living in a place that I’m guilty of the sins,” he told huH magazine, pointing out that the United States has had more than its share of problems with race relations. “My feelings are that South Africa is a raging example to the rest of the world—and most poignantly to America—on a way to deal with the issues of race. In a small period of time, they’ve done the most thorough and the most relentless purging; it’s phenomenal. It’s something that America has done the opposite of over the years: we’re patching and hiding and shoving under the carpet…. If you show the wounds, they have time to heal, but if you hide them, they just fester.”

Major Label Debut

The band’s blistering live shows, which were on full display during acoupleof H.O.R.D.E. tours, where they shared the stage with such bands as Blues Traveler and Phish, soon gained the attention of major record labels. RCA eventually signed the band, and in 1994 the Dave Matthews Band unveiled their first major label effort, Under the Table and Dreaming. The album garnered largely favorable reviews from critics impressed with the band’s instrumental facility and its unique blend of jazz, rock, and folk. People reviewer Geoffrey Welch-man remarked that the album “has a beguiling sound all its own, a sound that mixes jazzy acoustic guitar riffs with spiraling sax solos.” Buoyed by their live reputation and “What Would You Say,” a catchy single that eventually garnered two Grammy nominations, Under the Table and Dreaming sold more than three million copies.

Two years later the Dave Matthews Band released their follow-up effort, Crash. In contrast to the band’s first effort, Crash featured a heavier emphasis on electric guitar, courtesy of Matthew’s friend, guitarist Tim Reynolds. As with its predecessor, however, the album was hailed as a funky hybrid of roots rock and freewheeling jazz fusion. Los Angeles Times reviewer Sara Scribner wrote that “Matthews mostly fuels Crash with the same sultry, loose-limbed offering of polyrhythmic, jazzy fusion” that marked the earlier album, and Andréw Abrahams commented in People that “as alternative music threatens to become just another bland pop category, the Dave Matthews Band successfully redefines it on its own eclectic terms.” Entertainment Weekly agreed, noting that “to rock fans burned out on the hordes of Nirvana knockoffs and Hootie hopefuls, the Virginia-based quintet’s ear-catching jazz-folkf usion must seem like an entirely new genre.”

For his part, Matthews indicated that the band enjoyed putting together Crash more than their first RCA album. “For [Under the Table and Dreaming], we did it by the book,” he told Morse. “[Crash] is more by ourbook. We just got in a circle—reminiscent of our early rehearsals—and played to each other. There was a lot of creating as we went, a lot of jamming, and hours and hours of tape used up. And it really lent itself to an energy. There are very different songs from one to the next, but I feel there was a sensibility that stayed the same.”

Armed with two lively, popular records and a devoted grassroots following, the members of the Dave Matthews Band are enjoying their stardom. But Matthews seemed to recognize that fame can be a fleeting thing. “This will pass,” he told huH magazine. “It may be twenty-five years, it may be two years, who knows? I might go over the edge in a week. My time is temporary, so I’m going to make the most of it.”