David bought his first trumpet on layaway at Ben’s Loan, a local pawn shop in his hometown of Renton, Washington over the span of a year and a half of weekly payments.
– the price, $65 was a sum “hard to raise in a hurry when you’re ten and poor,” he says. Amazingly, he still plays the same gold plated trumpet to this day. The two have been on an amazing journey, starting every Sunday at church and including practicing every day of his childhood in his front yard. He still apologizes to his childhood neighbors.
Growing up in a family rich in love, yet financially challenged meant that David couldn’t afford private lessons to learn the trumpet. The local Renton Salvation Army offered free music classes where David was taught how to read music and the fingerings for the trumpet. “I appreciate so much the loving mentorship of the officers there, Brigadeers Charles and Edith Bennett who gave freely of their time and teachings to lift me up and help me to learn music”, David says, adding “to this day I still try to continue that spirit of giving, sharing with others by teaching young people to play and cherish music.” David discovered he could earn money playing on a street corner in Seattle on weekends, which helped him learn to improvise and play hundreds of requested songs on the spot.
The horn led him to a multi-faceted career that found him playing for legendary pop and rock artists, including Foreigner, James Brown and Marvin Gaye. Making his solo recording debut at 17 with his Montage album, he was indie before it was cool, selling several thousand copies across the U.S. and Canada before moving to Los Angeles to continue his career.
Starting with regular performances at Magic Mountain with his own Dixieland style jazz group called the Walt Dixie World Quartet, he took inspiration from the recordings of Louis Armstrong, Al Hirt and others. David’s ease switching between musical styles led to a busy career working in music for TV, film and commercials. While laying the groundwork on his current solo career, he performed with many of today’s top artists and performed everything from jazz, pop and dance music throughout the U.S. and Europe. The success of “Deeper Love,” his single with CeCe Peniston inspired him to return to the studio to record Baila! as a full length tribute to the many genres of music he loves, centered on the Latin music of his heritage.
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Dynamically fusing stylistic ideas from his classical background and a distinctive flair for melody and improvisation with today’s freshest cutting edge dance vibes, David Longoria built upon the momentum of his Latin-driven album Baila! with his groundbreaking edm and jazz blended album The Journey. It was designed to chronicle one’s life. Events that we all share over the years.
The album starts and ends with “Angels.” There is a dance version that launches the album combining a baroque style trumpet along with EDM. It has a triumphant holiday-like fanfare with a modern driving beat. To David, this version represents the time before we were born. The album finishes with the same melodies but in a reprise form and without a beat. “It’s a little ethereal as it represents the afterlife,” he says. The spiritual theme continues on ‘Genesis,’ which is a musical version of your beginning. One note combines with another to start dividing as cells do in our creation. After a bit of building, a heartbeat appears and musically you can tell the themes are very unique, illustrating your blueprint of originality.”
David’s song“Angels,” a Hollywood Music in Media Awards winner for Best EDM Song, the versatile trumpeter and composer goes on a full throttle exploration of his hybrid sound. David jokes about the invention of TDM (Trumpet Dance Music) as a new sub genre.
“Like many of the jazz musicians I grew up admiring, including Miles Davis, I’m always looking to create musical ideas and sounds that haven’t been done before and that are relevant to what’s happening today,” David says. “EDM is everywhere these days, but the people listening and dancing to it may not know how well it works with jazz and instrumental pop. I wanted to introduce to them just what a live trumpet can do with catchy, accessible melodies. I knew people would be interested in the sound, but I wanted to make it the foundation of a concept that tied every tune together. There’s one thing we all have in common – we’re all on a journey. Our lives are full of milestones and intersections at all kinds of points, and I wanted to create a musical representation of those. The Journey is your life.”
The compelling album cover, shot by Michael Jackson’s former photographer Harrison Funk in the desert outside Las Vegas, represents both David’s ambitious quest and that of every person to find his or her purpose amidst a choice of pathways.
In 2019 David created an album with his own fresh take on classic jazz songs called MOOD. Guests on the highly acclaimed album include Barbara Morrison, Promise Marks, Freda Payne, Poncho Sanchez, and Marc Antonelli.
“I wanted to answer all the fans who ask ‘what’s the perfect album to put on for a nice evening with a romantic dinner?'” So I chose some wonderful guest artists to join me and some iconic songs, David says, adding “and I’m very proud of the results.”
Released in 2020 was David’s jazz album “A Better Place”, featuring his song “Make The World A Better Place” which is a theme he often shares in songs and concerts. “It’s important for me to say something with my music that can help people and lift up those around us”, David explains. “More important than just showing off on my trumpet, I want to make music that touches people and gives hope. “
During the 2020 worldwide shutdowns David pulled together a big band and created a fun jazzy romp with his tongue-in-cheek single “Bitcoin Billionaire” which has gathered a lot of attention because of it’s fun theme of the fantasy of crypto currency making one rich. It brings a smile to audiences everywhere.
While all of these releases were coming out…
The emotional and spiritual centerpiece of David’s music is the powerful vocal anthem “We Are One,” a call for unity in a time of great division that was inspired by David’s realization that it had been nearly 35 years since Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie wrote “We Are The World” to create global awareness of famine in Africa. Written by David and produced by him and the album’s co-producer Robert Eibach, the song was recorded in 22 cities across the United States. David planned to produce it with 15-20 artists and complete the recording in two weeks.
Once the word got out, it grew to include more than 750 artists and 1500 individual tracks, recorded over nearly four years, “We Are One” is now the “biggest song in the history of pop music” based on the number of artists contributing. David drew on his multi-decade resume of work with artists from different eras to amass artists from the ‘50s to the present, including The Dazz Band, Freda Payne, The 5th Dimension, Peaches & Herb, The Coasters, The Drifters, The Platters, Funkalicious and many others from the worlds of pop, R&B, country and jazz.
“The song addresses one of the biggest problems our world is suffering from today, being divided by things like race, religion and political ideologies” David says. “It’s a problem I knew we had to take on in the only way I know how, through the power of music to unite. It’s not about politics – just love and uplifting. My goal was to bring artists together to stand up for each other, for people of all races to understand so much we have in common despite our differences. I am honored and humbled by the response of so many artists who wanted to be part of what became an historic moment in recording history. As the lyrics say, I truly believe ‘We are one race/We are one people/We are one nation under one God…with One Purpose/That we love one another.”
The song is the springboard of a new movement David has created, whose mission is to bring people together to promote unity, using music and concerts, involving different races and cultures, broadening the vision of acceptance and support for each other. David and his team at www.weareconcerts.org are bringing together performers from different races and cultures,
They are launching the song and concerts in cities most affected by racial divisions over the past years, including New York, Baltimore, Seattle, Dallas and many others. David believes that bringing local students, choirs and national artists together is a great way to support and encourage one another. “We believe that in this way, kids and communities, both as performances and audience, will experience first-hand the power of unity,” says David, who has donated an average of 100 live concert performances per year for kids as part of the LIFT program.
In the We Are One Concerts, David and his team are bringing several high school choirs to perform together with national recording artists in each city. Each choir performs a song with the artists, then all will join for a memorable finale with everyone together singing “We Are One.” David’s goal for this ambitious project is to reach a million kids over the next two and a half years, in live, broadcast and streaming concerts.
Awards
2016 HMMA (Hollywood Music in Media Awards) Best EDM song “Angels” 2016 HMMA 7 nominations including Best Independent Music Video “All She Does” 2106 Safe Passage “Best Inspirational Music Producer & Artist” 2015 Hollywood Fame Award (Hollywood Walk OF Fame Star) 2014 Artists In Music Awards Best Jazz Artist 2013 Los Angeles Music Awards Career instrumentalist Award 2013 AJS (American Jazz Society) Favorite Trumpeter Of The Year 2012 eWorld Music Awards, Paramount Pictures Studios “Best Dance Song Zoon Baloomba” 2011 AJS (American Jazz Society) Musician Of The Year 2011 2010 ASYM (American Society of Young Musicians) “ALL THAT JAZZ” award- Bel Air, CA 2008 HOLLYWOOD MUSIC AWARDS (Nomination and winning Hollywood Music Award): Best Instrumental Performance (A Castle In Spain featuring Ottmar Liebert); AWARD: 2008 Best Instrumental Artist (David Longoria) 2007 Musica Europa “Top Instrumentalist” (David Longoria, trumpet); 2007 Berlin Music Awards “Best instrumental Soloist”, Best instrumentalist” 2006 Dance Music Awards (Europe) “Top Dance Single” (Deeper Love featuring Cece Peniston) 2006 Musica Europa “Top Instrumentalist” (David Longoria, trumpet), “Top Dance collaboration” (Deeper Love featuring Cece Peniston) 1998 Cannes Music Festival “Best Instrumentalist” 1997 Cannes Music Festival “Best instrumental Performer” 1989 Seattle Symphony “Gold Medalist” 1989 Highline Symphony “Best Classical Soloist”
Gear
1958 Olds Recording trumpet, Yamaha Keyboards, Shure microphones Chopsaver (lip balm for people with lips) endorsement; Soulo Mutes!
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