David Rokeach - Drummer

Lee Hildebrand - reviewer for the
Bay Guardian, Living Blues Magazine,
S.F. Chronicle, and a drummer himself!

David Rokeach - Drummer

A long time Bay Area resident, drummer David Rokeach has been working primarily in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas for more than 20 years. David toured nationally and internationally with Ray Charles from 1990-91. This included concert videos and many television appearances, including an appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and the Doc Severinson Orchestra. In recent years he has performed/recorded with Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Aaron Neville, Mavis Staples, Lou Rawls, Grammy winner Joe Henderson, Down Beat Poll winner Mark Murphy, Bluesman Charlie Musselwhite, The George Brooks-Zakir Hussain Group, Wilson Pickett, Linda Tillery, Steve Miller, Joe Satriani, Joyce Cooling, Maria Muldaur, Calvin Keys, Barry Finnerty, Merl Saunders, David Grisman... and many more. Read more...

N E W S - P r o j e c t s . . . . . . . . details here.

Aug 9th- San Jose Jazz festival with singer Sony Holland
Aug 3rd- 7th - Teaching at the Lafayette Summer Music Camp .
July 26th- with former Count Basie singer Jamie Davis featuring the Fred Berry All Star Big Band at The Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society in Half Moon Bay
July 22 - at Yoshi's in Oakland with singer Shaynee Rainbolt doing the music of Russell Garcia. Featuring Larry Dunlap on piano and four trombones!
July 18th- with Pamela Rose at Anna's Jazz Island featuring Ruth Davies, Tammy Hall and Jeff Massanari .
July 5th - Stanford Jazz Festival Songs of Sinatra featuring Larry Dunlop, Seward McCain, Noel Jewkes, Jim Rothermel and Danny Grewen. 2:30 pm
June 19th- at Savanna Jazz i n SF with guitar giant Barry Finnerty and Peter Barshay on bass
June 4th- with critically acclaimed pianist Debbie Poryes and bass legend Bill Douglass at the Healdsburg Jazz Festival
May 28th - Orinda Theater Square form 5-8 with the Bob Athayde Quartet featuring his wonder wiz son Kyle Athayde on vibes and trumpet. This is a free concert. Come hear this kid before it costs a fortune!
May 23rd- Live recording session with Anna Deleon at Anna's Jazz Island, She's not just the club owner. She really can sing.
April 29th-with the Dick Bright Orchestra at the Sheraton Palace Hotel in SF for Bob Saget's benefit for Scleraderma research. Featuring smooth jazz sax dude Dave Koz
March 10th- April 11th- at Theaterworks in Palo Alto, It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues. A stage production directed by Randy Myler. Randy also directed the Janis Joplin show "Love Janis" which I was fortunate enough to play on during it's SF run at the Marines Memorial Theater (see the"reviews" section of this website). Randy was also the little kid with the glasses in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" (I'll be playing all shows except the 2pm show on 3/28).
Feb 28th- with the George Brooks Group featuring Barry Finnerty at the Gaia Theater in Berkeley
Feb17th - Funky Latin flavored Jazz with keyboard artist Manny Moka at Yoshi's SF
Feb 14th- Live recording session with Anna Deleon at Anna's Jazz Island, She's not just the club owner. She really can sing.
Feb 2nd-10th 2009- The Rubinoos Tour Spain!
Jan 19th- Celebrate Martin Luther King Day and the inauguration of Barack Obama with David Hardiman and the San Francisco All Star Big Band featuring vocalists Mary Stallings , Denise Perrier and other special guests at Yoshi's SF
Dec 15th -with singer Sony Holland at Crocker Galleria SF 12-1 pm
Dec 8th - with The Rubinoos at Diablo Valley College. The Rubinoos are Jon Rubin, Tommy Dunbar, Al Chan, and Suzy Davis. Individually, these folks are amazing performers. Together, they're even greater than the sum of all of their parts (kind of like the Beatles, only funnier).This is a rare perfomance by the Rubes, due to the reclusive nature of the founding members. So if you like great melodic Rock songs with fantastic vocal harmonies, and a sense of humor, this show is not to be missed.
Dec 2nd- Xmas tree lighting ceremony at the BofA building in SF with the Dick Bright Orchestra and special guest singers.
Nov 26th- at Yoshi's in Oakland with the amazing Carla Zilbersmith
Oct 24th -with singer Pamela Rose featuring Wayne De la Cruz on Hammond B3 organ at Joe's of Lafayette
Oct 18th - with jazz singer Dana Land at the Marin Art and Jazz Festival
Oct 6th - with jazz singer and Downbeat Poll-Winner, Mark Murphy. at Yoshi's in Oakland
Oct 3rd- at Steinway Hall in Los Angeles with the amazing Carla Zilbersmith
Sept 21st- at The Monterey Jazz Festival with former Count Basie singer Jamie Davis featuring the Fred Berry All Star Big Band
Sept 26th - with the amazing Carla Zilbersmith at Anna's Jazz Island, Berkeley, CA.
Sept 19th - at Cetrella with singer, guitarist, pianist Jennifer Lee , Mike O'neil on sax and Seward McCain on bass
Sept 17th-with singer Sony Holland at Crocker Galleria SF 12-1 pm
Sept 15th- at Yoshi's in Oakland with singer Shaynee Rainbolt doing the music of Russell Garcia. Featuring Larry Dunlop on piano and four trombones!
Sept 12th - with Jim and Morning Nichols at 425 Market St from noon to one
Sept 11th - at the Pallette Art Cafe with with Jazz Guitar Legend Calvin Keys . (Check out the tune that Pat Metheny wrote for Calvin. It's called Calvin's Keys . It's on Pat's new trio record Day Trip. The tune is very greasy, like Calvin himself!)
August 31st -at Incline Village Sand Harbor with former Count Basie singer Jamie Davis featuring the Fred Berry All Star Big Band
August 30th- at Oakland's Art and Soul Festival with Jazz Guitar Legend Calvin Keys from 12:30-1:30. (Check out the tune that Pat Metheny wrote for Calvin. It's called Calvin's Keys . It's on Pat's new trio record Day Trip. The tune is very greasy, like Calvin himself!)
August 20th- with Sony Holland at Union Square SF from noon to one
August 14th &15th- at Skywalker studios with Sony Holland for NARAS and Nuemann Microphones
August 10th- with Bay Area sax great Melecio Magdaluyo at the S.F. Filipino Festival at Yerba Buena Gardens. If you've never heard me sing Filipino folk songs before, you're in for a real treat!
August 1st- at Joe's of Lafayette with the Fred Randolph Quintet
July 31st -with The Rubinoos at Diablo Valley College for Glenn Appell's History of Rock and Roll and R&B class.
July 16th-a noon time concert at 525 Market St. SF with Larry Dunlap and Bobbe Norris
July 12th-at the Kensington Pub at 8:00 with Al Chan and Friends. Some very special guests will be there.
July 12- at The Golden Gate Bass Camp for The Ray Brown Memorial Bass Course clinic by legendary bassist John Clayton at Holy Names College in Oakland from 2-5
June 29th and 30th - a CD release party with Sony Holland at the Razz Room in the Hotel Nico SF
June 28th - with funky Blues singer/guitarist Patricia Wilder at the Monterey Blues Festival featuring former Jerry Garcia Band Organist Melvin Seals.
June 22nd & 23rd with Roslyn Kind (A.K.A Barbra Streisand's kid sister) at the Razz Room in the Hotel Nico S
June 21st with The Rubinoos at the Great American Music Hall SF. The Rubinoos are Jon Rubin, Tommy Dunbar, Al Chan, and Suzy Davis. Individually, these folks are amazing performers. Together, they're even greater than the sum of all of their parts (kind of like the Beatles, only funnier).This is a rare perfomance by the Rubes, due to the reclusive nature of the founding members. So if you like great melodic Rock songs with fantastic vocal harmonies, and a sense of humor, this show is not to be missed.
June 16th - with former Count Basie singer Jamie Davis at Yoshi's featuring the Fred Berry All Star Big Band at Yoshi's SF - shows at 8 and 10pm
June 15th - with former Count Basie singer Jamie Davis featuring the Filoli All Star Big Band directed by Fred Berry at Filoli Gardens.
June 14th - with Carla Zilbersmith at the Jazzschool in Berkeley
June 7th - with Jim and Morning Nichols at the Sanchez Concert Hall in Pacifica. Jim is a guitar wizard who can play just about anything. He specializes in Jazz and is one of the world's foremost disciples of Chet Atkins' finger style guitar. His wife Morning is a very soulful singer. On this gig they are joined by another remarkable singer, Nate Pruit, and Bass innovator, Michael Manring . I have no idea what we'll be playing, but I'm sure that it will be a lot of fun.
June 4th - with funky Blues singer/guitarist Patricia Wilder at Lou's Pier 47 SF
May 24th - at The Vacaville Performing Arts Center with former Count Basie singer Jamie Davis featuring the Fred Berry All Star Big Band
May 18th-at the Alameda Elks Club with the Rudy Salvini Big Band featuring critically acclaimed singer Jackie Ryan
May 6th - at Yoshi's in Oakland with the amazing, singer/actor/playwrite Carla Zilbersmith. This show is a bennefit for Carla. She has been diagnosed with ALS ( Lou Gehrigs disease). There will be many other artists on the bill. Please come out and help Carla battle this devastating disease.
May 3rd - with former Count Basie singer Jamie Davis featuring the Fred Berry All Star Big Band in Lafayette, CA at the Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church
April 7th - at Yoshi's in Oakland with critically acclaimed pianist Debbie Poryes and bass legend Bill Douglass.
April 6th - cd release party with The Klobas/Kesecker Ensemble featuring Gene Burkert at Jazz at Pearls SF.
March 30th - at the Post St. Theater SF 3-4:30. Tribute to the Lincoln Brigades.with fantastic political songwriter and former Country Joe and the Fish member, Bruce Barthol.The show will feature members of the SF theater community as well as surviving members of the Lincoln Brigades. If you don't know about the Lincoln Brigades, you may want to Google them and find out more about this courageous group of people.
March 26th - with singer Sony Holland at Crocker Galleria SF 12-1 pm

R E C O R D I N G - P r o j e c t s

A couple of tunes on the upcoming Pamela Rose cd .Pamela is a soulful veteran San Francisco singer who lives in that musical world on the border of R&B and Jazz. It's a fun place! The disc, recorded at Skywalker studio, is being produced by Leslie Ann Jones , with arrangements by Matt Catingcub . The tunes I play on include Matt on piano and saxophones, Mike Olmos on Trumpet, Doug Beavers on Trombone, , Danny Caron on guitar, Ruth Davies on acoustic bass, Dewayne Pate on Electric bass, and Wayne De La Cruz on Hammond B3 organ. The other tracks feature many other great players. This is a good one!
Five tunes for a new cd by multi instrumentalist, and smooth baritone singer Tony Marcus
Six new tunes for TV and Film composer Joel Evans featuring Larry Dunlap on piano and Dan Fieszl i on bass
A couple of tunes on new cd with Mike Dewall produced by Oakland producer Pete Elman
Two new cd's with amazing singer/actress/writer Carla Zilbersmith. The music features John R. Burr and Jon Evans among others. One is a jazz cd and one is her original music. These recordings are in addition to the cd Extraordinary Renditions, that we recorded in in '07 and '08. Carla was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) while we were in the midst of working on that project. We started the next group of songs with the knowledge that she had this terminal disease and that time was running out for her and for us as a musical unit. I don't think that I can adequately express how important doing her projects have been to me. She is a great artist and still writes a blog that is often poignant, intelligent and hysterically funny. She continues to be an inspiration to countless people. Please check out her music and her blog.
New cd with inspirational songstress Karen Drucker.
Jazz trio CD with pianist extraordinaire Debbie Poryes featuring bass legend Bill Douglass.
recording project with the Klobas/ Kesecker ensemble featuring special guest Zakir Hussain
cd with Bay Area Bass Master Seward Mcain and his soulful singing wife Wendy
cd with Jazz Singer Extraordinaire Maye Cavallero
Calvin Keys new cd: Hand Made Portrait
The new cd for Jazz singer Sony Holland
New cd with Broadway show singer Clark Sterling
New concert DVD with the Calvin Keys Trio
New Concert DVD with Jazz singing legend Mark Murphy as well as a new documentary DVD with Mark