Dave Getz

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Dave Getz
Janis Joplin Big Brother and the Holding Company (cropped).jpg
Big Brother and the Holding Company in the mid 1960s, Getz at the far left
Background information
Born (1940-01-24) January 24, 1940 (age 85)
Brooklyn, New York, US
Genresrock
OccupationsMusician, artist
InstrumentsDrums, keyboards
Years active1955–1979, 1987–present
Member of Big Brother and the Holding Company
Formerly of Country Joe and the Fish

David Getz (born January 24, 1940 [1] ) is an American musician and artist. In music, he is best known for being the drummer and keyboardist for Big Brother and the Holding Company.

Contents

Early life

Getz was born in Brooklyn, New York. [2] Like other Silent Generation youths, he started listening to rhythm and blues music, teaching himself to incorporate its style into his own. [3] He played drums professionally by the time he was fifteen, playing jazz music in hotels and clubs in the Catskill Mountains. [4]

Getz studied at Cooper Union in New York, the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, and in 1960 moved to California [3] and received a Master of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) in 1964. [3] [5] [6] Getz was first introduced to LSD by a member of The Committee in 1962 while the former was working at the Old Spaghetti Factory Cafe. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship, [7] and for a year lived in Kraków, Poland. He then went back to SFAI, working as an art teacher from 1965 to 1966, and growing his hair out longer. It was only after Getz was introduced to LSD that he began to abandon his plans to become an artist, pivoting instead to playing music professionally. [3]

Career

Getz was living in San Francisco's Fillmore District as a part of the pre-hippie, and Bohemian artistic, literary and musical scene. He left SFAI in March 1966 to play drums in a Dixieland jazz band. He was later persuaded by bassist friend Peter Albin to join him in a new band called Big Brother and the Holding Company (BB&THC). The band gained recognition during the Summer of Love in 1967, which Getz described as "like being at the center of a hurricane". [3] The band secured a 2,500 square feet (230 m2) loft to practice in, a building that has since been demolished and replaced with the Landmark Opera Plaza. Getz commissioned a roadie to construct a small dwelling in the center of the loft under the skylight for him and his then-girlfriend Nancy to live in. But by the time the Monterey International Pop Festival was held that summer, the band's vocalist Janis Joplin had become a sensation in her own right, and the bandmates's fortunes began to unravel. [3] In 1968, Getz played on their album Cheap Thrills , which was Joplin's last album performance before she embarked on her solo career. [8] The group briefly disbanded between 1968 and 1969, during which he and Albin joined Country Joe and the Fish and played on one of their albums before leaving in May 1969 and remaking the band. [9] He was in BB&THC until 1972, and until 1979 continued to record and tour in other musical projects. [2] Getz returned to art in 1979 and worked as an art teacher at two schools in Marin County, including San Marin High School, until the late 1990s. [5]

In 1987, Getz, Albin and James Gurley reformed the Holding Company. [9] Gurley left in 1996, but Getz and Albin are still members of the band, and Getz still creates his own art. [1] In 2025, he released the instrumental album Anthems, Themes & Little Stories. [8]

Personal life

Getz lives in Marin County, California with his wife Joan, a jazz singer. [8]

References

  1. 1 2 "David Getz Artwork for Sale at Online Auction | David Getz Biography & Info". www.invaluable.com. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  2. 1 2 "The Art of Dave Getz". The Art of Dave Getz. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Selvin, Joel (May 20, 2007). "Summer of Love: 40 Years Later / David Getz". SFGate . Hearst Communications . Retrieved January 1, 2026.
  4. ↑ "Janis Joplin - Kozmic Blues Articles". janisjoplin.net. Archived from the original on 2008-11-23. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  5. 1 2 "Gary James' Interview With drummer Dave Getz". www.classicbands.com. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  6. ↑ Fish, Scott K. (2017-05-07). "Dave Getz: We Were Like a Punk Band". Scott K Fish. Retrieved 2025-12-11.
  7. ↑ George-Warren, Holly (2019). Janis – Her Life and Music. Simon & Schuster. p. 140. ISBN   9781476793122 . Retrieved January 1, 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 Liberatore, Paul (June 12, 2025). "Legendary Marin Musician Still Creative After All These Years". Marin Independent Journal . Retrieved December 30, 2025.
  9. 1 2 Larkin, Colin (1999). "Big Brother and the Holding Company". The Virgin Encyclopedia of Heavy Rock (Paperback ed.). Virgin Books. p. 57. ISBN   9780753502570 . Retrieved January 1, 2026.
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