David Tamura

Last updated October 28, 2024

David Tamura was a Japanese-American multi-instrumentalist based in New York City, US. He was a member of Von LMO's band on the album Red Resistor, which was described as "brilliantly tight".^[1] He had played with many musicians on the New York noise rock scene.^[2]^[3]^[4] He died on June 23, 2023.^[5]

He was one of the main forces behind The Jazzfakers, where he played guitar, keyboards, and saxophone; one reviewer writes "it's him that provides the powdery, blues-rich tenor melody that boards the loose-boned march of Oh Rise New, adding a recognizable jazz voice to the restless buzz-keyboard swirls and mosquito-drill guitar, the rambling bass tune and the childlike organ which hangs and fidgets on a single disruptive chord".^[6] Of his release Mystic Mountain, with Marc Edwards, Grego Applegate Edwards wrote "David Tamura adds a welcome and contrastively volcanic tenor sax. But then the threesome of Karl Alfonso Evangelista, Colin Sanderson and Alex Lozupone, the three on very high-crank electric guitars, Alex (who also is leader of the band Eighty-Pound Pug that I have happily covered here) on combo electric guitar and bass."^[7] In April, 2023, Tamura recorded an album with the group Toadal Package, which was called Final Entrance in a tribute to Last Exit.

Upon his death, Rachel Mason wrote: "He just had a true genuine quality of kindness - despite the appearance of being some kind of underground-street-gangster. This sight of him was a character out of Quinten Tarantino movie. Exuding cool. Arms filled with tattoos, and a jet black hair almost looking like fire folding around his face. Arms that were Crazy guns- and then the saxophone. He busted it out and he was just a full fledged experimental jazz machine. He really was A Comic book action hero."^[8]

Partial discography

Charles K. Noyes and David Tamura - duets (1978)
Von LMO - Red Resistor (1996)
Julian Cope – Copendium: An Expedition Into The Rock 'N' Roll Underwerld (2012)* Ron Anderson / Robert L. Pepper* / David Tamura / Philippe Petit – Closed Encounters Of The 4 Minds^[9] (2012)
Scott Rifkin's Music for the Free World (feat. David Tamura, Yuko Pepe & Sky Hall)^[10] (2013)
Dave Burrells Conception - (featuring Dave Burrell, Joe Chonto, David Tamura) (2013)
Gene Janas / Matt Luczak / Gene Moore / David Tamura - Music On Monroe Street: Live At Downtown Music Gallery (2014)
Zilmrah - Looming
Saturn Big Brother On Acid – Big Brother On Acid (2014)

with The Jazzfakers

Jazzfakers (2010)
Two (2011)
Here Is Now (2012)
Hallucinations (2016)
Little Water Radio Recordings (2021)
Weise Horn

with Eighty-pound Pug

Poodle: Live And Totally Improvised At Spectrum (2013) Video from 2013: Eighty-pound Pug Opening Track at Spectrum 1
When The Flowers Bloom In Baltimore (Live In New York City) (2015)
Speechless w/ Nonoko Yoshida ^[11] (2015)
Thoughts w/ Daniel Carter (2016)
An EP, an LP and a Single (2016)
First Meetings

with Pas Musique

Reconstruction
Venemous Movie

with The Chonto/Tamura Sonic Insurgency

w/ Kidd Jordan ^[12] (2011)
Promises Kept w/ Sabir Mateen

with Marc Edwards

Marc Edwards & Slipstream Time Travel, Mystic Mountain: Trouble in the Carina Nebula (2015)
Marc Edwards & Slipstream Time Travel, There’s a Problem in the Keyhole Nebula! (2016)

David Tamura + Toadal Package

Final Entrance (2023)

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