Dave Pell

Beginning his professional career as a teenager, Dave Pell toured alongside the ensembles of Tony Pastor, Bob Astor, and Bobby Sherwood prior to relocating to California during the mid-1940s. Employment with Bob Crosby on the Ford radio program came his way in 1946, after which he joined the Les Brown band, remaining a member through 1955. From the personnel of that ensemble, he assembled his initial ensembles starting in 1953, most often configured as an octet and featuring additional performers such as Pepper Adams, Benny Carter, Mel Lewis, Red Mitchell, Marty Paich, and Art Pepper. Throughout the decade, he contributed to sessions led by Shorty Rogers, Pete Rugolo, Benny Goodman, and Gene Krupa, in addition to issuing his own recordings on the Atlantic, Kapp, Coral, Capitol, and RCA Victor imprints. Record production constituted his main endeavor across the 1950s and 1960s, encompassing a role at the budget-oriented Tops label during the former period and positions at Liberty—where he oversaw several successful pop and rock releases by Gary Lewis & the Playboys—as well as a short stint at Uni during the latter. Toward the end of the 1970s he established Prez Conference, an ensemble modeled after Supersax and dedicated to the legacy of Lester Young, which yielded a pair of albums issued by GNP/Crescendo. During the 1980s and 1990s, Pell reassembled his octet for albums released on Fresh Sound in 1984 and Headfirst in 1988, along with occasional performances in the Los Angeles vicinity, one of which took place at the Jazz West Coast festival in 1994.