During his teenage years David Newman gigged professionally throughout the Dallas–Fort Worth area alongside Buster Smith, the saxophonist who mentored Charlie Parker, and appeared with Ornette Coleman inside tenor saxophonist Red Connors’s band. Early in the 1950s he continued working locally alongside R&B figures Lowell Fulson and T-Bone Walker. The pivotal connection of Newman’s career began in 1952 when he linked up with Ray Charles, the pianist who had previously worked in Fulson’s ensemble. From 1954 through 1964 Newman remained a mainstay of Charles’s group while simultaneously cutting sessions as leader and sideman, notably with fellow Dallas tenor saxophonist James Clay. After departing Charles he spent two further years in Dallas before relocating to New York, where he recorded for King Curtis and Eddie Harris and filled numerous commercial and soul dates. He rejoined Charles briefly in 1970–1971 and then spent 1972–1974 with Red Garland and Herbie Mann. The reputation Newman had built with Charles enabled a sustained solo career; during the 1960s and 1970s he issued a run of lushly arranged, pop-leaning albums for Atlantic, and in the 1980s he occasionally fronted hard-bop dates, yet his primary strength lay in supportive roles. Across decades he contributed to recordings by non-jazz artists, his robust and assertive tenor sound illuminating albums by Aretha Franklin, Dr. John, and many others. Ultimately, the concise, grounded solos he delivered beside Charles constitute his most emblematic statements. Late in the 1990s he established a fruitful association with HighNote Records, issuing a succession of well-regarded albums: Chillin’ (1999), Keep the Spirits Singing (2001), Davey Blue (2001), The Gift (2003), Song for the New Man (2004), I Remember Brother Ray (the moving 2005 homage to Ray Charles), Cityscape (2006), and Life (2007). Diamondhead appeared in 2008. Newman died of pancreatic cancer on January 20, 2009.
