Dave MacNab

guitarist/composer

Bio/Resume

Dave Mac Nab has been performing and composing music for over twenty five years. Born in New York, raised in Los Angeles, he has been living in the San Francisco Bay area for almost twenty years, drawing inspiration from the abundance of creative talent and the area's natural beauty. Dave has worked with many fine musicians from the Bay Area and beyond, in a wide range of settings and styles. While he's well versed in the language of jazz, his playing equally draws from rock, funk, latin, and blues influences, creating a soulful, intelligent sound driven by a strong rhythmic force.

Dave has toured and recorded internationally, appeared on numerous TV and radio programs and has recently been performing with some of Broadways’ biggest national tours. He has released four albums as a leader, played on countless other recordings, created original scores for theater and film and written instructional material for magazines and books.

Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1986 to attend Sonoma State University, under the leadership of a talented faculty including Mel Graves, Randy Vincent, George Marsh, Mark Levine and Harvey Wainapel, Dave has found a musical and spiritual home. Having played at just about every venue and festival in the area, he has been fortunate to connect and create with some of the areas’ great talent. These folks include Scott Amendola, Mads Tolling, Jenny Scheinman, Josh Jones, John Santos, Dred Scott, Kenny Brooks, Jeff Chimenti, Eric Crystal, Michael Bluestein, Erik Jekabson, Sheldon Brown, Chuck Sher, Laurie Antonioli, Adam Theis/Jazz Mafia, Nels Cline, Kitty Margolis, Eddie Marshall, Wil Blades and many, many others.

Artists

Bob Weir (Grateful Dead/Ratdog)
Shelby Lynne
Barry Manilow
Neil Sedaka
Bernadette Peters
Charlie Musselwhite
Randy Newman
Bonnie Raitt
Bryan McKnight
The Drifters
Steven Schwartz
Josh Groban
Kristen Chenowith
Paul McCandless
Benny Reitveld (Santana, Miles Davis)
Larry Goldings
Art Lande
Dewey Redman
Bob Shepard
Steve Smith (Journey/Vital Information)
Tiger Okoshi
San Francisco Symphony
Marin Symphony
San Jose Symphony
Santa Rosa Symphony

Shows

Hamilton
Wicked (world premiere)
The Color Purple
Book of Mormon
Jersey Boys
The Lion King
Legally Blond (world premiere)
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (world premiere)
The Times They Are a’ Changin’ (world premiere)
Motown the Musical
Goddess (world premiere)
Hippest Trip (Soul Train Musical) (world premiere)
Kinky Boots
Rent
Hairspray
Mean Girls
Fiddler on the Roof
Heart of Rock n Roll (Huey Lewis)
Altar Boyz
Caroline or Change
Aida
42nd St.
Anything Goes
Newsies
High School the Musical
San Francisco Mime Troupe
Shrek
Tales of the City (world premeire)

TV/Radio

David Letterman
Jay Leno
Jimmy Fallon
Conan O’Brian
Rosie O’Donnell
Craig Kilbourne
The View
Austin City Limits
Later with Jools Holland
BBC
Fresh Air
KCSM
KPFA

Other

original scores-
The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe (theater)
9 Parts of Desire (theater)
Not Fade Away (film)
Nosferatu (live silent film)

instructional-
Guitar Player magazine
Sher Music Co.
E-Town
Stanford U
Sonoma State U
The Jazzschool
AFM Local 6

Performance

MARCH

Mar 2 - w/ Mads Tolling and Friends
Feinsteins, SF 8pm

Mar 9 - w/ Simon Rowe Trio
Keys Jazz Bistro, SF 10:30pm

Mar 16 - w/ Simon Rowe Trio
Keys Jazz Bistro, SF 10:30pm

Mar 17 - w/ Jessica Vosk
’California Dreaming”
Green Music Center, Rohnert Park 7pm
https://gmc.sonoma.edu/jessica-voskcalifornia-dreamin/

Mar 23 - w/ Simon Rowe Trio
Keys Jazz Bistro, SF 10:30pm

Mar 26 - MacNab Looping Experiment
Hopmonk, Sebastopol 7pm

Mar 30 - w/ Simon Rowe Trio
Keys Jazz Bistro, SF 10:30pm

FEBRUARY

Feb 3- w/ Simon Rowe Trio
Keys Jazz Bistro, SF 10:30pm

Feb 10 - w/ Simon Rowe Trio
Keys Jazz Bistro, SF 10:30pm

Feb 17 - w/ Simon Rowe Trio
Keys Jazz Bistro, SF 10:30pm

Feb 18 - w/ Bryan Girard Quartet
Mannys Steakhouse, Vallejo 5pm

Feb 24 - w/ Travis Sullivan Quartet
The Lakehouse, SF 7:30pm

January

Jan 4 - ‘Jagged Little Pill’ (Alanis Morissette)
Safe Credit Union Performing Arts Center
Sacramento, CA 7:30pm

Jan 13 - w/ Bryan Girard Quartet
Mannys Steakhouse, Vallejo, CA 5pm

Jan 13 - w/ Simon Rowe Trio
Keys Jazz Bistro, SF 10:30pm

Jan 14 - w/ Bryan Girard Trio
Bambinos, Vallejo, CA 12pm

Jan 20 - w/ Simon Rowe Trio
Keys Jazz Bistro, SF 10:30pm

Jan 27 - w/ Simon Rowe Trio
Keys Jazz Bistro, SF 10:30pm

December

Dec 1 - Dave MacNab Duo
Chimera Arts and Makers Space
Sebastopol, CA 5pm

Dec 2 - w/ Simon Rowe Trio
Keys Jazz Bistro, SF 10:30pm

Dec 7- Dave MacNab’s Jazz Lab
Keys Jazz Bistro, SF 7pm

Dec 16 - w/ San Francisco Symphony
’Love Actually’ (Live Film Score)
Davies Symphony Hall, 7:30pm

Dec 23- w/ Simon Rowe Trio
Keys Jazz Bistro, SF 10:30pm

BLOG

HELLO 2024

Well, it’s been a minute. Once again it seems life swallowed me up and I’ve neglected keeping you up to date. But with the New Year it seems like a perfect time to catch you up on what I’ve been up to and things that lie ahead. Last year was filled with some incredible music and a lot of energy devoted to settling into our new home. Some musical highlights included performances with touring Broadway productions of ‘Dear Evan Hanson’, ‘Hamilton’, ‘Beautiful’, ‘Mean Girls’ and the revamped classic ‘Fiddler on the Roof’. A real treat was being involved with the World Premiere of the new show ‘Hippest Trip’ at ACT in San Francisco. This show is based on the ledgendery show Soul Train. Such a treat to play so many iconic songs with an incredible band and cast. Look for its debut on Broadway this year. I also had the pleasure of continued work with the San Francisco Symphony. A few live film scores (The Godfather and Love Actually), and the West Coast premiere of an amazing piece by composer Julia Wolf - ‘Her Story’. Extremely challenging but very rewarding. I finally got to pull out the bow on my electric guitar! I’ve been a regular fixture at SF’s newest jazz club Keys Jazz Bistro. In addition to having several of my own shows with Dave MacNab’s Jazz Lab, I play many of the Saturday night late sets with the Simon Rowe Trio, and it’s been a blast. Look for this to continue through this year. There’s been some memorable gigs with my local mates Erik Jekobsen, Paul Hanson and Mads Tolling as well. Overall a pretty satisfying musical year. This year is also looking full of plenty of great stuff. I just performed the Alanis Morissette musical ‘Jagged Little Pill’ in Sacramento and felt like a rock star again. I’ll also be part of another World Premiere of the show ‘Galileo’ taking place at Berkeley Rep in the spring, as well as touring performances of ‘Jersey Boys’, ‘Wicked’ and (more) ‘Hamilton’. Busy, busy, busy…
In addition to ramping up my private teaching schedule, I’m planning on launching a few new endeavors including workshops to give aspiring players a chance to play with professionals and a music production service to help folks augment their recordings with arranging and orchestration.
Thats it for now, but I promise not to take so long to keep you up to date on my happenings. Wishing everyone a healthy, happy and productive New Year. Cheers!