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David "Fathead" Newman

David "Fathead" Newman was born in Corsicana, Texas on February 24, 1933. His family soon moved to Dallas, where they settled and David stayed through graduating Lincoln High School. After school, David found gigs in local bands. He received a scholarship to Jarvis Christian College where he studied theology and music.

After two years of college, David decided to go on the road full time with Buster Smith (Charlie Parker's mentor). The band played lots of one-nighters and dance halls, touring Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and sometimes California. On one of those tours, David met Ray Charles.

Ray was working as a sideman with another group on the night's roster. They immediately bonded, both musically and as friends. When Ray started his own band, he called on David to be part of his group. In 1954, David began a twelve year association with the Ray Charles Band. David began as the baritone player and soon became the star tenor soloist.

In 1959, David recorded his first album as a leader titled, "Fathead: Ray Charles Presents 'Fathead'" on Atlantic records. It included Newman's dramatic and now famous rendition of Hard Times.

He returned to Dallas for a short time and led his own bands. Then he moved to New York City where his career took off in many directions.

Newman recorded many albums for Atlantic records, as well as Warner Brothers and Prestige. During this time in NYC, David gigged with Lee Morgan, Kenny Drew Sr., Billy Higgins, Kenny Dorham and so many other of the great jazz musicians hanging out on the New York scene. He gigged around the East Coast with his own quartet and soon began touring Europe and Japan as a leader.

As a studio musician he was very busy working on lots of recording projects with the likes of Herbie Mann, Aretha Franklin, Hank Crawford, Aaron Neville, to name a few. After meeting at a studio session, David joined forces with Herbie Mann during "The Family of Mann" era. Cal Tjader (later Roy Ayres) were part of this outstanding group.

It was now time for David Newman to focus on his personal choices and let the public know more about the music that he chose to play. In 1980, Newman, determined to pursue his own musical identity, recorded several mainstream jazz albums for the Muse label. Artists such as Cedar Walton, Jimmy Cobb, Buster Williams, Louis Hayes, and other fine NY musicians, helped round out the rhythm sections.

David "Fathead" Newman: The Blessing

Read "The Blessing" reviewed by Andrew Velez

by Andrew Velez
January 16, 2010

What an apt name The Blessing is for David Newman's final recording before his death ended a long career last January (2009). He played for more than a decade with Ray Charles and alongside Herbie Mann, Aretha Franklin and Roy Ayers, among many others. For this last studio session he was in fine form. A Milt Jackson gem, “SKJ," is the set's opener, Steve Nelson's vibes providing glowing cascades before Newman swings in with a solo as brief in its ...

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Album Review

David "Fathead" Newman: Diamondhead

Read "Diamondhead" reviewed by Douglas Payne

by Douglas Payne
January 26, 2009

Diamondhead is the ninth of David “Fathead" Newman's HighNote recordings (not the seventh, as the disc's notes state) and it's a typically enjoyable outing of soulful bop with no surprises but some exceedingly fine playing that holds up well after multiple listens. Pianist Cedar Walton is Newman's trump card here and a real asset to the group's groove. Both these Texas natives go back to Lee Morgan's Sonic Boom (Blue Note, 1968) and the pianist was first featured on Newman's ...

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Album Review

David "Fathead" Newman: Diamondhead

Read "Diamondhead" reviewed by Martin Longley

by Martin Longley
June 6, 2008

It's quite possible that David “Fathead" Newman is a soulster at heart. All three of his original compositions for this session are heavily weighed towards a breezing 1960s retro sound, awash with R&B fluids. For the rest, though, he's emphatically a jazzman, as can be heard whenever Diamondhead (to give David his new nickname) plays a New York club date. Newman is still best known for his extended stint with Ray Charles, even as he reaches his ...

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Live Review

David "Fathead" Newman's 75th Birthday Extravaganza at Iridium

by James Nichols
February 15, 2008

David “Fathead" Newman's 75th Birthday Celebration Iridium New York, New York January 24, 2008

The jazz tourist in New York can be easily disappointed. Historical 52nd street is now a palimpsest over which Times Square has imperially strewn yet more of its glitter and spectacle. But standing amidst all this post-Giuliani glamour is Club Iridium, a lonely basement club sharing the corner of Broadway and 51st with the ghosts of Club Onyx, the Downbeat, ...

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Album Review

David "Fathead" Newman: Introducing David Newman

Read "Introducing David Newman" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
February 15, 2008

Despite a poverty of packaging which suggests the sort of shoddy compilations sold on gas station forecourts--no personnel or other session details, no profile of the artist--Introducing David Newman proves to be an enjoyable twelve-track trawl through albums recorded by saxophonist/flautist David “Fathead" Newman for Atlantic, Warner Bros, Reprise and Elektra from 1959-77 (most of them available today on the Collectables reissue label).

A member of pianist/vocalist Ray Charles' band from 1954-64, first on baritone saxophone, ...

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Album Review

David "Fathead" Newman: Life

Read "Life" reviewed by Terrell Kent Holmes

by Terrell Kent Holmes
July 15, 2007

Even after decades in the music business, it's clear that David “Fathead Newman still has many, many notes left to play. Toward that end Life is a handful of chestnuts on which he displays his formidable triple-threat skills on tenor sax, alto sax and flute. Newman's sultry tenor on “Girl Talk speaks volumes with his smooth and subtle phrasing, blowing masterfully with excellent accompaniment from vibraphonist Steve Nelson and guitarist Peter Bernstein. “Alfie has a simple yet ...

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Album Review

David "Fathead" Newman: Life

by Erik R. Quick
April 3, 2007

Even the most intrepid and adventuresome listener, seeking revolution at the turn of every phrase, may eventually return to the familiar. A new release by saxophonist David “Fathead Newman is to be anticipated and celebrated for the sheer exuberance in the joy of playing beautifully. His tone, nurtured for fifty years and throughout forty albums as a leader, envelops the listener and soothes the troubled soul.

Newman's Life, dedicated to the late pianist John Hicks, is his eighth ...

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