David Owen Mackay (March 24, 1932 – July 29, 2020)[1] was an American jazz pianist, singer-composer with roots in the works of Art Tatum, Bud Powell, and Bill Evans, who favored the standards of the 1940s and 1950s and the bossa novas of Luíz Eça, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and João Gilberto when performing.
[2][1][5] In the mid-1960s, Mackay joined the Hindustani Jazz Sextet with Don Ellis, Harihar Rao, who played sitar and tabla, vibraphonist Emil Richards, drummer Steve Bohannon, bassists Chuck Domanico and Ray Neapolitan.
The Don Ellis Orchestra was distinguished by its unusual instrumentation (which in its early days had up to three bassists and three drummers), incorporated Indian musical elements into modern big-band writing, and different time signatures such as 5/4, 7/8, and 9/4, and more complex rhythmic cycles like 19/4 and 27/16 and its occasionally wacky humor (highlighted by an excess of false endings) and an openness towards using rock rhythms.
[13] In the 2000s Mackay teamed up with John Giannelli on bass and Joe Correro on drums performing Bill Evans tunes in a celebration of the Life and Music of bassist Scott LaFaro.
Typical set included the songs I Can't Get Started, Evergreen, Spring Is Here, Cherokee, It Never Entered My Mind, Moon and Sand, Only the Lonely, Blue Skies, I've Never Been in Love Before, Summer Me, Winter Me, and With Every Breath I Take.
[14] In the 2010s, Dave teamed up with singer Miki Purnell, Tamir Hendelman, Lori Bell, Joey Carano, Bob Magnusson, Kevin Cox, and Tony Aros.
The team recorded the album "Swingin' to the Sea" Mackay has also performed with Serge Chaloff, Sonny Stitt, Bob Wilber, Bobby Hackett, Jim Hall, Don Ellis, Emil Richards, Shelly Manne, Chet Baker, Joe Pass, Warne Marsh, Kai Winding, Stephanie Haynes, and Tierney Sutton at some of the top Jazz clubs in the country including, Boston's Storeyville and Jazz Workshop, New York's Left Bank and Village Vanguard, and Chicago's Mr. Kelly's, Shelly's Manne Hole, The Lighthouse, Donte's Jazz Supper Club, and the Samoa House.
It appeared to sold-out audiences (1995–1998) first at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, then CBS Studio Center in Burbank, the Odyssey Theatre and Century City Playhouse.