Daily Dose Of Jazz…

David Arthur Carey was born November 8, 1914 in Coulsdon, Surrey, England. His father was a pianist. In the early Thirties he had his own band that performed in the Croydon borough of London. After the start of World War II he opened a music shop in Streatham before being drafted into military service. In 1946 he opened The Swing Shop in Streatham, where he sold musical instruments and records and which he expanded into a mail order business.

He also played in dance and jazz bands in 1947 with Rex Stewart, who was visiting England, with whom he also recorded in London in September 1949, and in 1948 with Graeme Bell’s Australian Jazz Band. In the same year, Carey took part in recordings by Humphrey Lyttelton for Wilco, in 1950 with the boogie-woogie pianist Roy Vaughan. He was in Lyttleton’s band for a year in 1948 until he was replaced by Bernard Saward. The mid-1950s Dave led his own traditional jazz formations and recorded a number of records for Tempo Records and Decca Records.

Carey performed at the Royal Festival Hall in 1957 and contributed to pianist Pat Hawes’ recordings for Tempo. He worked as a music historian, collaborating with Albert McCarthy and the six-volume work Jazz Directory spanning 1949 to 1952. In the Sixties he led his own band in the 1960s.

According to his colleague Pat Hawes, his drumming was influenced by Baby Dodds, but also by drummers of the swing era such as Gene Krupa, Cozy Cole and George Wettling.

Drummer, bandleader and jazz researcher Dave Carey, who also plays vibraphone and washboard, transitioned on July 18 , 1999 in Croydon.

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