David Bradish

David Bradish
David Bradish during his performance as the King of Karaoke, 1992
Background information
Birth name	David Alan Bradish
Also known as	David Negro
Born	(1945-12-17) December 17, 1945 Los Angeles
Genres	Funk Rhythm and Soul Jazz Old-school Rap
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer-songwriter, composer, voice man
Instruments	Vocals, congas, bongos, percussion
Years active	1979 – present
Labels	CBS Records, Polar Publishing, Sir Lancelot Music
Associated acts	Sad Motions, Fred's Laundry, The Partybreakers, the David Bradish Swing Band , The David Bradish Sextette, The Miles Davis Project, In Loving Memory of Pucho Lopez
Website	davidbradish.com

David Alan Bradish (December 17, 1945) is an American musician, songwriter, composer, percussionist and voice man, who lives and creates both in Sweden and Cuba. In a career spanning more than 40 years he composed funk, rhythm and soul, jazz and old school rap works, being associated with such bands as Sad Motion, Fred's Laundry and The Partybreakers. He did voice overs for many renowned brands and its commercial ads such as Panasonic, Magnum Gold, LG, Toyota, MTV, Carlsberg Group and its popular taglines.

David's mother's house was always associated with a stream of famous artists, mostly poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Bob Kaufman who owned City Lights Bookstore, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Paddy O'Sullivan. They all have had a natural impact on David's life. Exposed to the artistic industry from an early age, David quickly developed into a musical star. As a kid he grew up with the great bands from that time such as The Cadets, Chuck Berry, The Coasters, Little Richard, The Imperials, The Platters, Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns. In his teens, he was mostly influenced by Parliament-Funkadelic. That pushed David into performing on international scenes as a multi instrumentalist who plays congas and bongos professionally. Known as David "Negro" among his Cuban friends, got his stage nickname from Bobby Carcassés who claimed that David has got black blood when he plays bongos. In Sweden, he is also known as the King of Karaoke since 1992

His first ever large scale public performance took place at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco together with Eddie Palmieri's band and was put on by a German-American impresario and rock concert promoter Bill Graham to raise money for the San Francisco kids school equipment program. In November 1979 David arrived in Sweden where he joined the band Sad Motion. A year later they made it with their song "Den Där Festen" becoming a number one hit single. This band established David on the Swedish music scene.

Early life

Youth

David Alan Bradish was born in Los Angeles on December 17, 1945 at the Queen of the Angels Hospital to Maurine Sterling, who at the time was stationed there in the Army and Robert Bradish, a soldier. David's parents were never married. Maurine was a self-taught painter, played a mean classical guitar and real free spirit in those days. But her life was not easy. She had been married 10 times, mostly to alcoholics and criminals. The reason was so she could keep her kids thanks to being a wife. David lived with his mother about 4 years of his childhood. In those days juveniles were always running into trouble and the state treated poor white unmarried woman in a horrible way. After David was born his mother was deemed unfit by the courts and was constantly fighting with the childhood authorities for custody of him and 4 years later his half sister Marlene. This was because David's mother got a dishonorable discharge from the U.S Army at the end of WWII for going "absent without leave". She decided to leave the base to meet Robert in person after she had heard some rumors about David's father's affair. David has a pleasant memory of his mother. "She taught me some basic values about honesty, respect for other people, standing up against cruelty and fighting for what you believe is good", he says. David's mother died in 1996 after a long fight with cancer.

David's roots are impressive. The ancestry list of his family reaches XI century leaving royal prints in the history. Nevertheless, he raised in 12 different foster homes and orphanages in the San Francisco Bay Area and that shaped his childhood and further life. At the age of 15, he run away from the Edgewood Orphanage and was on the run for 2 years till the police caught him due to the false ID. He ran with Linda Papke, a mother of David's daughter. A daughter he has never met. The police offered him incarceration or the Army if he paid 200 dollars a month for Linda's stay in St. Elizabeth home for unwed mothers. David took the Army and was in service from July 23, 1963 till August 24, 1964. He got out early on a hardship discharge to help his mother who was pregnant. When David got out of the service he was 19. The only thing he wanted was an education. He decided to get his General Educational Development certificate so he was guaranteed admission into college even though he had no high school education. David spent his first 2 years at the City College of San Francisco. He was also enrolled in the 2-year Advertising and Design program so he did get a basic education in Art. In 1972 he graduated from the Sonoma State University and had a BA in Cultural Anthropology.

The Congas Adventure

David (on the right) jamming with his student Michael at the Collage of Marin, 1970

David's passion for congas started when he was about 10 and lived at the Edgewood Orphanage. One day, the house father invited his friend over. The man came with two congas and played for the kids. David loved it and that's where it started for him. In 1964, when David got out of the army, he got his first job with "Kwani and the Kwanditos". Kwani was an older black man who approached David on Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park where all the Hippies used to hang out, inviting him to join the band. David was the only white member ever to be in the Kwanditos. The congas adventure brought David to many people who soon became his closest friends. One of them was Jerry Garcia with whom David used to jam on the steps of the Grateful Dead's first bought house on Clayton street. Janice Joplin was another. David and Janis used to drink coffee together at Tracy's Coffee shop. David didn't go to her concerts as he never liked the music played by Big Brother. Jorge Santana, the brother of Carlos Santana was one of his friends too. David used to jam with Santana's group called Malo. The pattern of David's life brought him to the Altamont Speedway Free Festival, the first large outdoor festival concert before Woodstock. In early 1966 David met Jerry Goldstein alias Beanstain on Hippie Hill. He heard David playing congas and asked for a lesson. Beanstain didn't have a conga so his first lesson was on an empty coffee can he had. Later the two of them became great friends. Another life situation led David to Blair Hardman. In 1989 David had to return to America to help his mother. He didn't have much money so he had to sell his Cuban congas he had gotten from The Cuban Government along with some other instruments. In the 80's it was not that easy to get Cuban congas. Cuba had declared they were a national treasure and stopped all export of Cuban congas abroad. David's old African friend Ahmadu Jarr had suggested him to write Cuba and ask for a set. David actually wrote a letter in English to the Cuban Ministry of Culture requesting a set. He never thought he would even get a reply but one year later Ahmadu called him saying that Cuba had sent David a set of three congas. Trying to help his mother, David sold his congas to Master Henry Gibson. Selling congas really hurt but David's family always comes first.

The Drug Episode

In June 1979 David had a house painting company in San Francisco called Satin Brush. The company existed for 3 years. The big change happened on July 4, 1979 when he was driving back after playing in the Bolinas Street Festival with his best friend Jerry Goldstein. When David was on his way back to San Francisco a car hit his broadside. The driver was drunk. At first, David was fine but 2 weeks later his back was that bad he couldn't get out of bed. Unable to work he ended up losing his business. At the time of the accident David had been dabbling in cocaine quite a bit as he was friends with Carlos. He had to start dealing cocaine to pay the painting bills. Carlos was from Bolivia and a major coke player that time who made cocaine the old way with ether. The police were constantly after Carlos and 2 years later assassinated him. After a while, David had the most expensive customers around. He used to fly down to Los Angeles once a week with a quarter pound. All his expenses were paid. One of his customers was a now dead but at the time famous black comedian. He paid twice the current market value. Among David's customers were famous actors and musicians. Soon David became his own biggest customer as well.

Musical career

Welcome to Sweden

David left America in late 1979 and arrived via London, England to Gothenburg, Sweden early November. As he got off the boat he was still withdrawing from cocaine addiction. His head was wrapped in bandage. He had been shot and robbed in his apartment in San Francisco and that was the final straw. He had to get away. He suspected he would soon be dead so he decided to sell what he had and come to Sweden as his long standing American friend Jerry Goldstein had gone there too. David didn't have enough money for the train so he had to take a buss to Stockholm. Arriving in Stockholm all he had was a T-shirt and 12 dollars. He actually planned to meet up with Jerry. Unfortunately Jerry was in Finland for 2 weeks. He decided to contact Monica, whom he met in San Francisco. Finally he ended up staying with Monica and her parents for about 2 weeks until Jerry came back. David's addiction symptoms gradually diminished and with the steady food he was getting he started to gain weight and his health returned. Sweden saved his life. Literally.

Sad Motion

After having arrived in Stockholm and becoming clean, David got a black job at Maria Hissen, a restaurant and place for playing underground music. He worked there for about 2 weeks when a major event happened and changed his life in Sweden. Originally David was on his way to Amsterdam where his good friend Nelveton Butler was living and had a band called Salsa De Amsterdam. Nelveton, who was the original bongo player in "Kwani and the Kwanditos" had invited David to come to Amsterdam and play with the band. When David was trying to raise money to get to Amsterdam, on one night Ahmadu Jarr played. David who was cleaning tables and emptying ash trays became frustrated at the end of the concert when people started to leave. He threw down the basket he used and ran up on stage and started to play the congas. Ahmadu looked at David who said – "come on man let's blow". Ahmadu had never seen a white man on congas. After a while, two Swedish men came up and asked if David wants to be on their new LP they were recording. They had a band called Sad Motion. He told them he didn't have a conga set. They said that is no problem as CBS would fix congas at the studio. David gave them his phone number and the next morning a taxi came to get him to Europa Studios. Douglas Westlund, the producer had fixed both congas and bongos and David laid down percussion tracks on all 10 songs. After a week CBS called him again and wanted him to be on the TV show called Måndagsbörsen on SVT. When the band played live on Måndagsbörsen they became an immediate success and went right to the top with their new single "Den Där Festen". It became the number 1 single of the year. Soon CBS signed a contract with him, fixing his permit to work. Sad Motion had some bad luck though as the LP couldn't be distributed because the truckers union went on strike for 2 months. No truck could deliver their LP to the customers. They were number 1 but weren't selling a thing. The good luck was they were solidly booked for a year. The band played in all the big folk parks and had super promotion. In those days it was FTS that was the major booking agency not EMA. EMA hadn't even started yet. Sad Motion was Swedens first disco funk band. That band established David in Sweden where he toured for a year.

Fred's Laundry

Fred's Laundry was started in 1984. When David joined the band it was still called Funktion and lasted for another 3 months. The old band played some sort of attempted funk music but with the words sung in Swedish never really achieved anything musically. When Funktion broke up and Fred's Laundry formed the new band, music was based upon real funk music with English lyrics. The band got Pelle Berglund on drums, Johan Wallqvist an old bass player stayed with the band, Magnus 'Mag' Johnsson was the guitarist and soon Johan Åsard on keys joined. The strong point with Fred's was that they started off doing all original songs. They didn't do any funk covers until later. They got real tight and during their 3 years the band was serious competition for other bands that did 174 gigs. David had already established himself in the record business with his single "The Bureaucratic Boogie". Getting Fred's a record contract came easy as David just introduced Fred's to Sir Lancelot Music. They got a record contract and started recording for their first LP. David had started working with Sir Lancelot as a single artist under the name Mr. Bradish. Sir Lancelot had contacted him through Tomas Blanc with whom David had worked with in Sad Motion back in 1980. Sir Lancelot Music was at that time the only record company in Sweden that would consider releasing a funk tune. At first Fred's had a 3-man horn section but soon after the LP they changed the band. They took away the 3-man horn section and added Mickael Högdahl on sax who used a harmonizer.

Fred's first few gigs were local gigs in Stockholm. The very first gig was at an African club in town called Maison Caliban. Fred's released the LP "Big Man" in January 1985 but the reason why the LP never hit the stores was that no one from Fred's Laundry wanted anything to do with Sir Lancelot Music. The band had started playing out all over Sweden. One of Fred's best gigs was at the first Haga festival. Fred's also released a video in April 1985. Eva Försberg who was still studying at the time did her video project using Fred's best song "The Laundry" as the theme. The band recorded the video using an Airflex professional camera. David had called Sky Channel in London to see if they wanted to broadcast it. They did. In those days MTV hadn't started yet so Sky Channel was the biggest exposure a new band could have. That video gave Fred's a lot of promotion. David became Fred's lead vocalist due to an accident. Helen who was their singer quit when she broke her leg in the accident in Norway. She left the band in April 1985. The band had been using David more and more for lead vocals. When David became the lead singer the band sounded more and more funky. Fred's Laundry broke up in July 1987. They had 44 songs, played 174 gigs and 88 of them were in Stockholm.

Dancers Who Care

David was involved with helping kids, working like crazy on his two projects – Dancers Who Care and People Who Care as a respond to the Catastrophe in Ethiopia. The thing was he had a newborn son so kids became a special issue for him. On February 20, 1985 the Dancers Who Care project was performed by 3 dance groups. Every dancer danced for free and all donations went directly to Save The Children and the Red Cross. Both organizations were in desperate need of funds to send to Ethiopia for the starving kids down there at the time. David signed a contract with Berwaldhallen and Lars Dahlström was a man who wanted to help in his way for the project. The People Who Care show was a real success and so was the People Who Care cassette. The Swedish media knew that there was a catastrophe going on down in Ethiopia. But the leadership at the top of the largest evening Swedish newspaper Expressen, Christina Jutterström didn't want to help at all. When he called and asked for some coverage for the show he got a big refusal. That loss of income that night caused some kids not to get fed and that was the tragedy.

Young People Who Care

David had a few People Who Care projects going at the same time. Young People Who Care was the one he had the most faith in. The young people all over the world were the first to mobilize to help Ethiopia. It was the same for Sweden. Right after the first video was shown on Swedish TV, kids were talking about it next day in schools. They started doing something directly as that video showed a dying child of starvation right in his mothers arms. The Swedish National Radio asked David for help and so he was able to offer his services. His speech written for young people of Sweden on ideas of how they could raise money for the Ethiopian children was sent to every school in Sweden. He was also featured on the news program Aktuellt.

The Bureaucratic Boogie

David wrote the lyrics for the "Bureaucrtaic Boogie" in response to Bostadsförmedling, a Swedish bureaucratic institution that refused helping David who had baby on the way in finding and giving an apartment. In those days of socialism getting an apartment was pretty easy. The only thing was to have a good reason. To David having a baby was a good enough reason. In Bostadsförmedling he met people who had been in line for years and still didn't have a place. Bureaucratic regulations and frustration pushed him into writing the poem "The Bureaucratic Boogie". The next day David took the poem and went to Bostadsförmedling again. He was there almost every day. David told everybody he was going to read this poem just before lunch in the lobby and invited everyone to come and listen to the words. He read that poem to a huge crowd of about 400 people. He even got a standing ovation. Then he took the poem, ran over to the elevator, threw the poem in and sent it to the top floor where the executives were. That same afternoon a man came walking up to David, giving him a business card and telling him to call. The man turned out to be the head of Bostadsförmedling and later that afternoon David got an offer on an apartment.

Soon David decided to share his poem with Lars Lance, the president of Sir Lancelot Music who decided to release a single. David was asked to meet Tomas Blanc at Humlan Studio to record it. They used Jonas Isaksson on guitar who later was with the group Roxette. For back up vocals they used Fia Nyström, Bettina and Helena Kurvinen. ”The Bureaucratic Boogie" was released in 1984 and was the Swedish first ever rap single. There are 2 releases of the Bureaucratic Boogie, the first one is David's own baby. The second version is with Fred's Laundry. That version is a more jazzy but still has a talking drum solo. David like the first version better as it is more raw and real to him.

The Partybreakers

When David broke up with Fred's Laundry in 1987 it took him just over a month to form The Partybreakers band. The Partybreakers was a totally different concept. Fred's was all about original funk and a serious band with rehearsals all the time, while The Partybreakers was about playing American music from the 50's and having fun. David used Werner Theunissen on bass whom he knew from the days when Werner was playing with Roy Hamilton. Roy had passed away tragically so Werner was without a band. On guitar David used Peter Quint, on drummes he used Peter's best friend Måns Evarsson, Pär Greybacken on alto sax and Stephan Odenhall on tenor sax. The Partybreaker was a really different band with variety of styles of music and arrangements. Lots of their tunes were songs done by the Coasters. They included songs like "Charlie Brown", "Little Egypt", "Along came Jones", "Poison Ivy". Other songs were "Stranded in the Jungle", "Don't You Just Know It", "Fool Killer" and more. Their tunes varied in style picking from rock to blues to soul to jazz and more. The Partybreakers rapidly became one of the most popular bands in Stockholm and went on for 3 years.

Productive as ever

The King of Karaoke

In 1991 David started hearing the word Karaoke. It was something new on the music scene. One day, an Englishman named Steve had heard David was a good conférencier and offered him a one-month gig doing Karaoke. David didn't have his own karaoke machine and had to rent one. Soon, he took over most of the Swedish clubs as the owners had heard of David and wanted him. In 1992 David was approached by Jan Claesen who was working for Din Dell and was the executive head for Telia's entertainment. When David met Jan, Jan he had already opened the door for entertainment to shopping malls all over Sweden. His speciality was doing fashion shows over there. Din Dell had seen David's shows and had an idea for him. They signed a sponsor contract and suddenly David was appearing all over the country. He used Jan's mall idea and started contacting all the greater Stockholm's malls. Soon everyone wanted Karaoke.

On July 12, 1992 David became the King of Karaoke. That all started when he was doing a Karaoke show out on Djurgården. A journalist named Michael Hancock contacted David and said he wanted to do an article about Karaoke and conduct an interview. David said yes and figured it would be a small thing written in the Expressen. David had never even seen the story so when it hit the paper he was in shock as much as everyone else was. The full page story came out naming David as the King of Karaoke. Din Dell was thrilled too as they could now use David's new title as The King of Karaoke to help them with their planned upcoming tours of the malls. David was doing shows all over Stockholm using his conférenciers when he was booked elsewhere.

Once, Lasse Karlsson the manager of Ace of Base came by. David showed him his collection of the Newspaper stories. Lasse responded by saying, it is too bad this wasn't for a band. If a band had ever gotten so much publicity they would have been very famous and sold a ton of records. There was so much promotion for David's shows. Every show was a hit. Among David's sponsors were companies like: Polaroid, Pioneer, Sharp, Buttericks, Benetton, Maxell, Samsung, Panasonic and more.

Kind of Blue

David had been listening to the Miles Davis's Kind of Blue album since he was a kid of 14. There was something magical in it for him. A long time went by and Sony Music started offering a digital release. David got curious and bought the newly mixed CD. At the time he was living in Vallentuna, Sweden. When he got home and started to listen all those old memories came back. David began to hear Miles in a way he never heard him before. He started to hear Miles solos like they were speaking to him through his horn. It took him a year to finally put his pen down. While he was writing the lyrics he also had to sing them too. Shortly afterwards David knew he had to put a group together and present the tunes live. Tom Riviera was on piano, Ulf Adåker on trumpet, Halldor Pålsson on sax. David and Halldor played together in Dave Bradish Swing Band at Skansen for 3 years. Peter Söderbloom was on bass and Lief Fredriksen on drums. They started rehearsals in March 1999. The Company who owned Miles' tunes was Sony Publishing which was just about to release Cassandra Davis' new CD. The CD had 2 of Miles songs on it. Sony sent David a telegram threatening him with a suit if he ever tried to release his lyrics. Sony Music in Sweden tried to help as they thought David's project had merit. It was still a rejection by Sony America and with David being threatened with suit it finally made him depressed. When publishing rights expire David will consider showing his lyrics.

The Cuban Connection

American music was not allowed to be played in Cuba for many years. Even American music charts were forbidden. Nevertheless, many Cubans were still affected including Pucho Lopez. How he learned so many classic American songbook tunes is still a mystery to David. Pucho was considered the Grand Master of American jazz music on piano in Cuba. David has never met a musician that was so well versed in the classics. Pucho was a very famous musician not only in Cuba but all of Latin America. He was the orchestra leader for Armando Manzanero, the top Bolero singer in Mexico. David and Pucho became friends in 2005. Pucho had heard that David sang American standards and contacted him for a gig. In the band was Rolando Perez Perez considered the best sax player in Cuba after Paquito D'Rivera defected to the USA. David worked with Perez Perez, Enrique Pla (drums), Omar Gonzales (bass) and Peruchin (piano), for 3 years at Havana Jazz Cafe. They played together 6 months each year from 2005 to 2007.

David and Pucho became more than just friends. They practiced lots of tunes together whenever Pucho was free. In 2006 David made use of Pucho's 3 available days, recording as many tunes as they could in that period. They recorded 30 tunes and every song was a first take recording. They decided to perform together but due to many strange obstacles they had to wait 7 years. Finally, in August 2012 they played the first and only gig together at Jardin De Gordas in Havana. They were supposed to repeat the gig again in October, but unfortunately, Pucho died of heart attack September 15, 2012. It happened because he forget to bring his heart pills with him to Santa Clara, Cuba. He died a few days before his 57th birthday. His death was reported all over Cuba and Latin America. Pucho's death was a big shock for David.

In Loving Memory of Pucho Lopez

At the time of Pucho's death David was thinking of their old project. He felt Pucho's amazing piano playing should be heard by the whole world. For sure at least in Cuba as it's a cultural thing. So many Cubans loved American music but they would never got the chance to record just how well they can play it. All David needed was to find a studio. His first choice was to contact Yasek Manzano Silva. Originally David just wanted a duo. Pucho on piano, David on vocals. But every day Yasek wanted something new, becoming at the same time part of the project. David's deal with Yasek was simple – he had the final word. Unfortunately, Yasek had presented the tunes to his record label Colibri and had fixed a record contract with them. David had never given Yasek the right to present the project to anyone. This music was the property of David and Pucho. David decided to complete the recordings of the last 16 songs somewhere else. This time he went to Rubin Valdez. David returned to Sweden in April 2013 with about 200 of the "In Loving Memory of Pucho Lopez" CDs.

In 2014 David decided to give Pucho's daughter both CDs and the video he made in Sweden. He also wanted to talk with a Cuban label to release the CDs in Cuba. David decided to press up the last 16 songs on Volume 2. He felt it would be better to present both CDs as a complete product. He also had the video he had made in Sweden with him. By luck, Omar, the man who did the record jacket and pressing was a huge fan of Pucho. He went straight away to his connection Raul, who works at Egrem, the mother record label in Cuba. When Raul listened to the music and saw the video he wanted both CDs and the video to be released as a 3 pack. His deal with Egrem was a simple distribution deal. He asked for only 15%. David gets 5%, Johan De Bourg gets 5% for his video work, and Pucho's daughter gets the last 5%. Bad luck hit David again when the day Raul was to make the presentation to Egrem he fell and broke his leg. This was in February and David had to return to Stockholm March 7, 2014 as he had 2 gigs. He is still waiting for an answer from Egrem.

Discography

Instruments and Performance

Band / Title	Release date	Label	Format
Sad Motion	1980	CBS	LP, album
Fia Nyström – Glittrande Ljus	1983	Polar	LP, album
Betina – The Hunters / I See You	1984	Sir Lancelot	12' Maxi, 7' Single
Johan Lindell – Passageraren / Mr. Bradish – Det Låter Som Regn	1984	Slick Records	LP, Album
Fia Nyström – FIA	1984	Mariann	LP, album
Fred's Laundry – Big Man	1985	Sir Lancelot, Plinque Plonque Musique	LP, Album

Writing and Arrangement

Band / Title	Release date	Label	Format
Betina – The Hunters / D. Bradish – Sell Everything	1984	Sir Lancelot	12', Maxi
Tomas Blank: Mission For A Man	1985	Plinque Plonque Musique	LP, album
Mr. Bradish – The Bureaucratic Boogie / I Wonder What The Hell I'm Gonna Do	1984	Sir Lancelot	7' Single, Disco version with Fred's Laundry
Various – Knights of the Round Table / D. Bradish – Puppy Love	1984	Sir Lancelot	LP, Comp

External links

• Official website of David Bradish
• David Bradish's YouTube channel
• Discography at Discogs

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