Recently I had the very great pleasure to sit down and have a conversation with David Benoit, one of the founding fathers of contemporary jazz and the man who developed the format we know as smooth jazz, a long time Palos Verdes resident.

Grammy nominated and internationally acclaimed, a man who has performed around the world, including the White House, for three different presidents, David’s career has been legendary, and even dealing with kidney disease for 10 years does not seem to have stopped him.

He recently received a kidney transplant and is looking remarkably well.

One of the many things that set David apart is his ongoing mentorship of young musicians, he is the music director of the Pacific Vision Youth Symphony. Where he has trained and inspired many young musicians, including , Michael Repper, who went on to become director of the New York Youth symphony in his 20s, and was nominated for a Grammy which he won, something a youth orchestra had not done before.

Taking about his mentorship led us to a conversation about the dream house that David and his wife Kei wanted to create, with the idea of having a home centered around music, where they could have salons, recitals and rehearsals.

This dream became a reality after they met with local architect Douglas Leach, who turned David and Kei’s designs into that dream home centered around their two Steinway pianos!

For several years they lived their musical dream, hosting many events and even having the concert master from the LA Philharmonic come and give a recital.

Sadly, as David had some health problems they decided to downsize, but that home lives on in their hearts and dreams.

I noticed a gorgeous painting on the wall and asked if that was the house. Indeed it was, painted by very talented local artist Alison Jamele. I wanted to see the house so I did a quick drive by on my way home.

My photo doesn’t do it justice.

David grew up in Bakersfield in a home filled with music, his father was a jazz guitarist and his mother was a pianist and the piano happened to be in David’s room, which was very fortuitous, he told me he was fascinated by watching his mother playing, the movement of pressing down the keys, and wanted to try it, so begins a lifetime of music.

The family moved to Hermosa and didn’t have a piano for a time, but that didn’t stop David from finding pianos to play around the neighborhood. He started lessons at age 13 , his first teacher was a jazz pianist, the second strictly classical, which gave him a love for both genres.

I asked David if he could live his life over would he change anything. The answer was no, because he wouldn’t be the same person otherwise.

I wondered too, if he had always known he was going to be a musician and he replied since he was 16.

We are lucky that he achieved that dream without even going to music school, no small achievement .

When asked what he might have done if he hadn’t been a musician, an architect, was his immediate reply and he gave me a wonderful quote from a friend of his “ Architecture is frozen music”. Very appropriate.

David and Kei have been married 38 years and have a daughter, June, whom they adopted from Hiroshima, Japan. David and Kei met on a 20-minute flight between Hawaiian Islands, which just goes to show that you should grab every opportunity that life presents you with.

They both love to travel and David’s favorite place, so far, is Bali, Indonesia, he also loves the Philippines, where he is a very popular, and Tokyo, Japan.

So I will close by letting you know that if you would like to see the youth orchestra perform, they will be in concert at the Armstrong Theatre in Torrance on Mother’s Day May 14th.

You can also listen to David as deejay on Kjazz on 88.1 FM where he does a weekly show.

He goes back to performing at various venues around the US starting in May.

Learn more: https://www.davidbenoitmusic.com/

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Dianne Gowder Bio:

Here is a link to my Facebook photography page

https://www.facebook.com/Walking-About-Photography-by-Dianne-Gowder-105661514321435/

Also I can be found on Instagram@dgbrit

Originally from England, but now long time San Pedro resident..

Credit for bio picture: Arturo Garcia Ayala

Dianne loves to walk and she tries to do at least 3 miles every day before she heads out to work. Her love of photography evolved from her walks.

“ I have always been amazed by scenery here and more and more I found myself stopping to capture the beauty of my surroundings. As I shared my work I realized that very few people were even aware of what they have on their doorstep!”

Dianne has made it her mission to share the beauty through her photographs and she takes her friends on walks as often as possible.