Dave Braun

Jazz Guitarist Dave Braun, has been performing with his Jazz trio in the Midwest for over 30 years.  He has been playing Friday nights at the Hob Nob Restaurant in Kenosha Wisconsin since 1995.  Dave is also a regular at the Yardarm Bar and Grill since 1983. Influenced by his father Joe Braun, a locally well known tenor banjo player from Racine Wisconsin, Dave started out strumming chords on a ukulele when his was very young.  Dave remembers, “I used to sit on the floor and watch him play melody and chords on the banjo. His playing was so emotional that I could feel his heart coming right through the instrument. He showed me my first chords, how to hold a pick and the correct fingerings for scales.”  It would not be until Dave was 19 when he starting taking lessons from Gary Wolk to learn how to read music.  Two years later he was accepted as music major at the University of Wisconsin.   Dave is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin - Parkside with BA in Music. While there he studied classical guitar under James Yoghourtjian and played in the jazz ensembles under Tim Bell.  After graduation he went on to study for over 10 years privately with jazz guitar legend Joe Pass.  He has also studied with Jazz guitar legend Barney Kessel.

After performing a duet with Joe Pass at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago Illinois, Joe stood up and told the class “Dave is a friend of mine, He also plays classical guitar and teaches.  I can’t show him anything.”   Later that evening Joe approached Dave again and told him, “You have nothing to worry about; you have a great ear and can play all over the guitar”.  Dave would meet the master again a few years later where he told him, “Lessons are over, you can’t learn anymore more from me”.

Dave has performed with Gerald Cannon, Melvin Rhyne, Hattish Alexander, Urbie Green, Barbara McCain, Manti Ellis, Jack Grassel, Mark Davis, Tim Fox, Dave Piggins, Mark Pulice, Tim Bell, Curt Hanrahan, Jim Sodke, Mike Gudbaur, Jim Yorgan, Brian Ford, Brian Ritter, Juli Wood as well as most of South Eastern Wisconsin’s top jazz players.              

Dave has played all over the Midwest including many outdoor venues such as, Twilight Jazz Series, Music on the Monument, Summer Sizzler, Party on the Pavement, The Monument Square Art Fair, A Taste of Kenosha, Harbor Fest, West Racine Art Fair and Salmon Arama.  

Dave makes his home in Racine, Wisconsin 30 miles south of Milwaukee and 60 miles north of Chicago. 

Influences

Barney Kessel, Joe Pass, Oscar Peterson, Chet Baker, Henry Johnson, Bill Evans,
Wes Montgomery, Bruce Forman, Sonny Stitt, Phil Woods, Clark Terry, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker

Gear

Dave plays a Gibson Custom L5 Guitar and plays through a Polytone Amplifier.  He uses medium gauge D’Addario chrome flat wound strings.