David Garfield has been driven by the same mission statement since moving from his hometown of St. Louis to Los Angeles as a teenager in the early 70s: “I make music.” Fully living up to this vision and in more expansive ways over the past few decades, the multi-talented keyboardist, composer, arranger and recording artist has established himself an eclectic force of musical nature. At any given point during his career—and often at the same time—he has been a renowned songwriter, producer, bandleader (of Los Angeles based contemporary world jazz collectives Karizma and Los Lobotomys), arranger, recording artist, record label owner (Creatchy Records), session and touring musician, musical director and composer of various commissioned themes for global organizations.
The multi-talented musician has had a particularly fruitful career spanning over five decades starting with stints with Willie Bobo, Freddie Hubbard, and Tom Scott in the ‘70s, joining Boz Scaggs and George Benson, and releasing his first solo recordings in the ‘80s. After spending much time in the studio working with the LA session elites, Garfield joined forces with members of Toto to continue recording, touring and performing locally in the LA scene.
Eventually, he started a songwriting partnership with Smokey Robinson, which led to a lasting studio relationship arranging and producing for the Motown legend. Robinson’s current release Gasms features Garfield on piano, arranging, and producing. Besides his collaborations with Smokey, Garfield has done numerous stints as George Benson’s musical director, as well as arranging, producing, and performing on the legendary singer/guitarist’s 2011 release Guitar Man. Garfield continues to work with a wide variety of legendary artists such as The Temptations, Cher, Spinal Tap, Ratt, Larry Carlton, Flora Purim, and arranged and performed on “Higher Than The World,” for Van Morrison as part of the rock/soul legend’s all-star collection Duets: Re-working the Catalogue.
In addition to all of his work for others David has put together several series of his own solo works (Outside The Box series, Guitar Heroes series, Salute To The Masters series, Monster Trio series) which features artists such as Michael McDonald, David Sanborn, Eddie Van Halen, Don Henley, Joe Sample, along with members of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, Toto, Zac Brown Band, Chicago, The Doors, Jimmy Buffet, Santana, Steely Dan, The Meters, Tower of Power, Vulfpek and Dirty Loops.His original composition cowritten with Smokey Robinson, “One Like You” is a duet between Smokey and Michael McDonald on Jammin’ Outside The Box as well as recorded by George Benson on Songs & Stories.
Garfield has been commissioned to write and produce theme songs and musical projects for several international organizations, including the song and CD “Pool of Friendship” for the Swimming Aquatics organization LEN (League of European Nations); the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC); and “Deep Within Each Man” (co-written with Phil Perry) for the Shorinji Kempo Japanese Karate Foundation. Garfield also produced “I Play The Piano,” a Blue Ray DVD of Terry Trotter playing solo piano on AIX Media.
Some of Garfield’s other CDs are Tribute To Jeff [Porcaro], which was dedicated to long time friend and bandmate, drummer Jeff Porcaro and received international acclaim as well as top 10 charting. Giving Back, which enjoyed regular airplay throughout the U.S., Europe, Japan and Australia. Other solo releases were L.A. Keyboard Project, Recollections, Seasons of Change, and I Am the Cat, Man.
Featuring many of Los Angeles’ top session and touring musicians, Karizma’s discography on Creatchy includes Dream Come True, Cuba, All The Way Live, Forever in the Arms of Love, Document and Lost and Found. Among other projects he has helmed for Creatchy are albums by guitarist Michael Landau and former Toto bassist Mike Porcaro. Another classic Creatchy release, Los Lobotomys, is a collaboration with prominent members of the pop band Toto, with whom Garfield has performed many times throughout the years.
Besides releasing his own CDs, leading his own bands and performing live, David Garfield continues to collaborate with the top musical talent across the globe both as a producer, arranger as well as a keyboardist and songwriter. He enjoys working for other artists and helping them achieve their vision as well as providing his label Creatchy Records with a continuing full schedule of new releases to come.
