About
David Lyttle is a MOBO Award and UMA nominated jazz drummer, composer and hip hop producer described by Rolling Stone magazine as "one of the best, robust listening experiences you're likely to have all year" and the Independent as "the best in jazz coming out of Ireland in recent times." He has released 6 albums and 11 EPs and brought his projects to nearly 50 countries.
Starting out at the age of 4 with his family band, he first reached a national audience as a jazz drummer in the band of legendary Irish jazz guitarist Louis Stewart, before going on to perform around the globe and collaborate with the arts world's upper echelon, including jazz giants Joe Lovano and Kurt Rosenwinkel, hip-hop visionaries Talib Kweli and Soweto Kinch and film great Liam Neeson. David has brought his unique performance concepts to the U.S., where he carried out a coast-to-coast residency in his red Cadillac DeVille, performing jazz for cowboys, UFO tourists, bikers and the unsuspecting public; and China where he spent 6 weeks as the British Council's Musician In Residence and made a further two visits with his solo show 'Tapes & Drums'. His work has been written about in Rolling Stone, The Guardian, The Times, The Independent and The Examiner.
The Long Story
David Lyttle began performing professionally at the age of 4 in his folk group the Lyttle Family, playing bongos, bodhran and mini lambeg drum. At 8 years old he added drum kit and by ten years old he was also studying cello and uillean pipes. At 18 he began focusing on the drum kit after taking an interest in jazz. Over the next three years David received scholarships to study at Skidmore Jazz Institute (New York) and the Banff Centre (Canada). After graduation from Ulster University he received a government grant to write a PhD thesis at the University of Ulster.
David first reached a national audience with jazz guitar legend Louis Stewart in 2006. In 2007 he released his first solo album, 'True Story', on his newly formed label Lyte Records and would go on to feature a long list of international jazz icons in his bands, including Kurt Rosenwinkel, Terell Stafford, Seamus Blake, Soweto Kinch, Jason Rebello, Greg Osby, Jean Toussaint and Tim Warfield. He has performed in almost fifty countries and worked with some of the jazz world's most respected artists, including Jonathan Kreisberg, David Kikoski, Jason Palmer, Jaleel Shaw, Jesse van Ruller, Jamie Baum, Michael Janisch, Dave Liebman, Gwilym Simcock, Kenny Werner and Liane Carroll. David also has a long association with guitarist Andreas Varady, who he was praised by the international jazz press for discovering before his signing to Verve Music and Quincy Jones Productions.
David second's album 'Interlude' (2012) was influenced more by hip-hop than straight-ahead jazz. First heard on BBC Radio 1’s Introducing, it helped earn him an international reputation as a producer on the rise. Brought to millions by its Channel 4 album advert campaign with HMV, 'Interlude' featured David as a multi-instrumentalist alongside some of his heroes, contemporaries and family, including sister Rhea, mother Anne, Soweto Kinch, Jason Rebello and Pino Palladino. The album tour included highlight shows at the London Jazz Festival and historic Hollywood music venue The Hotel Cafe. In June 2013 David released the dance music single 'Celebrate' in collaboration with Northern Irish recording artist Duke Special and the percussionists of Beat Carnival, a Belfast arts organisation where David was Musician-In-Residence. The track was playlisted by the majority of Ireland's radio stations.
David's third album 'Faces' was released in March 2015 on Lyte Records under the label's new distribution deal with Universal. It featured a wide range of collaborators, including hip-hop visionary Talib Kweli, jazz icons Joe Lovano, Jason Rebello and Jean Tousaint, and singers Duke Special, Cleveland Watkiss and Anne Lyttle. It was recorded in New York, London, Dublin and Lyttle's country studio in Co. Armagh, and commanded diverse international attention from Rolling Stone in the U.S. to Japanese radio giant J Wave. BBC's Laverne Laverne, RTE Radio 1's John Creedon and Jazz FM were among the album's champions closer to home and 'Faces' quickly became David's most critically acclaimed album to date. Following live dates in Ireland and the UK he was nominated for a MOBO Award for Best Jazz Act and an Urban Music Award. Also during 2015 David was Musician-In-Residence at the Nerve Centre, Derry, as part of the city's legacy initiative following its status as UK City of Culture in 2013. The residency's collaborations included the roots album 'Say & Do' with Northern Irish singer/songwriter VerseChorusVerse, formerly of And So I Watch You From Afar, which reached No. 1 in the Amazon UK blues chart in November 2015. David's nomination in the MOBO Awards for Best Jazz Act was a major breakthrough and led to a busy touring year in 2016 with dates throughout the UK and Ireland, and in Austria, Germany and Holland. He was also Artist-In-Residence at the MAC, Belfast, with Moving On Music, for 3 months, acting as a mentor to emerging Northern Irish jazz artists.
In 2017 David carried out an ambitious coast-to-coast U.S. artist residency funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's Major Individual Award. Traveling 5000 miles in his red Cadillac DeVille, he performed for cowboys, UFO tourists, bikers and the unsuspecting public in an attempt to understand what people really think of jazz. The project was sponsored by Yamaha drums and Donegal craft soft drink McDaid's Football Special, which David chose as his official tour drink. He also vlogged for the MOBO Awards' YouTube channel and received coverage from NPR, BBC and KUNV Las Vegas, who interviewed him at various stages of his journey. Later in 2017 David's spent six weeks in Suzhou, China, as the British Council and PRSF's Musician-In-Residence. He collaborated with Chinese tradional musicians, produced the studio track 'Summer Always Passes' and released the weekly podcast 'Tapes From China'.
2018 highlights includes live collaborations with guitarists Kurt Rosenwinkel in the UK and Jesse van Ruller in Europe. He visited China twice with his 'Tapes & Drums' show, which features solo improvised drums alongside a taped Mandarin account of his experiences in China in 2017. He carried out a residency in New York funded by the Jerwood Foundation during which he recorded citizens of the city's thoughts on change. These tape recordings were used for 'Tapes & Drums, New York' which David filmed for YouTube and also performed live. Following this, David was commissioned by Falcarragh Winter Jazz Festival in Donegal to created an Irish language edition of 'Tapes & Drums'. Titled 'Tapes & Drums as Gaeilge', it featured poems written by local children on the theme of home. Between August 2018 and summer 2019 David performed 80 dates bringing jazz to new Irish audiences, including many remote island communities. This work has led to the growth of Jazzlife Alliance, a new arts charity under David's artistic direction.
From November 2019 until the arrival of Covid-19 he performed in Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Jamaica. During lockdown, David collaborated with film great Liam Neeson in a much-publicised reimagining of Van Morrison's 'On Hyndford Street', as part of Hot Press magazine's celebration of the music legend at 75.
In late 2021 David resumed his international travels and in 2022 performed in much of Europe, along with Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. Through Jazzlife Alliance he founded Northern Ireland‘s first jazz improvisation youth scheme, Jazz Juniors, which now operates from 4 national hubs. He also released several hip-hop projects, including his 'Trailer Sound' EP series, his third jazz album 'IN2' with guitarist Phil Robson and 'I Thought You Knew' with Detroit rapper and J Dilla associate Frank Nitt. David was invited to perform for Irish President Michael D. Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin in June 2023 and a new collaboration with rising star London guitarist Tom Remon brought him to England, Romania, Spain, Czech Republic, Turkey and Hungary in 2023 and 2024.