David Zoffer

Known in the Boston area for his duets with guitarist Adam Larrabee, David Zoffer is a versatile, broad-minded jazz pianist who is also quite comfortable playing rock and funk. Zoffer has spent much of his adult life in Boston, but his home town is Pittsburgh -- and the acoustic pianist has been quoted as saying that Pennsylvania's second-largest city did a lot to shape his musical personality. Zoffer, who was born in Pittsburgh on January 21, 1972, has pointed out that Steeltown is known for having a lot of gritty, hard-swinging improvisers -- Stanley Turrentine, George Benson, Art Blakey, Ahmad Jamal, and saxman Kenny Blake are the sort of extroverted players who have been part of Pittsburgh's jazz scene over the years. And Zoffer, who has cited Gene Harris and New Orleans heavyweight James Booker as his favorite pianists, obviously identifies with Pittsburgh's long tradition of gutsy, funky, blues-minded jazzmen. Growing up in Pittsburgh, Zoffer learned a lot about jazz from his father, who wasn't a professional full-time musician but was an obsessive jazz collector. Zoffer's brother, meanwhile, was a musician who encouraged his interest in rock -- and so the pianist (who also plays organ and guitar) ended up playing both jazz and rock when he was growing up. After reaching adulthood, Zoffer moved to Boston in 1994 and went on to teach at the prestigious New England Conservatory (NEC). Boston is where he met Larrabee, who also teaches at NEC. The interesting thing about Zoffer and Larrabee's intimate piano/guitar duets is the fact that the two musicians come from very different musical backgrounds; while Zoffer is the essence of soulful grit, Larrabee is an introspective sort of player whose influences include Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, and the ECM Records...