The Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival is just a little more than a month away. The lineup is filled with new faces and players and voices and well known favorites, too.
One of the headliners is well known, but not so much as a singer of jazz. Keith David has been seen on Broadway, on film and television (he’s won three Emmys and been nominated for a Tony Award on Broadway). and his voice has been heard in scores of animated shorts and features, Ken Burns documentaries and more. Keith David also narrated the permanent August Wilson exhibit, The Writer’s Landscape, at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center. He also will be honored in 2026 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
We visit with Keith David on the Scene to focus on another aspect of his life - singing. ulfilling a lifelong dream, Keith will release a jazz album in the fall of 2025. We also get a sneak preview of that new album with a just released single of “Old Devil Moon.”
We also hear music from other headliners for the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival - Branford Marsalis, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Etienne Charles. Plus, we remember 2021 PIJF headliner - pianist and bandleader Eddie Palmieri who passed away this week at the age of 88.
The Scene - an hourlong radio show - Thursday night at 6, Friday and Saturday at noon, Sunday at 5 on WZUM
Keith David
Photo Credit Jonny Marlow, CPI
Eddie Palmieri - publicity photo
Keith David Interview on WZUM, The Scene
Scott Hanley, WZUM
We're joined by Keith David, who is coming to the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival and bringing his brand new tracks, we believe, that are on their brand new record coming out in 2025. But 2025 has been quite a year for Keith David, who's been in so many shows on Broadway and on film and The Voices in many, many notable animated features over the years. But this year, you also were notified you're getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Keith David
Praise God. Yes, indeed.
WZUM
Through all of that, you're also now coming out very, very adamantly as, as a singer of, of jazz and American popular song. How did that add on to the resume you already have?
Keith David
Well, I was a singer before I was an actor. So this is kind of coming back home to something I've always wanted to do. So, I mean, it's an idea whose time has come.
WZUM
How do you feel about being able to come to that? Because this is not, if you want to make a lot of money, jazz is definitely not the way to go. But for the art, uh, it really...
Keith David
Yes, you know, I painfully understand the truth of that. But you know, you got to go with the heart. You got to go with the heart is, you know what I mean? And, whether you realize it or not, whether you acknowledge it or not, when somebody tells me, "Oh, I don't like jazz." I'm like, "Every artist that you listen to has a jazz influence." one way or another. And, to say I don't like jazz is just so myopic. Because, somewhere in everything you hear, there's a little jazz. And the improvisational nature of jazz, the power that jazz has to just make you feel or take you out of yourself. You know, I mean, like its relationship to the blues, telling stories and, uh, revealing truths about our human condition.
Now, whether it's wishful thinking or reminiscence, it's woven into the fabric of our lives.
WZUM
Especially into the fabric of American life. Yes. It's been very revealing that so much of the music that is lasting in the world right now came out of this century long period that started around 1920. And, uh, jazz was a very major part of it, and not just in New Orleans, and not just in Chicago, but all across the country, all across the country and then, you know, consequently across the world.
Keith David
Jazz is much more accepted in Paris and Japan and Germany, you know, all these other places where, you know, in America, you want to, you know, poo-poo it, but everywhere else, I mean, everywhere else. I mean, that's why we have Louis Armstrong and, and Duke Ellington being ambassadors.
WZUM
What music are you choosing right now of, what you're performing, especially for, for this summer with a new record?
Keith David
I have a couple of, like, show tunes that are standards. I have a couple of show tunes. I'm going to, I'm going to do a song that was in a show that I did 30 years ago that didn't make it to Broadway. This is one of the songs that it didn't make it to, you know, if you, if you buy a book of the music, it will not be in there because it, it was never, it didn't make it, it didn't make it to Broadway show. So it didn't make the, Sam French version. And I always loved the song. It was, it was built for my character. And I've always wanted to revive, you know, I mean, as much as I wanted to see a revival of that show, and they had, they reprise, the reprise series did a revival of the show.
I'm talking about Jelly's Last Jam. They did a revival and of course, the song was not in it. And I don't even think that they wanted the song to be, but it's a, it's a wonderful song. And so I, uh, I deigned to do it in my act and, uh, I will probably also do Friends on the Other Side from, Dr. Facilier (The Princess and the Frog). So, but that's some of the stuff that I'm doing and some of the, you know, a couple of songs that were from early musicals. I, for instance, I do Where Is Love from Oliver.
WZUM
Which was a musical when you were still in grade school. Oh, yeah. Well, let's talk about that. I mean, so much of the music that you are embracing and that people are rediscovering right now is music that predates us. Because when we were coming up, these kinds of songs were fading away from mass media appeal. There was still the Mike Douglas show and maybe on Carson, there'd be performers like this. Clark Terry was still in the Tonight Show band. But for the most part, the Beatles kind of knocked everything out of the box. And, and some of the other rock and pop things kind of pushed things away. And yet this music endures in many ways, much more than the Strawberry Alarm Clock.
Keith David
Well, that's why they call it classic. And that's why the American songbook is still something even, even rappers and pop singers of our time embrace. And they want to, you know.
One of the things that's true is those were singers' songs. You wanted to hear some of your favorite singers sing that song. And many, many of these songs, if not all of them, were done by everybody. You know, I can think of, you know, like the song I just released, Carmen McRae is my favorite version. But Frank Sinatra did it. A whole bunch of people did it. But it's just a great tune. So, almost every time you hear it, you’ve got to go out of your way to mess it up.
WZUM
It is a great song. Great lyric, great melody. It rests really nice. It has a broad enough range, but not too broad. It's, it's a, it is a great, great song at Old Devil Moon. So, you worked with our friend Brian Bacchus and a bunch of other folks on this. Who's involved in the, in the project?
Keith David
I dedicate the album to an old friend of mine who, this was his last piece. Because I met Leopold, Leopoldo Fleming. I met him over 40 years ago. We did a play called the Haggadah Cantata. And, and, and he was the percussionist on it. And when I started doing my club act back in the late 90s, I, I got a residency with my friend, Joe Kaminsky, at the Delmonico Hotel. It's now a Trump Hotel on 59th and, and Park Avenue. And Leopoldo, I always wanted him to be, so he, he was, he was there with me. And I wanted him on this project. And I have EJ and I have Victor Gould on piano. And Don Braden on sax. So I have great, great musicians. And, you know, we have a good time. We have a good swinging time.
WZUM
That's what it's all about. And that, that, that joy of doing the music is something that jazz is, has very special built into it, really. And the connectivity that goes on there. And then being able to take changes that some type of people might say are mistakes and turning them into something wonderful.
Keith David
I love Miles's view on mistakes. You, you know, nobody knows the mistakes. How do you get out of it? You know what I mean?
WZUM
What do you want people to know about you and the, the jazz side of Keith David?
Keith David
I'm one of those guys who wants to keep jazz alive and that it is, it has always been and will be a part of our lives as Americans, as people who live in the world.
WZUM
Keith David, we’re eager to see you here for the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival and also your brand new release coming out. The first single just dropped and we'll be hearing more of it soon.
Keith David
I'm looking forward to it.