Hipster jazz vibraphonist Dave Pike has always been part of the rare groove & funky music landscape thanks to his classic tunes like the Indian-inspired "Mathar" and his great covers of "I Got The Feelin" and "Spooky" with The Dave Pike Set.
Born on this date in 1938 in Detroit, he played drums before moving to amplified vibraphone and marimba. He came up playing bop and made his first recording with Paul Bley's group in '58. He cut a bunch of records as a leader that touched upon Latin jazz, bossa nova and Caribbean musics.
He played in Herbie Mann's band for much of the '60s before moving to Europe in '68. There he started working with the popular Clarke-Boland big band and founded his own amazing group, The Dave Pike Set (with Volker Kriegel). The DPS recorded several groovy albums that explored boogaloo, modal, bop, psych pop, free jazz and soul-jazz.
He was back in the States by the mid-'70s recording for Muse and a host of other labels. Aside from those mentioned he also worked with Herbie Hancock, Dexter Gordon, Bill Evans, Karin Krog, Cachao, Chick Corea, João Donato, Ahmed Abdul-Malik, Ray Barretto and more.