Dave Darlington has spent his life making music—first as a musician, and ever since as a composer, producer, engineer, mixer and mastering engineer.
Born in Harlem and raised in Florida, Dave grew up surrounded by an unusually broad mix of music. Formal training in piano, bass and theory existed comfortably alongside the jazz, rock, R&B and funk he heard on records and radio. The Beatles and Rolling Stones shared space with Wayne Cochran, the C.C. Riders and the Allman Brothers, while his own playing increasingly drew him toward jazz.
That curiosity took him to the University of Florida, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Music, and into professional orchestral work with the Jacksonville Symphony and Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestras, eventually becoming Assistant Principal Bass of the Gulf Coast Symphony. But the pull of jazz, rock and pop proved stronger. Dave traded the tuxedo for life on the road, spending several years touring with a Colorado-based jazz-funk fusion band before settling in New York in the late 1970s.
He arrived intending to make his living as a session musician. Between sessions, his background as a multi-instrumentalist led naturally to programming, and programming increasingly brought him into recording studios. At Secret Sound in Chelsea, Dave began working as a substitute engineer.
The next turn came almost by accident. One day Dave bumped into Secret Sound manager and legendary Vanguard Records producer Danny Weiss in the elevator. Danny was on his way to meet songwriter and producer Jerry Ragovoy, owner of Counterpoint Studios, who happened to be looking for a full-time in-house engineer. Knowing Dave's work, Danny suggested he might be right for the job.
Jerry hired him on the spot.
Dave had the weekend to learn Counterpoint's new 24-track and MIDI room. On Monday morning, the door opened on his first session as the studio's full-time engineer—with Grandmaster Flash.
When Counterpoint was later absorbed into Quad Studios, Dave established his own room within the complex and called it Bass Hit Recording. Founded in 1987, Bass Hit became both a home for Dave's work and a meeting place for the many strands of music that had shaped him.
He engineered and mixed records, continued writing and producing, toured with artists including Seduction and C+C Music Factory, and co-wrote Phyllis Hyman's #1 R&B hit “Don't Wanna Change the World.”
In 1990, Dave took Bass Hit independent. As the studio grew, so did the range of the work: jazz, R&B, pop, dance, hip-hop, world music and projects that resisted easy classification. Rather than specializing in a particular genre, Dave found himself drawn to the same challenge again and again: understanding what an artist or producer was trying to achieve and helping them get there.
His work also expanded into film and television. Dave composed original music throughout all six seasons of HBO's Oz, as well as scoring independent films and other projects, bringing the instincts of a player and composer into another part of his musical life.
Bass Hit has since occupied three locations, settling into its current home in 1997. Recording technology has changed almost beyond recognition during that time, but Dave's approach has remained remarkably consistent: listen first.
That approach has led to relationships with artists and producers that often continue across albums, years and even decades. Some begin with a recording session, others with a mix or a mastering project. What keeps them going is trust, communication and a shared concentration on the music rather than the process around it.
Along the way, Dave's work has brought him five Grammy Awards, two Golden Melody Awards in Taiwan and credits on more than a thousand recordings. His collaborations have ranged from Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Eric Clapton to Sting, Chaka Khan, Phyllis Hyman, Digable Planets and Masters at Work, alongside generations of jazz artists, songwriters and independent musicians.
The range is broad, but to Dave it has never seemed particularly unusual.
“I think if you have a passion and love for music, which I do, then you bring that to your engineering sessions. The fact that I'm a musician first and have played in numerous genres gives me an affinity for what I'm working with and the musicians and producers involved. The genre is irrelevant. Good music is good music, whether it's hip-hop, jazz, classical or rock.”
That curiosity remains at the center of Dave's work today. He continues to work with longtime collaborators while building relationships with new artists, moving easily between recording, mixing and mastering and bringing a musician's ear to each of them.
For all the records already made, the most interesting one is still the next one.
