Music Scene
Dave Specter 'a blues guy trying to play jazz'

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

Purists might consider Chicago-based blues guitarist Dave Specter's longtime presence on the city's blues scene something akin to sacrilege, considering he only started slinging his ax seriously as an 18-year-old college student of political science and Spanish.

Dave Specter doesn't always get respect in Chicago's jazz-and-blues circuit. Advertiser library photo

Both courtesy of his older brother's record collection, which featured an even mix of blues legends Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush and Magic Sam, and blues-influenced English rockers such as the Rolling Stones and the Kinks. A blues harpist about town himself, Specter's brother would tell his fascinated younger sibling stories about meeting Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and Koko Taylor in local clubs.

"I met a lot of artists and musicians and other subversive types in college myself that kind of turned and influenced me away from pursuing a conventional career," growls Specter, before laughing. "I really didn't start playing gigs until I was 21."

	Dave Specter
	With Third Degree
•	10 p.m. today, Haleiwa Joe's $10 637-8005
•	9 p.m. Saturday, Anna Bannanas $10 advance, $15 at the door 946-5190

A frequent Hawai'i concert visitor for the past three years, Specter will be in town this weekend for a couple of performances backed by local blues band Third Degree at Haleiwa Joe's and Anna Bannanas.

"I learned how to play mostly from listening to records," says Specter, who also took a few private lessons from famed Chicago-area guitarist Reggie Boyd, who had instructed Otis Rush and Matt "Guitar" Murphy. "When I was 21, I started really immersing myself in the Chicago clubs and meeting a lot of musicians who would invite me over to their house and show me stuff. I would befriend them and they would let me sit in on their weekend sets. Eventually, I got offered work with a lot of the musicians I was sitting with."

Jazz started slipping into Specter's playing early, but became a more pronounced presence when he formed his own band and began composing original works.

"When you listen to T-Bone Walker, Charles Brown or Louis Jordan, you're hearing a real fine line between blues and jazz," says Specter. "In the mid-'90s, I was getting a much stronger appreciation for the approach that jazz musicians take with their music. They generally favor a more relaxed feel. The use of phrasing, more subtlety, and the importance of tone were all things about jazz that really attracted me. I started realizing that there isn't really a huge difference between a lot of jazz and a lot of blues."

Specter's approach has left him open to the occasional whack from his Chicago blues peers, whose criticism he mostly takes in stride.

"There are a lot of blues players here that think I'm a jazz guitarist," says Specter. "And the jazz musicians that I play with here look at me as a blues guy trying to play jazz, which is basically what I am."