A professional musician for 30 years, Dave Iwataki is a keyboardist, pianist, composer, and arranger who has found a way to combine his passion for music with serving diverse communities. A recipient of multiple arts grants, he has created several community-centered projects, including “The Healing Drums”, a project initiated in response to the LA Riots designed to illustrate harmony and unity among the communities of Los Angeles through diverse percussion traditions, “J-Town/Bronzeville Suite”, a musical exploration of a seldom-told chapter of Los Angeles history, and “Barbed Wire and Hip Hop”, a hip hop album about the Japanese American internment camps. For each of these projects, Dave created the concepts, wrote the music, and assembled the musicians and other supporting participants. “J-Town/Bronzeville Suite” was performed to a sold-out audience at The Getty Museum, as well as the Japanese American National Museum, and the Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute.
The relationship between music and community began for Dave in 1974 when he became a member of “Hiroshima”, the first Asian-American jazz-rock group to successfully blend Japanese instruments and scales with western stylings. It was Dave’s song, “Kokoro”, written specifically to feature the koto, that became the breakout radio release for the group. “Kokoro” helped to define the sound of Hiroshima and Asian-American music.
Dave also has a long and diverse career of touring and performing. Dave has experience in several fields of music: pop, funk, funk jazz, R&B pop, Latin-jazz, church and gospel choir. His Latin jazz experience was gained in two years of live performances with Wille Bobo. He has performed with Olivia Newton-John, Michel Colombier, Paul Anka, The Pointer Sisters, The Fifth Dimension, Peabo Bryson, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., Al McKay All Stars, among many others.
He has also composed original music for film, TV, radio and stage, including for Artbound KCET, PBS, the Japanese American National Museum, East West Players, and others. In addition, he is part of the Music faculty at Cal State University, Los Angeles.
