Dave Ellis is a Bay Area-based saxophonist, producer, recording engineer, and educator. A veteran of the Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble and Cazadero Music Camp, he received his bachelor’s degree in Music Production and Engineering & Tenor Saxophone from Berklee College of Music in Boston. After returning to the Bay Area in 1992, Dave became a founding member of the acid-jazz group the Charlie Hunter Trio, then recorded his debut solo album, Raven, produced by the late Bud Spangler, in 1996. He was voted 2nd in the JAZZIZ readers poll in 1997 for Best New Artist behind Diana Krall, and has won several Bay Area and California Music Awards, including Best Jazz Artist (1999), and Best Jazz Album award for his album, State Of Mind (2004). Dave has since performed, recorded, and toured – nationally and internationally – with a diverse group of world-renowned artists and groups including The Black Crowes, The Grateful Dead, Bobby Hutcherson, Phil Lesh, Christian McBride, Bonnie Raitt, and Bob Weir. In addition, Dave has produced and/or engineered several CDs; performed and taught in the San Francisco Symphony’s Adventures In Music program; instructed both recording and jazz ensemble courses at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley; and served as a clinician, master class instructor, and adjudicator for Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation High School Jazz Competition and the Campana Jazz Festival. He continues to teach privately, and to perform regularly in the greater Bay Area.