David "Dave" Shapiro was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 musician. He played double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

.

Born and raised in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

, David Shapiro graduated from Brooklyn College in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in Music. He became a busy New York freelancer, playing regularly with such jazz legends as Woody Herman

Woody Herman

Woodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...

, Chet Baker

Chet Baker

Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker, Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter, flugelhornist and singer.Though his music earned him a large following , Baker's popularity was due in part to his "matinee idol-beauty" and "well-publicized drug habit."He died in 1988 in Amsterdam, the...

, Lee Konitz

Lee Konitz

Lee Konitz is an American jazz composer and alto saxophonist born in Chicago, Illinois.Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings...

, Howard McGhee

Howard McGhee

Howard McGhee was one of the very first bebop jazz trumpeters, together with Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and Idrees Sulieman. He was known for lightning-fast fingers and very high notes...

, Mel Lewis

Mel Lewis

Mel Lewis was an American drummer, jazz musician and band leader. He was born Melvin Sokoloff in Buffalo, New York to Russian immigrant parents....

 and singers Ray Charles

Ray Charles

Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...

, Anita O'Day

Anita O'Day

Anita O'Day was an American jazz singer.Born Anita Belle Colton, O'Day was admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appearances shattered the traditional image of the "girl singer"...

, and Chris Connor

Chris Connor

Chris Connor was an American jazz singer.-Biography:She was born as Mary Loutsenhizer in Kansas City, Missouri to Clyde and Mabel Loutsenhizer. She studied and became proficient on the clarinet, having studied for 8 years throughout junior high and high school...

. He performed with Jackie Cain

Jackie Cain

Jackie Cain is an American jazz vocalist best known for her partnership with her husband Roy Kral as the team Jackie and Roy.-Selected discography:* So Many Stars -Literature:...

 and Roy Kral

Roy Kral

Roy Kral was an American jazz pianist and vocalist best known for his partnership with his wife Jackie Cain as the team Jackie and Roy. He was the brother of the singer Irene Kral....

 in the Newport Jazz Festival

Newport Jazz Festival

The Newport Jazz Festival is a music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. It was established in 1954 by socialite Elaine Lorillard, who, together with husband Louis Lorillard, financed the festival for many years. The couple hired jazz impresario George Wein to organize the...

 in Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

. He proved his versatility as a member of the house band at Eddie Condon

Eddie Condon

Albert Edwin Condon , better known as Eddie Condon, was a jazz banjoist, guitarist, and bandleader. A leading figure in the so-called "Chicago school" of early Dixieland, he also played piano and sang on occasion....

's and the Metropolitan Bopera House.

In 1987 Shapiro moved to Townshend, Vermont

Townshend, Vermont

Townshend is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The town was named for the Townshend family, powerful figures in British politics...

, where he taught and played with various musicians of the jazz scene in Vermont

Vermont

Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...

 and Western Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, as Attila Zoller

Attila Zoller

Attila Cornelius Zoller was a Hungarian born Jazz guitarist. He won Deutscher Filmpreis for Beste Filmmusik in Germany for the film Das Brot der frühen Jahre in 1962.-Biography:...

, Howard Brofsky, Scott Mullett, Paul Arslanian, Bob Weiner, Jay Messer, Eugene Uman, Draa Hobbs, Claire Arenius, and Tom McClung. With trumpet player Steve Sonntag he led a trio, which became later a sextet. In 1997 they recorded the live album Monk, Duke & Mingus Shapiro also played in recording sessions with Woody Herman (World Class, 1982), Danny D'Imperio (Blues For Philly Joe, 1991), Joshua Breakstone (Evening Star, 1992), Howard Brofsky (73 Down, 2000), and Michael Musillami (Perception, 2000).

Shapiro taught math and jazz history at Westfield State College and at Holyoke Community College in Massachusetts. He instituted his own educational programs and conducted jazz ensembles. He also taught Jazz History at the Vermont Jazz Center and conducted the "piano trio" ensembles at the VJC's Summer Jazz Workshop.