Dave and Django Nachmanoff are at the piano in their Davis living room, running through “Goodbye” from the musical “Catch Me if you Can,” one of the musical numbers for their upcoming cabaret performance on Saturday, June 29, at Watermelon Music’s Melon Ball venue. “Dad, did you hear that? That was a high A I just hit! I bet I can get to the Bflat by the concert!” Django is not the only one stretching his musical abilities. Dave is a musician and singer-songwriter with five decades of performance experience under his belt, including numerous international tours.
He toured for over a decade with Al Stewart (“Year of the Cat”, “Time Passages”) and has accompanied and appeared on stage with America, Don McClean, Alison Crause, Libba Cotten and other veteran folk and rock performers. Dave’s primary instrument is guitar and he admits that he is not the strongest sight reader. For this father-son collaboration, though, Dave was tasked with learning piano accompaniment for a couple dozen songs from musical theater — a relatively unfamiliar genre for Dave.
“Musical theater tends to be in challenging keys for guitar players,” Dave explains. “It’s not easy material for me, but it’s great to see Django developing his voice with practice and training. And though Django and I have different musical interests, it’s clear that we share the same love of and comfort with performing on stage for a live audience.
” Django, a rising senior at DaVinci High S.