Hello. I’m David Suhor, vocalist, jazz musician, church music director and singing telegram artist. I am originally from New Orleans, but I was educated on the Gulf coast of Florida. My home is in Pensacola, where I provide live music that I hope is jazzy, soulful, joyous, and sometimes silly.
ShamaLamaGram (.com) is my latest musical endeavor - singing telegrams. It's great fun! Everyday I get to bring crazy and beautiful songs and characters to celebrate, perk up or wish love. Gorillas, crooners, chickens, gondoliers, grannies, rockers, starlets and Elvi become well-wishers of song through this age-old art and industry.
Friends and cohorts have also re-formed a "new" ensemble, the Dixie Shticks (.com). Along with fellow jazz singers Holly Shelton and Kitt Lough, director Renee Moore and pianist David Shelander, I perform in a harmonic, sardonic and goofy comedy troupe. The songs are almost all familiar and they are hilarious!. We perform across the Gulf South.
I serve happily as music director and soloist for the Unity Church of Pensacola. With deep roots in popular music and spirituals, I lead the Soul & Spirit Singers every Sunday and Wednesday. I also offer music (jazz, popular and traditional) for weddings, parties, events, nightclubs, restaurants and memorials.
a little history...
Playing and singing have been my passions since adolescence. In a choir since I can remember, I learned people are moved by music. Throughout college at Florida State, I played piano and sang as an aside. Sparse musical pursuits (karaoke, community choirs and sit-ins with my father's band) took a back seat to a ten-year career in computer networking and education.
I moved here in 1994 and met Pensacola saxophonist Thom Botsford, who turned me on to jazz. We assembled my first real band, providing vocals, keys and his soulful tenor horn. A tape here, a church show there...a few fake books later and I'd found a lust and a voice for jazz and blues. I've been performing professionally ever since.
In 2001, I stepped away from the computer racket and continued my music as a student at UWF. I picked up trumpet, bettered my voice markedly and improved my jazz piano. I enjoy juggling home improvement and musical projects. With a variety of bands (from duo to quintet), I perform regularly and passionately in the area.
I'm also lucky to sing with the chorus of the Pensacola Opera and to complete an art project called Homefronts: Pensacola in which I photograph homes in my historic East Hill neighborhood.
Please feel free to browse and call or email if you have any questions. I play gigs for reasonable rates and I am always seeking like-minded singers and musicians to share the gift of song.
