Dave Ratajczak

Dave Ratajczak (born December 24, 1957 in Buffalo ; † October 3, 2014 ) was an American theater, studio and jazz musician ( drums ).

Live and act

Ratajczak, who came from a Polish immigrant family, attended the Eastman School of Music in the 1970s . In the following years he toured with Woody Herman and His Orchestra in the early 1980s , heard on Live in Chicago and Live at the Concord Jazz Festival (1981). He then settled in New York City and worked a. a. with Gerry Mulligan , Grady Tate , Kenny Rankin , Rosemary Clooney , Milt Hinton , Audra McDonald , Michael Feinstein , Debby Boone , Bob Magnuson and John Fedchock . He has also been a drummer with the New York Philharmonic , the Boston Pops and numerous Broadway shows such as The Music Man , Wonderful Town, Crazy for You , Titanic , Sweet Charity , Mary Poppins and the City of Angels .

At the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Carnegie Hall concert by Benny Goodman and his orchestra in 1988, Ratajczak took on the role of Gene Krupa in the orchestra of Bob Wilber . In the field of jazz, he was involved in 54 recording sessions between 1979 and 2014, in addition to the aforementioned also with Paula Lockheart , Jim Pugh , Bevan Manson , Jackie Cain , Randy Sandke , Tom Harrell , Mary Cleere Haran , Barbara Lea , Gato Barbieri , Renée Fleming and James Chirillo .

Ratajczak also had some film appearances, u. a. in Friedhof der Kuscheltiere II (1992), The swaying ship (1999) and Dead Man Walking - His last walk (1995); in the short film The Drummer (directed by Bill Block), in which he played the lead role in 2007, "he played a stranded jazz drummer caught in the past of big big band music". He died in 2014 at the age of 58 of complications from a choroidal melanoma .

personal data
SURNAME	Ratajczak, Dave
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American theater, studio and jazz musician (drums)
DATE OF BIRTH	December 24, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH	Buffalo
DATE OF DEATH	3rd October 2014