Dave Newhouse

David Newhouse (born 1953) is an American progressive rock and avant-garde jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer. He was one on the founding members of the Maryland-based progressive rock/avant-jazz band, the Muffins, and has recorded nine solo albums, five of them as Manna/Mirage, a solo project he created in 2015. Biography Newhouse was born in Hawaii in 1953, but moved with his family to Maryland the same year. He began playing clarinet at school when he was nine years old, then took up tenor saxophone in junior high school. His father had played alto saxophone in his own high school band. Newhouse taught himself keyboards on his parents’ upright piano. Newhouse played in two bands, Sledge and Tunc before forming the Muffins in Maryland with guitarist Michael Zentner and bassist Billy Swann in 1973. Saxophonist Thomas Scott and drummer Paul Sears joined the Muffins a few years later. The Muffins recorded their first album, Manna/Mirage in 1978, which attracted the attention of Fred Frith and Chris Cutler of the English experimental rock group, Henry Cow. When Henry Cow disbanded later in 1978, Frith moved to New York City and performed with the Muffins in Washington, D.C. He a