CARLOS ALOMAR

Playing professionally since his teens, Carlos Alomar was part of the DAM Trio rhythm section that backed David Bowie from the mid-70s and now, he says, it's time to commemorate that legendary collective

- Andrew Daly

Growing up in the Bronx, the shadow of the church loomed large over a young Carlos Alomar. But larger still was the shadow of a Sears and Roebuck guitar/amp combo gifted to him by his father as a teen. Some years before when he was 10 years old and playing in his local church’s band, Alomar couldn’t have known that around a decade later, he’d be standing beside David Bowie as a member of the legendary DAM Trio – which featured Alomar on guitar, George Murray on bass and Dennis Davis on drums – and aiding in the creation of iconic records like Station To Station (1976), Low and “Heroes” (1977), and Lodger (1979).

Looking back on Bowie’s decision to put together a proper rocking band out of New York City, Alomar tells us: “David left The Spiders From Mars and then he came to America. The fact is that he had this black rhythm section backing him all these years and nobody ever really said anything about it. As we get older, we have a legacy.”

Before then, Alomar starred with everyone from Chuck Berry to James Brown to The Main Ingredient. And once with Bowie, he held his own on tour while perched beside the likes of Earl Slick and Adrian Belew en route to becoming Bowie’s musical director and lifelong friend. Alomar stuck with Bowie – albeit in an on-and-off fashion – until the early 2000s. Along the way, he appeared on records by Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney and The Pretenders, and even lent his licks to Mark Ronson’s 2014 mega-hit, Uptown Funk.

As for Bowie, the two kept in touch and Carlos took the iconic vocalist’s 2016 death from liver cancer hard. When many of Bowie’s past cohorts celebrated his career, Alomar, stricken with grief, chose to refrain (“Man, I would have started crying right in the middle of those songs,” he says).