Dave Alexander (blues musician)

Dave Alexander
Alexander performing at the 2007 San Francisco Blues Festival (photo by Mike Shea)
Background information
Birth name	David Alexander Elam
Also known as	Omar Sharriff Omar Hakim Khayam Omar the Magnificent
Born	(1938-03-10)March 10, 1938 Shreveport, Louisiana, United States
Died	January 8, 2012(2012-01-08) (aged 73) Marshall, Texas, United States
Genres	Texas blues,jazz
Occupation(s)	Singer, pianist
Instruments	Piano
Years active	1960s–2012
Labels	Arhoolie, Have Mercy Records
Website	Omar Shariff and Friends

Dave Alexander (born David Alexander Elam), also known as Omar Sharriff, Omar Shariff, Omar Hakim Khayam (March 10, 1938 – January 8, 2012) was an American Texas blues singer and pianist.

Alexander was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1938, and grew up in Marshall, Texas. His father was a pianist, and his mother encouraged him to play in church. Alexander joined the United States Navy in 1955. He moved to Oakland, California, in 1957, and began a long history of working with various San Francisco Bay area musicians. A self-taught pianist, he played with Big Mama Thornton, Jimmy Witherspoon, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Albert Collins. In 1968, he recorded his first songs for the compilation album Oakland Blues, released by World Pacific Records. He performed at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival in 1970 and at the San Francisco Blues Festival many times from 1973 onward. He was the warm-up act at the Last Waltz, a concert staged by the Band at the Winterland Ballroom, on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976. He also performed in Europe.

Alexander recorded two albums, The Rattler (1972) and The Dirt on the Ground (1973), for Arhoolie Records, containing the songs "The Hoodoo Man (The Voodoo Woman and the Witch Doctor)", "St. James Infirmary", "Blue Tumbleweed", "Sundown", "Sufferin' with the Lowdown Blues", "Strange Woman", "Cold Feelin", "Jimmy, Is That You?", "So You Wanna Be a Man" and "The Dirt on the Ground".