David Axelrod is an American producer and composer. In the late 60's and early 70's he recorded and arranged for Cannonball Adderley and Lou Rawls albums, in addition to many other jazz/funk/soul artists. He also arranged & produced albums for garage bands The Electric Prunes and The Common People and released a number of solo instrumental albums.
His music is a heavily layered fusion of orchestral soul and jazz, mixing funk instrumentation with strings and orchestral brass.

After relative obscurity for nearly 30 years, Axelrod's music was re-discovered by a new generation of musicians and DJs, most notably James Lavelle, head of mo'wax Records and the hip hop artist DJ Shadow who cites him as a major influence.
As a result of this, Mo'Wax released an album of previously unheard Axelrod tracks, entitled just 'David Axelrod'.