You are quite right, rc. Much of David's music has its origins in ragtime, and more generally in the music of the New World including Latin America. Somehow though, it all comes out sounding like David and nothing else. That, for me, is what makes his music so vital. I know he does not like the term "ragtime" because of what he calls its "honky-tonk hatched spectres", in other words, the frequent association of the idiom with out of tune pianos, saloons and the like. He is very particular about how people interpret his carefully formed and meticulously notated pieces. In short, I think his creative impulse lies much closer to composition than to spontaneous improvisation. He is definitely not a "jazz pianist", as we usually understand the description.
Topic: David is on youtube playing three of his pieces