David Cross (born 23 April 1949 in Turnchapel near Plymouth, England) is an English electric violinist and keyboardist best known for playing with progressive rock band King Crimson from 1972–1974. He appears on their albums Larks' Tongues in Aspic and Starless and Bible Black; plus one track on Red. Cross also plays on numerous live recordings from his time in the band that have been released in the decades since by Robert Fripp's Discipline Global Mobile label.
After King Crimson, Cross traveled extensively. He eventually came back to music through his work in theatre. In 1987 he formed an improvising ensemble called Low Flying Aircraft with Keith Tippett on piano. In 1988, he was invited by keyboardist Geoff Serle to join Radius, with whom he has recorded five albums.
Since the late 1980's, he has led, toured and recorded with his own band (see below). The first edition of The David Cross Band included saxophonist Pete McPhail, guitarist Paul Clark, bassist Mick Paul, drummer Dan Maurer and keyboardist Sheila Maloney. bassist/vocalist John Dillon (Johnny Quadrio) and singer Arch Stanton have both done time as the band's frontman. Former and current King Crimson musicians John Wetton, Robert Fripp and Pat Mastelotto, as well as lyricists Peter Sinfield and Richard Palmer-James, have all contributed to his solo recordings.
Recently, Cross has released a series of duet recordings with Robert Fripp, Andrew Keeling, Andrew Booker (of No-Man), David Jackson (formerly of Van der Graaf Generator) and Peter Banks.
Cross has composed music for theatre and worked as an actor as well. Cross runs his own record label, Noisy Records.