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Art Davis

In a musical career that has spanned four decades, Dr. Art Davis has played his bass with a myriad of the greatest jazz, classical, and popular artists in the world. He has shared his talents with not only the best jazz musicians (John Coltrane, Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie, Lena Horne, Thelonius Monk, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Quincy Jones, etc.), but with notable figures from popular music such as Judy Garland, Bob Dylan, Minne Pearl, Barbara Streisand, Hank Williams. Davis' career has also seen performances with major orchestras such as the National Symphony, NBC Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Radio City Music Hall Symphony, Westchester Symphony, Orange County Symphony and others. Click here for a discography.

Davis studied the tuba as well as the piano as a boy in his hometown of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania before switching to the bass in high school. He won numerous awards on both tuba and double-bass while attending high school. Upon graduation, he moved to New York to study via scholarship at both the Manhattan School of Music as well as the Juilliard School of Music. While attending the latter he studied with world renown cellist Lazlo Varga and Anselme Fortier, who was principal bassist with the New York Philharmonic at that time. He earned a B.A. degree, triple major in psychology, music, physics, summa sum laude from Hunter College, City University of New York.

Art Davis' recording debut came in 1958 at the Newport Jazz Festival, with Max Roach's group that included the legendary Booker Little and George Coleman. Davis maintained a strong personal relationship with Max, and Booker Little became one of his best friends.

John Coltrane came into Art Davis' life while Davis was working with Max Roach's group at Small's Paradise in Harlem. Coltrane at that time was in Miles Davis' band and between sets asked Art if he would like to "practice" with him. Art agreed and Coltrane replied "How about tomorrow morning?" At 8:00 the following morning John Coltrane was in the lobby of Art's hotel and called him on the house phone. After that first meeting, the two practiced regularly for about a year, the sessions lasting for many hours without a break. It was during this year that John Coltrane wrote the tune "Giant Steps". Davis credits the association with John Coltrane as the most intense and enriching musical experience of his career. Until Coltrane's death in 1967, Art remained close musically and personally with him and was a member of the bands on several Coltrane albums including, "Ascension", "Africa Brass I and II", "Olé! Coltrane", and others. Art's discography as a member of Coltrane's groups also includes the original recording of "A Love Supreme" (which remains unreleased) with Coltrane's regular quartet and Archie Shepp. Art also toured intermittently with John Coltrane. Due to Davis' studio and other commitments, he was unable to become a permanent member of Coltrane's quartet, but John insisted on their continued relationship.

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Album Review

John Coltrane: Evenings At The Village Gate

Read "Evenings At The Village Gate" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


All music is, as are all our greater gestures and pursuits--poetry, painting, literature, sculpture, dance--spiritual by nature. An outreach by the artist and thus, by extension, us, beyond the daily argot of the ordinary. But sometimes those instances are so far and in-between, so masked by the lawlessness of the present moment, that our higher selves are forgotten, or worse, denied. And sometimes the music is downright holy. Welcome to the church known as the Village Gate. Welcome ...

18
Album Review

John Coltrane: Evenings At The Village Gate

Read "Evenings At The Village Gate" reviewed by Chris May


It is important to emphasize, at the outset of this review, that Evenings At The Village Gate is a John Coltrane album of headline significance. Recorded during a four-week run at the New York City club in August and September 1961, the disc is a snapshot of Coltrane partway through the most momentous year of his development. He is in incandescent form from start to finish, leading an astounding sextet completed by multi-reedist Eric Dolphy, pianist McCoy Tyner, twin bassists ...

15
Album Review

Joshua Jern Jazz Orchestra: Lockdown

Read "Lockdown" reviewed by Jack Bowers


After taking a pleasant and romantic Midnight Stroll in 2019, trumpeter/composer Joshua Jern's Chicago-based Jazz Orchestra (like almost everyone else) began a coronavirus-decreed Lockdown but has emerged two years later from that self-imposed hiatus swinging harder and more often than ever. As before, most compositions and all arrangements are by Jern; and as before, the orchestra performs them with ardor and panache. This time around, however, there is a formidable new “weapon" on two tracks ("A Stretch ...

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Album Review

Hasaan Ibn Ali: Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album

Read "Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album" reviewed by Doug Collette


It has been years since the woefully unsung pianist Hasaan Ibn Ali recorded Metaphysics and, while its circuitous route to release is worth more than a little note, that story seems to have taken precedence over insight into and observation of the music itself. In keeping with its customarily astute archival approach, the Omnivore curating team included extensive liner notes by associate producer Lewis Porter, as well as co-producer Alan Sukoenig, both of which pieces maintain the focus on the ...

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Album Review

Hasaan Ibn Ali: Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album

Read "Metaphysics: The Lost Atlantic Album" reviewed by Karl Ackermann


The hard bop, Philadelphia pianist Hasaan Ibn Ali had a short, troubled life. On what was believed his only recording, The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan (Atlantic, 1965), the drummer placed Ali's full image front and center, his name in a larger font on the LP cover. Within the Philadelphia jazz community, he was well-known and considered uniquely talented, if unpredictable. He practiced with John Coltrane and saxophonist Odean Pope is among those who credit Ali with inspiring ...

6
Album Review

Joshua Jern Jazz Orchestra: Midnight Stroll

Read "Midnight Stroll" reviewed by Jack Bowers


One can only imagine how difficult it must be, especially in such uncertain times, for any musician to decide that the time has come to assemble a big band and usher it into a recording studio, let alone one whose name and reputation are, more than likely, scarcely known outside his own neighborhood. Thumbing his nose at the odds, Joshua Jern, a Chicago-based trumpeter and educator with impressive talents, has done exactly that, escorting his remarkably well-groomed ensemble on a ...

137
Album Review

McCoy Tyner Trio: Inception

Read "Inception" reviewed by Lawrence Peryer


Though two tracks from October 1960 were previously issued under McCoy Tyner's name, they were outtakes from John Coltrane dates where the saxophonist sat out. Inception marks the pianist's first proper release as bandleader, with the sessions for Impulse! taking place at Rudy Van Gelder's studio on January 10 and 11, 1962. Of the set's six tracks, four are Tyner compositions, with “Effendi" becoming something of a modern jazz standard and embraced, most notably, by pianist Ahmad Jamal.

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Education

Trumpeter Art Davis, Drummer Tim Davis Join Merit School Of Music Tuition-free Conservatory

Source: Melissa Connolly

Well-known performing Chicago jazz artists are now sharing their musical experience and passion with a new generation at Merit School of Music in Chicago's West Loop. Newly-hired trumpeter Art Davis and drummer Tim Davis join a list of established jazz performers on faculty at Merit’s Alice S. Pfaelzer Tuition-free Conservatory, which offers college preparatory instruction free of charge to those students who pass audition. Both Davises, along with Merit’s other jazz faculty members, are mainstays in the Chicago music scene, ...

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Obituary

Jazz Bassist Art Davis, 73; Later Became Psychologist

Jazz Bassist Art Davis, 73; Later Became Psychologist

Source: All About Jazz

Art Davis, a virtuoso bassist who excelled in classical music and jazz, and who became a clinical psychologist later in life, died July 29 of a heart attack at his home in Long Beach, Calif. He was 73. Trained as a classical musician at leading conservatories, Dr. Davis won early renown in the 1950s working with celebrated jazz musicians Max Roach and Dizzy Gillespie. In the 1960s, he was one of saxophonist John Coltrane's favorite bassists and appeared on several ...

116

Obituary

Art Davis, Jazz Bassist, Activist Against Racism

Art Davis, Jazz Bassist, Activist Against Racism

Source: All About Jazz

LOS ANGELES - Art Davis, 73, the renowned double bassist who played with John Coltrane and other jazz greats, was blacklisted in the 1970s for speaking up about racism in the music industry, then later in life earned a doctorate in clinical psychology and balanced performance dates with appointments to see patients, has died. Dr. Davis, a player whom jazz critic Nat Hentoff once described as astonishing and “beyond category," died last Sunday of heart failure at his home in ...

116

Obituary

Double Bassist Art Davis, Who Played with Jazz Greats Such as Coltrane, Dies at 73

Double Bassist Art Davis, Who Played with Jazz Greats Such as Coltrane, Dies at 73

Source: All About Jazz

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Art Davis, the renowned double bassist who played with John Coltrane and other jazz greats, has died. He was 73. Davis died of a heart attack Sunday at his home in Long Beach, his son Kimaili Davis told the Los Angeles Times for a story in Saturday's editions. Davis was blacklisted in the 1970s for speaking up about racism in the music industry, then later earned a doctorate in clinical psychology and balanced performance dates with ...

100

Obituary

Art Davis Passed Away

Art Davis Passed Away

Source: All About Jazz

The great jazz bassist Art Davis died in his Long Beach home on Sunday July 29 after suffering a heart attack. According to Nat Hentoff , Davis was the favorite bassist of John Coltrane. Davis played on Coltrane's Ole as well as Ascension and Africa/Brass Sessions, Vol. 1 and 2.

Mr. Davis' career suffered after he unsuccessfully sued the New York Philharmonic over what he contended were its racist hiring prctices. As the calls stopped coming for jazz gigs, Davis ...

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Recording

Odean Pope "Voices" Featuring Dr. Art Davis And Tyrone Brown

Odean Pope "Voices" Featuring Dr. Art Davis And Tyrone Brown

Source: All About Jazz


Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Evenings At The...

Impulse! Records
2023

buy

Metaphysics: The Lost...

Omnivore Recordings
2021

buy

Lockdown

Self Produced
2021

buy

Midnight Stroll

Self Produced
2020

buy

Inception

Impulse!
2012

buy

Puttin' on the Ritz

Self Produced
2003

buy

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