Jazz Articles about Jack Davies

About Jack Davies

Profile

Jack Davies: Inventing Himself

by Duncan Heining
August 29, 2012

"Jack's formal education has given him useful tools but above all he has drive and determination and ideas, which cannot be taught." class="f-right">--Colin Towns, composer, bandleaderand producer of The Jack Davies Big Band (V&V, 2012).

The jazz big band is a wondrous beast. Caught in movement and it's like a big cat, with barely contained violence ready to strike. It can be subtle; smooth, even, but when it rolls over and acts all coy and gentle, watch ...

Album Review

Jack Davies Big Band: The Jack Davies Big Band

Read "The Jack Davies Big Band" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
May 17, 2012

Composer/trumpeter Jack Davies is nothing if not eclectic. His current catalog of releases includes the unusually configured chamber quartet, Flea Circus, featuring bass clarinet and accordion. Simultaneously, Davies has released a contemporary quintet collection that channels Miles Davis by way of more modern influences. While both of these recordings are stellar, Davies' crowning achievement of the moment is his forward-thinking approach to the large ensemble sound. The Jack Davies Big Band's self-titled debut is a distinctive, cutting edge ensemble that ...

Extended Analysis

Jack Davies Big Band: The Jack Davies Big Band

by Chris May
April 23, 2012

Jack Davies Big BandThe Jack Davies Big BandV&V Music2012With its debut album, trumpeter and composer Jack Davies' big band has joined an elite strand of British orchestras--Loose Tubes, flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler's outfits and Colin Towns' Mask Orchestra prominent among them--which have enriched and expanded the original big band aesthetic imported from the US. A graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM), where he studied classical music, and the Royal Academy ...