Jazz Articles about Jon Davis

About Jon Davis

Album Review

Jon Davis plays with a richness of soul, exhibiting a well versed jazz character that can go from Jaco (whom he worked with for several years), New Orleans swamp, and freedom jazz dance, to Stevie Wonder, and back. Although he doesn't try to sound like Bill Evans, he did pen a tune called Waltz for U, named for the trio's bassist Ugonna Okegwo who was perhaps tiring of the challenges of playing in so many of Davis' multiple time signatures ...

Album Review

Jon Davis: Changes Over Time

Read "Changes Over Time" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 31, 2015

While there are no liner notes to accompany pianist Jon Davis' third date for the Posi-Tone imprint, there's a quote inside the package, attributed to author Anne Rice, that gets to the heart of the matter: “None of us really changes over time. We only become more fully what we are." So is personal evolution and growth an illusion? Is development a figment of the individual's imagination? Yes and no would be the correct answer(s). It really just comes down ...

Album Review

Jon Davis: Moving Right Along

Read "Moving Right Along" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
January 9, 2015

Every jazz generation has its own Tommy Flanagan, an unheralded player that finally steps into the spotlight and everyone wonders how he has been hiding in plain sight all these years. With Moving Right Along, a follow up to One Up Front (Posi-Tone, 2013) pianist Jon Davis takes center stage with an assured sense of swing and a sumptuous way with a jazz vocabulary.As a sideman, he has held the piano chair in bands led by jazz fusion ...

Album Review

Jon Davis: One Up Front

Read "One Up Front" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
August 11, 2013

It's tempting to say that pianist Jon Davis has been hiding in plain sight for the past few decades, but he hasn't really been hiding at all. He's actually been playing all over the place with a lot of top-tier musicians; he just doesn't put himself up front very often. Davis, who's worked with saxophonist Stan Getz, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Jaco Pastorius, and a long list of other jazz luminaries, is the consummate sideman, always adding support and substance ...