Jazz Articles about Orbert Davis

Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble: Havana Blue

by Jack Bowers
August 13, 2016

With diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba warming, the chances for musical reciprocity have escalated apace. As one who has long admired the music of our neighboring island the the south, Chicago-based trumpeter / composer Orbert Davis was quick to seize the initiative, spending nine days in Havana with Cuban-born choreographer Frank Chavez in October 2012 and returning with the outline of his seven-part “Havana Blue Suite," which explores and delineates the tantalizing harmonies and rhythms that are a ...

Orbert Davis: Clifford Brown with Strings

by William Ellis
August 23, 2014

Orbert Davis: Symphony Centre, Buntrock Hall, Chicago. 15th May, 2013 This is Clifford Brown with Strings (EmArcy, 1955). I was a teenager when I first heard this incredible album—the depth is in its subtleties—and Clifford is so perfect with the string writing of Neal Hefti. It's a true blending of classical and jazz. The first thing I knew—this is funny—I recognized the name Neal Hefti from the Batman theme! For me as a trumpet ...

Chicago Jazz Philharmonic: Sketches of Spain Revisited

by Jack Bowers
August 5, 2014

One by one, the trio of classic big-band collaborations by Miles Davis and Gil Evans is being rediscovered and reinvented by contemporary jazz ensembles: Miles Ahead, Porgy & Bess and last but not least, the tasteful and picturesque Sketches of Spain, reappraised here by trumpeter Orbert Davis (no relation to Miles) and the splendid Chicago Jazz Philharmonic. Besides composing, adapting and orchestrating the music, Orbert Davis sits in for his celebrated namesake on solo trumpet. What makes ...

Orbert Davis: Trumpeting All Kinds of Music

by R.J. DeLuke
March 23, 2005

Orbert Davis is one of the most active trumpet players on the music scene, heard in tons and tons of contexts and not just by jazz fans. He's credited with performing on something like 2,500-plus commercials. He's done film music, most recently helping arrange music in “Road to Perdition" with Tom Hanks and Paul Newman. His work with pop acts includes Stevie Wonder, Dionne Warwick, Duran Duran, Gladys Knight, The Temptations and others.

He is known as a guy who ...

Orbert Davis: Blue Notes

by Jack Bowers
March 18, 2005

Orbert Davis, one of the Chicago area's favorite sons and best-kept secrets (although that status is rapidly changing), hasn't tinkered much with his third and latest album--it's essentially straight-ahead small-group jazz--but has managed to place the engine where the caboose should be.

What I mean is, when you're a mind-bending trumpeter and have programmed songs like the sepulchral “Blue Notes and Parker/Gillespie's lightning-quick archetype “Shaw'Nuff, it's quite clear (to me, at least) which one to lead with if you wish ...

Orbert Davis: Blue Notes

by AAJ Staff
March 8, 2005

No pretense surrounds Chicago trumpeter Orbert Davis's third effort, Blue Notes. The album eulogizes the hard bop ethos of the '60s Blue Note catalog. Davis covers classics from that period like Wayne Shorter's “Hammer Head" and Herbie Hancock's “Driftin'." The trumpeter's own composition, “Back in the Day," sounds like a cross between “Watermelon Man" and “The Sidewinder."

This is isn't to say that Blue Notes is a sterile recycling of another era's sound. Davis imbues the tunes ...

Orbert Davis: Priority

by Jack Bowers
October 1, 2002

Trumpeter Orbert Davis may have let the cat out of the bag with Priority, an album that is almost sure to blow his cover as one of the Chicago area"s best-kept secrets.

Davis, who has recorded before with strings and voices and as a member of William Russo's Chicago Jazz Ensemble, unleashes the full arsenal on this spectacular studio date, showcasing his prodigious talents as player, composer and arranger in a colorful program of small"group Jazz that is at once ...