“My environment with race issues started the day I was born. His activism was connected to his earliest experiences trying to be a classical player, he said in the 2005 interview: Davis established the Madison chapter of the Center for the Healing of Racism, an outgrowth of his founding in 1998 of the Retention Action Project at the University of Wisconsin to improve graduation rates for students of color. The Richard Davis Foundation for Young Bassists, which he created in 1993, conducts an annual conference for young players to learn from professionals and perform with one another. Davis leaves behind two legacies - one musical, the other societal. In addition to his recorded work and his influence on generations of students, Mr. I thought maybe it was time.”Ĭomplete information on survivors was not immediately available. talked about the importance of teaching others, and I had always wanted to teach young people. “I said, ‘Where’s Madison?’ I asked around if anyone had heard of the place because this school kept calling me. “I got a call offering me a job at the university in Madison because they didn’t have a bass teacher on campus,” he told OnWisconsin, the university’s alumni magazine, in 2011. Davis left New York in 1977 to take a position as a professor of music and music history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Davis was “an incredible bassist, a great teacher and my dear friend.” In the late 1980s, he was a founding member of New York Unit, a trio with the pianist John Hicks and the drummer Tatsuya Nakamura, which recorded eight albums for Japanese labels through 1998. In the late 1960s and ’70s he was also a member of the New York Bass Violin Choir, led by his fellow bassist Bill Lee, playing alongside other luminaries of the instrument like Ron Carter, Milt Hinton and Sam Jones. Davis continued to release albums regularly through the new millennium. Hill’s seminal “Point of Departure” the drummer Tony Williams’s first album, “Life Time” and the saxophonist Booker Ervin’s “The Song Book.” Dolphy’s last studio recording, “Out to Lunch!” Mr. The year 1964 was an especially significant one he played on Mr. Davis’s reputation began to grow rapidly, as did his discography. Therefore, when you start to study books of bass methods, you start out with the bow no matter what your intentions are, so there must be some intertwining of what I heard as a kid, what I heard working with Sarah Vaughan, wanting to imitate those vocal sounds.”Īfter his time with Ms. And I heard all of that coming up as a kid. “Some of the first bass players used the bow to play the walking bass line. Vaughan to create his particular bowing technique: Davis spoke of how he used aspects of his classical study and his time with Ms. In a 2005 interview for The New York City Jazz Record, Mr. He then went on the road with another pianist, Don Shirley (whose story was told in the movie “Green Book” ) this led to his initial recordings and eventually to his move, in 1954, to New York, where he worked with the singer Sarah Vaughan from 1957 to 1962. His first major gig was with the pianist Ahmad Jamal in 1952. While still in college, he performed with the pianist and bandleader Sun Ra, who at the time was still billed as Sonny Blount. Davis was mentored by local bassists like Wilbur Ware and Eddie Calhoun. He would go on to receive a bachelor’s degree in music education from the VanderCook College of Music in Chicago in 1952.Īs a young player in Chicago, Mr. Dyett with pushing him to play across styles, and during high school he also studied with Rudolf Fahsbender of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His adaptability resulted in sessions with Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Bonnie Raitt. His advanced technique, especially with the bow, led to work with classical orchestras under Igor Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein. He was a member of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, which performed every Monday night at the Village Vanguard in New York, from the ensemble’s debut in 1966 until 1972. A first-call player for some of the most important figures in jazz history, he had fruitful collaborations with the reed player Eric Dolphy (whose composition “Iron Man” was named for him) and the pianist Andrew Hill. Davis, who was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2014, appeared on more than 600 albums. Davis had taught music at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His death was announced by Persia Davis, his daughter, who said he had been in hospice care for the last two years. Richard Davis, an esteemed bassist who played not just with some of the biggest names in jazz but also with major figures in the classical, pop and rock worlds, died on Wednesday in Madison, Wis.
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