Art Davis

Art Davis (born December 5, 1934 in Harrisburg , Pennsylvania , † July 29, 2007 in Longbeach, California ) was an American double bass player . He played with Duke Ellington , Louis Armstrong , Bob Dylan , John Coltrane , Thelonious Monk , Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Abbey Lincoln , among others .

Live and act

He started learning the piano at the age of five and then switched to the tuba . In high school he discovered the double bass for himself. He studied at the Juilliard School and received his PhD from Hunter College in New York .

Davis went on tour first with Max Roach (1958/59) and then with Dizzy Gillespie (1959/60). In the following years he worked with folk singers such as Peter, Paul and Mary and John Denver as well as with Lena Horne and with Judy Garland . He then worked in orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic and various radio orchestras, but mostly in the studios. After he was denied a vacancy as an orchestral double bass player (he believed his black skin was the problem), he sued the New York Philharmonic . This process has cost him most of his contacts in the music business. He lost the trial against the orchestra . In the meantime, he studied clinical psychology , did his PhD and practiced in Southern California.

He wrote a textbook on a 4-finger technique he developed for playing the double bass and taught at several American colleges and universities. In the mid-1980s he began performing again in public. He recorded a few more records. He also founded the BASS (Better Advantages for Students and Society) foundation , which raised money to give scholarships to socially disadvantaged students .

John Coltrane, whose albums Africa / Brass (1961) and Ascension Art Davis (1965) contributed, considered him his favorite bassist. Jazz critic Nat Hentoff rated Davis as "an amazing musician" and as "beyond the categories". Art Davis was a professor at Orange Coast College .

On July 29, 2007, he died of a heart attack at his home in California, having recently been in the recording studio.

Discography (selection)

• Reemergence (1980) with Hilton Ruiz and Greg Bandy
• Fife ( Soul Note , 1985) with Pharoah Sanders , John Hicks and Idris Muhammad
• A Time Remembered (1995) with Herbie Hancock , Marvin Smitty Smith , Ravi Coltrane
• Puttin 'On The Ritz (2002) with Jan Jordan
• Kansas City Outbound (JMood, 2008) with Roberto Magris and Jimmy Junebug Jackson

Web links

• Art Davis at Discogs (English)
• Comprehensive Davis discography
• Art Davis at Allmusic (English)

literature

• Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz. 1800 bands and artists from the beginning until today. 2nd, expanded and updated edition. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-476-01892-X .