Richard Davis Death – Richard Davis, American jazz bassist, legend, scholar, gentleman, master teacher, and genius has died, he was 93 years old. His musical collaborations included artists such as Eric Dolphy, Sarah Vaughn, Van Morrison, and Bruce Springsteen. He was a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The albums Out to Lunch! by Eric Dolphy, Point of Departure by Andrew Hill, and Astral Weeks by Van Morrison are among his most well-known contributions to the albums of other musicians. Greil Marcus, a music critic, said of Astral Weeks that “Richard Davis provided the greatest bass ever heard on a rock album.”
In his 93 years, Richard Davis has held a variety of important positions. In 1975, Davis was the reigning Downbeat jazz bassist of the year (and had been so since 1967), had performed on Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run album, and had spent the previous year performing with the New York Philharmonic. In 1977, he accepted an invitation to become a tenured professor of bass at the University of Washington, where he taught classes on jazz improvisation, jazz history, and classical and jazz performance.
In the 1970s, Davis collaborated with performers from the pop and rock genres, performing on albums such as “Smile” by Laura Nyro, “Astral Weeks” by Van Morrison (during the recording sessions of which Davis also functioned as the de facto bandleader), and “Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.” and “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen. Throughout his career, he collaborated with conductors including Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Leopold Stokowski, and Gunther Schuller to play classical music.
After spending the previous 23 years in New York City, he relocated to Wisconsin in 1977 and began working as a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he currently teaches improvisation, jazz history, and the bass instrument. William Parker, David Ephross, Sandor Ostlund, Hans Sturm, Alex Kalfayan, Ryan Maxwell, and Karl E. H. Seigfried are some of the people who were formerly his students.
Richard Davis Obituary and funeral plans will be released by the family….
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