Kris Davis

Kris Davis (born 1980) is a Canadian jazz pianist and composer.

For the American baseball player, see Khris Davis. For other people with a similar name, see Chris Davis (disambiguation).
Kris Davis
Born1980 (age 39–40)
Vancouver, Canada
GenresJazz
Occupation(s)Musician, composer
InstrumentsPiano
Years activeEarly 2000s–present
LabelsFresh Sound, Clean Feed, Thirsty Ear
Websitekrisdavis.net

Early life

Davis was born in Vancouver in 1980 and grew up in Calgary, Alberta.[1] She studied classical piano from the age of six[1] and discovered jazz while a high school student.[2] She transcribed performances by pianists Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett.[2] She later reported that, "By the eighth grade I knew I wanted to be a jazz musician."[1] She later majored in jazz piano at the University of Toronto.[1][2]

Later life and career

Davis moved to New York in 2001.[2] Her piano style changed after her first album, Lifespan – "I decided not to play chords anymore, just to play lines".[2] She later obtained a classical composition degree from the City College of New York.[2]

In 2009, Davis played solo concerts during a tour of Portugal.[2] She followed this with a solo piano album, Aeriol Piano,[2] which included sections for prepared piano.[3] Her 2014 trio album Waiting for You to Grow was the follow-up to Good Citizen around five years earlier.[1] She commented that, on the earlier release, "I had this concept to make it almost like a pop record, where the tunes are really short [while] on the new record the tunes are much longer and explore multiple areas. I just wanted to write and not have any preconceived ideas".[1]

In 2013, Davis composed a suite for four bass clarinets, guitar, piano, organ and drums.[3] In 2014, Davis had a six-day residency at The Stone in New York City,[1] and played in the UK for the first time.[4] She plans to launch a record label, Pyroclastic Records, in 2016.[5] A new quartet, with guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist Drew Gress, and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, will play John Zorn compositions in the second half of 2016.[5] She was named 2018 Rising Star – Jazz Artist by DownBeat critics.[6] In 2020 she will play at the first edition of the Monheim Triennale.[7]

Personal life

Davis was formerly married to the drummer Jeff Davis.[2] She married guitarist Nate Radley in 2012 and they had a son in 2013.[1]

Awards and honors

Discography

An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.

As leader/co-leader
Year recorded Title Label Personnel/Notes
2003 Lifespan Fresh Sound Sextet, with Tony Malaby (tenor sax, soprano sax), Russ Johnson (flugelhorn, trumpet), Jason Rigby (tenor sax, soprano sax, clarinet, bass clarinet), Eivind Opsvik (bass), Jeff Davis (drums)
2005 The Slightest Shift Fresh Sound Quartet, with Tony Malaby (tenor sax), Eivind Opsvik (bass), Jeff Davis (drums)
2005 Fiction Avalanche Clean Feed As part of the RIDD Quartet; with Jon irabagon (sax), Reuben Radding (bass), Jeff Davis (drums)
2007 Rye Eclipse Fresh Sound Quartet, with Tony Malaby (tenor sax), Eivind Opsvik (bass), Jeff Davis (drums)
2008 Three Clean Feed As part of the band SKM; trio, with Stephen Gauci (sax), Michael Bisio (bass)
2009 Paradoxical Frog Clean Feed As part of the band Paradoxical Frog; trio, with Ingrid Laubrock (tenor sax), Tyshawn Sorey (drums)
2009 Good Citizen Fresh Sound Trio, with John Hebert (bass), Tom Rainey (drums)
2009 Aeriol Piano Clean Feed Solo piano
2011 Union Clean Feed As part of the band Paradoxical Frog; trio, with Ingrid Laubrock (tenor sax), Tyshawn Sorey (drums)
2012 Capricorn Climber Clean Feed Quintet, with Mat Maneri (viola), Ingrid Laubrock (sax), Trevor Dunn (bass), Tom Rainey (drums)
2012 Vermilion Tree For Tune As part of the band 3d; trio, with Tomasz Dąbrowski (trumpet, balkan horn), Andrew Drury (drums)
2012 Massive Threads Thirsty Ear Solo piano
2013* Lark Skirl As part of the band Lark; quartet, with Ingrid Laubrock (tenor sax), Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Tom Rainey (drums)
2013 Waiting for You to Grow Clean Feed Trio, with John Hebert (bass), Tom Rainey (drums)
2014 Save Your Breath Clean Feed With Joachim Badenhorst, Andrew Bishop, Ben Goldberg, Oscar Noriega (bass clarinet), Gary Versace (organ), Nate Radley (guitar), Jim Black (drums)
2016* Duopoly Pyroclastic Duos, with Don Byron (clarinet), Tim Berne (alto sax), Marcus Gilmore (drums), Billy Drummond (drums), Angelica Sanchez (piano), Craig Taborn (piano), Julian Lage (guitar), Bill Frisell (guitar)
2016 Octopus Pyroclastic Duo, with Craig Taborn (piano)
2017* Asteroidea Intakt As part of the Borderlands Trio; with Stephan Crump (bass), Eric McPherson (drums)
2019* Diatom Ribbons Pyroclastic Esperanza Spalding (voice), J.D. Allen (tenor saxophone), Tony Malaby (tenor saxophone), Ches Smith (vibraphone), Nels Cline (guitar), Marc Ribot (guitar), Trevor Dunn (electric bass), Val Jeanty (turntable), Terri Lyne Carrington (drums)

As sidewoman
Year recorded Leader Title Label
2006 Rocket Engine What Is This That Stands Before Me? Loyal
2008* Jon Irabagon Outright! Innova
2010* Jeff Davis We Sleep Outside Loyal
2010* Ingrid Laubrock Anti-House Intakt
2011* Kermit Driscoll Reveille 19/8
2011* Tony Malaby Novela Clean Feed
2011* Andrea Wolper Parallel Lives Jazzed Media
2013* Ingrid Laubrock Strong Place Intakt
2013* Eric Revis City of Asylum Clean Feed
2016* Eric Revis Crowded Solitudes Clean Feed
2014* Michael Musillami Pride Playscape
2014* Matt Bauder Nightshades Clean Feed
2014* Tom Rainey Obbligato Intakt
2015* Ingrid Laubrock Roulette of the Cradle Intakt
2015* Nick Fraser Too Many Continents Clean Feed
2015* Devin Gray Relative Resonance Skirl
2017 Tom Rainey Float Upstream Intakt
2018* Ingrid Laubrock Contemporary Chaos Practices Intakt
2018 Winged Serpents Six Encomiums for Cecil Taylor Tzadik[9]
gollark: There are some on ebay, weirdly.
gollark: The old one had a removable battery, the new one (which is also pretty old at this point) does *not* and the battery is quite fried, so I should replace it SOON™.
gollark: My previous phones have been in the £100 ballpark and pretty okay for what I need.
gollark: And... 400$ is quite a lot, but we're just used to stupidly high phone prices now apparently.
gollark: Oreo is indeed outdated.

References
  1. Adler, David R. (6 October 2014) "Kris Davis: Good Citizen". JazzTimes.
  2. Ratliff, Ben (6 October 2011) "New Pilots at the Keyboard". The New York Times.
  3. Bambarger, Bradley (December 2013) "Kris Davis – New Approaches". DownBeat. p. 23.
  4. "Kris Davis Trio: Kris Davis / John Hebert / Tom Rainey". vortexjazz.co.uk. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  5. Hale, James (July 2016) "Kris Davis". DownBeat. p. 36.
  6. Lutz, Phillip (August 2018). "Kris Davis: Innovative Voice". DownBeat. Vol. 85 no. 8. Chicago. p. 45. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  7. "Kris Davis". Monheim Triennale. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  8. Hale, James (July 2016). "25 for the Future / Kris Davis". DownBeat. Vol. 83 no. 7. Chicago. p. 35. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  9. Grillo, Tyran (December 2018). "Six Encomiums for Cecil Taylor: Winged Serpents (Tzadik)". The New York City Jazz Record. No. 200. p. 30.
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