Nathan Tate DAVIS

1937 - 2018

February 15, 1937 April 8, 2018, Nathan Tate Davis, Ph.D a renowned jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer who played, among other instruments, tenor and soprano saxophone, flute and clarinet, as well as established himself as a pioneer of jazz education in the United States, died on April 8 of natural causes. He was 81. Davis was born in Kansas City, KS, on February 15, 1937 and began playing music as a teenager. He went on to earn a B.A. in music at the University of Kansas, and soon after joined the U.S. Army band stationed in Berlin, Germany. After his discharge, Davis stayed on in Europe. As a performer, Davis was best known for his work with Kenny Clarke, Eric Dolphy, Donald Byrd, Ray Charles and Art Blakey. He was an integral part of the Parisian jazz scene in the 1960s, and as a prot?g? of jazz drumming pioneer Kenny Clarke, was a regular fixture on the bandstand at the major clubs during that time, such as The Blue Note and Le Chat Qui Peche. While supporting the drumming legend Clarke, Davis also introduced other important musicians to the scene, such as Woody Shaw and Carmell Jones. During his time in Paris, he also established his own career as a band leader and recording artist, releasing three acclaimed albums in 1965 alone, The Hip Walk, Happy Girl and Peace Treaty, as well as providing the soundtrack to the film Je Vous Salue, Mafia, directed by Raoul Levy. In 1969, Davis returned to the U.S. to establish the jazz studies program at the University of Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania. The program became a key pillar of the university's arts and sciences curriculum; his introduction to jazz history class was often reported to be the most popular on campus. One of the key features of "Jazz at Pitt" as it came to be known was an annual jazz seminar and concert, now in its 47th year, where world-renowned jazz musicians beginning in 1970 with Art Blakey and never ceasing to draw the biggest names in the field came to speak to students and members of the Pitt community about jazz, from music theory to the business of music. The annual event culminated in a concert the first Saturday night of November in Pittsburgh's Carnegie Music Hall, with each year's bill a veritable Who's Who of jazz music. At Pitt, Davis also established the Sonny Rollins International Jazz Archives and the International Academy of Jazz Hall of Fame, and built the William Robinson digital recording studio with the assistance of his son Pierre and Grammy-winning recording engineer Dae Bennett. In 1974, while already teaching at Pitt, Davis also earned his doctorate in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. This was to add what Davis felt was an essential element to jazz studies and was one of the first of its kind in the United States; a Ph.D level program so that jazz would receive the same respect as classical music at the university level. Davis retired from Pitt in 2013, the year he also received the prestigious BNY Mellon Jazz Living Legacy Award at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. While at Pitt, Davis continued his performing and recording career, with albums such as Makatuka (1971), The 6th Sense in the 11th House (1972); If (1976) and Suite for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1977). If in particular is a classic on the jazz-funk scene and extremely popular with club DJs worldwide. He continued to make additional albums in his later years, with his final recording as a band leader being Parisian Hoedown (2011). Davis also continued performing, including forming and serving as musical director of the Paris Reunion Band in the mid-1980s, with a line-up including saxophonists Johnny Griffin and Joe Henderson, trumpeter Woody Shaw and other giants of the 1960s Parisian jazz scene. In the 1990s he also formed a saxophone powerhouse ensemble called Roots, with saxophonists Arthur Blythe, Chico Freeman and Sam Rivers. Davis also brought jazz to the world as an ambassador for the music and jazz education globally, regularly leading programs in places like Jordan, China, Brazil, Jamaica, Bahrain and Ghana. He was particularly proud of the work he did bringing the younger generations of talented musicians from around the world to programs he led at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Jazz Aspen Snowmass, the Program for Jazz at Ravinia, and many others. Davis also authored books including Writings in Jazz and A Philosophical Look at African American Music in Society (co-authored by his wife Ursula). A prolific composer with over 200 compositions to his name, he also did not confine himself to traditional jazz, composing a jazz-inclusive opera based on James Baldwin's novel Just Above My Head, which premiered at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh in 2004, and a piece called "Matryoshka Blues" for renowned classical cellist Misha Quint, which was performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2013 and will be performed again at Ravinia this June. His music is also featured in the 2014 film Jayhawkers about the life and experiences of Wilt Chamberlin (Davis and Chamberlin were good friends while at the University of Kansas), directed by Kevin Willmott. Above all, however, Davis was a devoted husband, father and grandfather, and spent time between his homes in Bradford Woods, Pennsylvania and Palm Beach, where he loved spending his days in semi-retirement practicing his horn while looking out over his balcony at the Atlantic Ocean. Davis is survived by Ursula Broschke-Davis, his wife of 55 years, two children, Joyce Davis Poulin and Pierre Marc Davis, and three grandchildren.