Bassist, UW-Madison professor emeritus, and social justice activist Richard Davis passed away a couple days ago.
While jazz was his home base, the Chicago native’s genius jumped genres. Moving from Chicago to New York, he played with everyone from Sarah Vaughan to Van Morrison, from Leonard Bernstein to Bruce Springsteen. Critic Greil Marcus called his work on Morrison’s “Astral Weeks” album “the greatest bass ever heard on a rock album.”
Much like funk drummer Clyde Stubblefield did when he moved to Madison, Davis embraced the city, playing at local clubs and educating and inspiring generations of students as a UW-Madison music professor.
Davis was also an influential community activist on racial issues in Madison, and made it a personal mission to increase diversity and inclusion at UW-Madison, founding the Madison chapter of the Institutes for the Healing of Racism.
Here's the Richard Davis Quintet performing "St. Louis Blues" at the Craig Auditorium down in Janesville, WI on 27 April 1996.
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