HONORING ACADEMY FELLOW RICHARD DAVIS

The world lost jazz great and social justice champion Richard Davis last fall at age 93. A true Renaissance man, Davis lived every decade of his life in earnest, sharing his gift as a premier bassist with some of the finest musical artists in the world, and then bestowing his gifts as an educator and activist to generations of students and citizens at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

As a musician, Davis honed his craft in his hometown Chicago before heading to New York, where his live music career flourished in the 1960s followed by a string of recording successes in the 1970s. In the Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll published in 1991, his work with Van Morrison on the album Astral Weeks, was revered as “the greatest bass ever heard on a rock album.”

Davis explored bass in a wide range of musical genres—from his first-love jazz to rock, pop, and classical. At the peak of his 23-year career, he was sought after by the greatest artists of the times: singers Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra; singer/songwriters Bonnie Raitt and Bruce Springsteen; and maestros Igor Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein.

In 1977, he was recruited by UW—Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, where he taught string bass, jazz history, and improvisation. In 1993, he co-founded the Richard Davis Foundation for Young Bassists to give emerging musicians who attend an annual conference the opportunity to learn from and perform with professionals from across the country.

In 1998, Davis founded the Retention Action Project at UW–Madison to address the multicultural climate and graduation rates for students of color. Two years later, this grassroots approach to social justice led him to found the Madison chapter of the Institutes for the Healing of Racism, and to host the group’s meetings at his home for more than 15 years.

In 2004, Davis was inducted as a Wisconsin Academy Fellow. He was honored as a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2014.

An extraordinary man, Davis will perhaps best be remembered for so generously sharing his countless gifts with Wisconsin and the world.

—Brennan Nardi