Davis was jazz critic for The Village Voice and a contributing editor for The Atlantic. He wrote many books on jazz, and received a Grammy for his liner notes for the reissue of Miles Davis’ Form of Blue.
DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
That is FRESH AIR. We’re ending with some FRESH AIR household information. We wish to ship our sympathy and like to Terry Gross. Her husband, the famous author and jazz critic Francis Davis, died Monday beneath house hospice care following an sickness. For a few years, Francis was the jazz critic for The Village Voice and later a contributing editor for The Atlantic Month-to-month. He is the creator of many books on jazz, together with “Bebop And Nothingness,” “In The Second” and “Outcats: Jazz Composers, Instrumentalists And Singers.” He received a Grammy in 2009 for his liner notes to the fiftieth anniversary reissue of the enduring Miles Davis recording “Variety Of Blue.”
In 2006, he began a critics ballot for The Village Voice that included 30 critics weighing in on the 12 months’s jazz releases. Now named after him, the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Ballot had over 150 taking part critics final 12 months. And he was FRESH AIR’s jazz critic once we had been a neighborhood present in Philadelphia and through our earliest days as a nationwide program. That is an excerpt from a bit he recorded in 1980 for his characteristic Interval on the jazz pianist Jaki Byard.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
FRANCIS DAVIS: You are listening to FRESH AIR, and that is Interval. I am Francis Davis. The primary jazz group I ever noticed and heard in individual was a quartet led by pianist Jaki Byard at a live performance introduced by the Philadelphia Faculty of Artwork round 1966. I bear in mind the tenor saxophonist, Joe Farrell, stepping down off the bandstand throughout an extended drum solo and pulling a cigarette from the pack within the breast pocket of his sports activities coat and asking me did I’ve a match. And I bear in mind Jaki Byard springing a brilliantly executed stride passage in the midst of one thing else, a convoluted single-note solo performed freed from tempo. I laughed out loud in aid and delight, and Jaki Byard craned his neck round to see the place the snort had come from, and seeing me or not seeing me, nodded and laughed loudly himself.
And I inform that story, properly, I inform it initially as a result of it is a story I take pleasure in telling. However I inform it additionally as a result of it refutes or a minimum of clarifies a press release made by Jaki Byard and infrequently quoted. I do not play all their types tongue in cheek, he is usually mentioned. I believe what he means is his intention shouldn’t be satirical. Nothing is being mocked. I do not suppose he denies or would deny that the impact of his juxtapositions is contagiously humorous. Jaki Byard is a one-man jazz repertory, Catholic moderately than eclectic. His model is not any mere loopy quilt of unrelated references however complete fabric. He is in a position to hear premonitions of bop and of the avant-garde within the work of individuals like Fat Waller and James P. Johnson, and in a position to hear echoes of the outdated within the new. And most significantly, he is in a position to show this type of perception in his solos.
DAVIES: Francis Davis from a bit he wrote for FRESH AIR in 1980. We requested our jazz historian Kevin Whitehead, a buddy of Francis, for his ideas.
KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: Francis Davis and I each began writing about jazz round 1980, and he was one to look at and envy from the primary. He was a transparent, vivid, humorous author with broad tastes, broad data and robust opinions, comparable to solely boring folks like bass solos. In individual, as in print, he had an endearing, self-deprecating humorousness. Final time I used to be in contact with him, he cracked jokes about his deteriorating situation. He helped me alongside in my profession a few times, and as FRESH AIR’s first jazz critic, he confirmed the way it was completed. Decide clear musical examples and level out what to hear for. I repaid him by shamelessly stealing considered one of his greatest traces. Ornette Coleman is Charlie Parker’s nation cousin – I take advantage of that one on a regular basis. Thanks, Francis.
DAVIES: Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead remembering Francis Davis, who died on Monday.
(SOUNDBITE OF MILES DAVIS’ “FLAMENCO SKETCHES”)
DAVIES: We’re fortunate that by means of Terry, Francis was part of our lives additionally. We’ll miss him. We’ll finish as we speak’s present with a music from “Variety Of Blue,” the album which received Francis a Grammy for the liner notes he wrote when it was reissued for its fiftieth anniversary.
(SOUNDBITE OF MILES DAVIS’ “FLAMENCO SKETCHES”)
DAVIES: To seek out out what’s occurring behind the scenes of our present and get our producers’ suggestions for what to look at, learn and take heed to, subscribe to our free e-newsletter at whyy.org/freshair. FRESH AIR’s government producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Briger. Our interviews and opinions are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the present. For Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, I am Dave Davies.
(SOUNDBITE OF MILES DAVIS’ “FLAMENCO SKETCHES”)
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