Anthony Davis (composer)

Anthony Davis ( born February 20, 1951 in Paterson, New Jersey ) is an American composer and jazz pianist.

Davis, whose father was a high school teacher who grew up on the campus of Princeton and the State Colleges on in Pennsylvania. His father knew Art Tatum; one of the neighbors was the pianist Billy Taylor. Davis took piano lessons and joined the early 1970s his music degree from Yale. During this time he met the trombonist George Lewis, with whom he played. At least between 1974 and 1977, when he played with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and in the group New Delta Akhri, he was familiar with the principles of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, who influenced him. In 1975 he led his own quartet with Ed Blackwell, Jay Hoggard and Mark Helias. In 1977 he moved to New York City, where he worked with Anthony Braxton, Oliver Lake, Barry Altschul, Chico Freeman and George Lewis. During this time his first album, Song for the Old World was created. In the early 1980s he worked in different formations with the flutist James Newton and gave concerts as a solo pianist.

In 1981 he founded the octet Episteme to (eg Earle Howard and Alvin Singleton ) perform alongside his own compositions and those of other composers. In his chamber music compositions influences of Javanese gamelan music and African Sklalen are clear.

1985 was his first opera X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X premiered at the New York City Opera in Manhattan, which is based on the life of Malcolm X. The world premiere of his fifth opera Wakonda 's Dream was 2007 in the Opera Omaha. It deals with the life of an Indian family and their history. In both cases, Rhoda Levine directed.

Both as a composer and as a pianist Davis was awarded the Down Beat poll.

As a university lecturer at Yale University, he taught both composition and music history of the 20th century; he is a music professor at the University of California, San Diego since 1998.

Davis is married to the soprano Cynthia Aaronson -Davis and has a son.