Anthony Davis (composer)

Anthony Davis, better known as Tony Davis (born February 20, 1951), is an American composer, jazz pianist, and student of gamelan music. Davis is best known for his operas including X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X, which was premiered by the New York City Opera in 1986, Amistad which premiered with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1997 and Wakonda's Dream which premiered at Opera Omaha in 2007.

Biography

Davis was born in Paterson, New Jersey. He taught at Yale and Harvard Universities, and has played with Anthony Braxton and Leo Smith. In 1981, he formed an octet called Episteme. He also wrote the incidental music for the Broadway version of Tony Kushner's Angels in America. He incorporates several styles including jazz, rhythm 'n' blues, gospel, non-Western, African, European classical, Indonesian, and experimental music.

Davis has received acclaim as a free-jazz pianist, a co-leader or sideman with various ensembles. Such ensembles include those that featured Smith as bandleader from 1974 to 1977.

Davis is professor of music at the University of California San Diego. His opera, Wakonda's Dream, is a tale of a contemporary Native American family and the history that affects them.

His latest opera, Lilith (libretto by Allan Havis) will have its world premiere at the Conrad Prebys Music Center in UCSD on December 4, 2009. The story is about Adam's first wife and will be set in a modern era.

Works

Albums

• 1978 Past Lives (VPA)
• 1978 Of Blues and Dreams (Sackville)
• 1978 Song for the Old World (India Navigation)
• 1979 Hidden Voices (India Navigation)
• 1980 Under the Double Moon (Pausa Records)
• 1980 Lady of the Mirrors (India Navigation)
• 1981 Episteme (Gramavision)
• 1982 I've Known Rivers (Gramavision)
• 1982 Mystic Winds, Tropical Breezes (India Navigation)
• 1982 Variations in Dreamtime (India Navigation)
• 1983 Hemispheres (Gramavision)
• 1984 Middle Passage (Gramavision)
• 1986 Undine (Gramavision)
• 1988 Ghost Factory (Gramavision)
• 1990 Trio, Vol. 2 (Gramavision)
• 1989 Trio, Vol. 1 (Rhino)
• 1993 Lost Moon Sisters/In Dora Ohrenstein's "Urban Diva"
• 1992 "X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X" (Gramavision)
• 2001 "Tania" Koch International
• 2008 "Amistad" New World

Orchestral

• Wayang V (Piano Concerto, 1984)
• Maps (Violin Concerto, 1988)

(These two works were released on Gramavision 18-8807-1, a 12" long playing record, with Davis as soloist in the piano concerto and dedicatee Shem Guibbory as soloist in the violin concerto. In each, the William McGlaughlin led the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra.)

Stage

• X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X (1986)
• Under the Double Moon (1989)
• Tania (1992)
• Amistad (1997)
• Wakonda's Dream (2007)
• Lilith (2009)

As sideman

With Marion Brown

• Vista (Impulse!, 1975)

With Leroy Jenkins

• The Legend of Ai Glatson (Black Saint, 1978)

With George Lewis

• Homage to Charles Parker (Black Saint, 1979)

External links

• Schirmer.com: Anthony Davis
• Profile at UCSD
• Musicians & Middle Schools: Anthony Davis
• Anthony Davis review at scaruffi.com
• Anthony Davis at Allmusic