Richard Davis, 2014 NEA Jazz Master, on bass

Every year, the National Endowment for the Arts presents the NEA Jazz Masters award to jazz musicians and others in the jazz industry. Here, a friend of mine, a...
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Every year, the National Endowment for the Arts presents the NEA Jazz Masters award to jazz musicians and others in the jazz industry. Here, a friend of mine, a brilliant bassist (also played for Chicago Symphony, Barbara Streisand's first two albums, Sarah Vaughn, and scores of other brilliant musicians themselves), Richard Davis, a professor of jazz studies at the University of WI-Madison, world renowned-artist decided to spontaneously pick up this bass during the ceremony on live public television. He didn't bring his own so he performed an outstanding piece written and performed on the spot in Jazz at Lincoln Center in NY. My wife and I were gratefully invited to be with him during the dinner and award ceremony, a very prestigious and honored event in Lincoln Center.
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