Michael Davis
Trombonist-composer Michael Davis does it all. Hailed as one of today’s premier instrumentalists, he has established himself as a first-call sideman, both in the studio and on the concert stage, for the entertainment world’s biggest stars, including the Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nelly, Bob Dylan and Michael Jackson. In the field of music education, he has served as a clinician around the world, while also authoring a number of highly esteemed instructional books and band arrangements for musicians of all ages and abilities.
For the past ten years Davis has been forging ahead as an entrepreneur, with Hip-Bone Music, a growing business that presently handles his publishing activities and work as a recording artist. Dedicated to increasing the popularity and stature of brass instruments and emphasizing “how hip, cool and fun it is to play music,” Hip-Bone Music is set on expanding its educational focus and becoming a viable avenue for other brass artists.
A native of San Jose, California, Davis received his musical training at the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Upon graduation he hooked up with the Buddy Rich Band for a two-year stint that brought an immeasurable amount of bandstand experience and a wealth of professional friendships that continue to this day. He settled in Manhattan in the mid-1980s and before long was being regarded as one of the top trombonists around. As testimony to his versatility and wide regard, the list of jazz and pop luminaries he has worked with over the years reads like a who’s who: Sarah Vaughan, Sting, Harry Connick, Jr., David Sanborn, Beck, Branford Marsalis, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, Lyle Lovett, Terence Blanchard, Bob Mintzer and scores of others.
A multiple recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Davis maintains his own jazz groups and projects as well. Through Hip-Bone Music, Davis has documented his efforts on five solo CDs — Trumpets Eleven, a showcase for eleven virtuosic trumpet masters; New Brass, a melding of jazz and classical brass styles; Brass Nation, a gathering together of fifty-five of the world’s greatest brass players; Bonetown, a pairing of Davis with LA bass trombone maestro Bill Reichenbach; and Absolute Trombone, yet another musical conclave, this time with eighteen New York City-based trombonists.
Acknowledged by popular musicians, fellow educators and audiences around the world as an immensely talented musical artist who’s committed to setting the highest standards possible for both jazz and his instrument, it is no wonder that legendary Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts was moved to comment, “In this ‘bone-dry’ era, it is essential to have Michael Davis around.”
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