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’ Sort of Blue.
DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
That is FRESH AIR. We’re ending with some FRESH AIR household information. We need to ship our sympathy and like to Terry Gross. Her husband, the famous author and jazz critic Francis Davis, died Monday below residence 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 writer 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 long-lasting Miles Davis recording “Form Of Blue.”
In 2006, he began a critics ballot for The Village Voice that included 30 critics weighing in on the yr’s jazz releases. Now named after him, the Francis Davis Jazz Critics Ballot had over 150 collaborating critics final yr. And he was FRESH AIR’s jazz critic after 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 function 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 School 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 course 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 chortle had come from, and seeing me or not seeing me, nodded and laughed loudly himself.
And I inform that story, effectively, I inform it to start with as a result of it is a story I get pleasure from telling. However I inform it additionally as a result of it refutes or a minimum of clarifies an announcement made by Jaki Byard and sometimes quoted. I do not play all their types tongue in cheek, he is usually stated. 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 somewhat than eclectic. His model isn’t any mere loopy quilt of unrelated references however complete material. 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 previous within the new. And most significantly, he is in a position to show this sort 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 pal 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 powerful opinions, equivalent 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 couple of times, and as FRESH AIR’s first jazz critic, he confirmed the way it was accomplished. Decide clear musical examples and level out what to pay attention for. I repaid him by shamelessly stealing one among his greatest strains. Ornette Coleman is Charlie Parker’s nation cousin – I exploit 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 via Terry, Francis was part of our lives additionally. We’ll miss him. We’ll finish at present’s present with a track from “Form 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 search out out what’s occurring behind the scenes of our present and get our producers’ suggestions for what to look at, learn and hearken 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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