Anthony Davis (composer)
Encyclopedia
Anthony Davis, better known as Tony Davis (born February 20, 1951 in Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson is a city serving as the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 146,199, rendering it New Jersey's third largest city and one of the largest cities in the New York City Metropolitan Area, despite a decrease of 3,023...

), is an American composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, jazz pianist, and student of gamelan
Gamelan
A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones, drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included....

 music.

Biography

Davis is best known for his opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 entitled X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X
X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X
X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X is an opera with music by Anthony Davis and libretto by Thulani Davis. Based on the life of the civil rights leader Malcolm X...

, which was premiered by the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...

 in 1986. He taught at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, and has played with Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton is an American composer, saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist, pianist, and philosopher. Braxton has released well over 100 albums since the 1960s...

 and Leo Smith
Wadada Leo Smith
Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith is a trumpeter and composer working primarily in the fields of avant-garde jazz and free improvisation.-Biography:...

. In 1981, he formed an octet
Octet
-Music:* Octet , ensemble consisting of eight instruments or voices, or composition written for such an ensemble* Octet , 1793 composition by Ludwig van Beethoven* Octet , 1825 composition by Felix Mendelssohn...

 called Episteme. He also wrote the incidental music
Incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....

 for the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 version of Tony Kushner
Tony Kushner
Anthony Robert "Tony" Kushner is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, and co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film, Munich.-Life and career:Kushner was born...

's Angels in America
Angels in America
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is the 1993 Pulitzer Prize winning play in two parts by American playwright Tony Kushner. It has been made into both a television miniseries and an opera by Peter Eötvös.-Characters:...

. He incorporates several styles including jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, rhythm 'n' blues, gospel, non-Western, African, European classical, Indonesian, and experimental music
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...

.

Davis is with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians
Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians
The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians is a non-profit organization, founded in Chicago, Illinois, United States, by pianist/composer Muhal Richard Abrams, pianist Jodie Christian, drummer Steve McCall, and composer Phil Cohran....

, and has received acclaim as a free-jazz pianist, a co-leader or sideman
Sideman
A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he or she is not a regular member. They often tour with solo acts as well as bands and jazz ensembles. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different styles of music, and so able to fit...

 with various ensembles. Such ensembles include those that featured Smith as bandleader
Bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....

 from 1974 to 1977.

Davis is professor of music at the University of California San Diego. His opera, Wakonda's Dream
Wakonda's Dream
Wakonda's Dream is an English-language opera written by Anthony Davis with a libretto by Yusef Komunyakaa. It premiered March 7, 2007 at Omaha, Nebraska's Orpheum...

, is a tale of a contemporary Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 family and the history that affects them.

His latest opera, Lilith (libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by Allan Havis
Allan Havis
Allan Havis is a playwright with pronounced political themes and probes on colliding cultures. His works range from minimal language texts to ambiguous, ironic narratives that delineate the genesis, paradoxes, and seduction of evil. Several of his dramas involve Jewish identity, cultural...

) will have its world premiere at the Conrad Prebys Music Center in UCSD on December 4, 2009. The story is about Adam
Adam
Adam is a figure in the Book of Genesis. According to the creation myth of Abrahamic religions, he is the first human. In the Genesis creation narratives, he was created by Yahweh-Elohim , and the first woman, Eve was formed from his rib...

's first wife and will be set in a modern era.

Albums

  • 1978 Past Lives (VPA)
  • 1978 Of Blues and Dreams (Sackville)
  • 1978 Song for the Old World (India Navigation
    India Navigation
    India Navigation was an American independent record label that was active from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Founded by corporate lawyer Bob Cummins, the label specialized in jazz music, particularly avant-garde jazz.-Discography:...

    )
  • 1979 Hidden Voices (India Navigation)
  • 1980 Under the Double Moon (Pausa Records
    Pausa Records
    Pausa Records was a jazz record label, active circa 1975-1986. The name was derived from the fact that it was the U.S.A. division of the Italian record company Produttori Associati In Italy Produttori Associati was also known for soundtrack albums of music from Italian films.Many of its releases...

    )
  • 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)
  • 1989 Trio, Vol. 2 (Gramavision)
  • 1990 Trio, Vol. 1 (Rhino)
  • 1993 Lost Moon Sisters/In Dora Ohrenstein's "Urban Diva"

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
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

, with Davis as soloist in the piano concerto and dedicatee Shem Guibbory as soloist in the violin concerto. In each, the William McGlaughlin
Bill McGlaughlin
William "Bill" McGlaughlin is an American composer, conductor, music educator, and Peabody Award-winning classical music radio host...

 led the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra
Kansas City Symphony
The Kansas City Symphony is a United States symphony orchestra based in Kansas City, Missouri. The current music director is conductor Michael Stern. The current home of the Symphony is the Lyric Theatre, located in Downtown Kansas City on 11th Street between Wyandotte and Central Streets...

.)

Stage

  • X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X
    X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X
    X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X is an opera with music by Anthony Davis and libretto by Thulani Davis. Based on the life of the civil rights leader Malcolm X...

    (1986)
  • Under the Double Moon (1989)
  • Tania (1992)
  • Amistad (1997)
  • Wakonda's Dream
    Wakonda's Dream
    Wakonda's Dream is an English-language opera written by Anthony Davis with a libretto by Yusef Komunyakaa. It premiered March 7, 2007 at Omaha, Nebraska's Orpheum...

    (2007)
  • Lilith (2009)

As sideman

With Leroy Jenkins
  • The Legend of Ai Glatson
    The Legend of Ai Glatson
    The Legend of Ai Glatson is an album by American jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins recorded in 1978 for the Italian Black Saint label.-Reception:...

    (Black Saint, 1978)

With George Lewis
George Lewis (trombonist)
George E. Lewis is a trombone player, composer, and scholar in the fields of jazz and experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians since 1971, and is a pioneer of computer music.- Biography :Lewis graduated from Yale University with a...

  • Homage to Charles Parker
    Homage to Charles Parker
    Homage to Charles Parker is an album by American jazz trombonist/composer George Lewis recorded in 1979 for the Italian Black Saint label.-Reception:...

    (Black Saint, 1979)

External links

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