Orbert C. Davis (born 1960) is an American jazz
trumpeter and
bandleader
A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly 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 ...
.
Biography
Davis was born in Chicago and raised in
Momence, Illinois. He began playing trumpet around the age of ten, but was not formally instructed until Charles Danish, an elementary school teacher, found him a trumpet teacher and drove him to lessons.
He graduated with a degree in trumpet performance from
DePaul University, then received a master's degree in jazz pedagogy from
Northwestern University. Davis is Associate Professor of music at the
University of Illinois at Chicago.
Davis has recorded studio albums and over 3000 radio and television commercials. He is active in music education and co-founded and directs MusicAlive! (associated with the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, which he also founded and directs). He is the host of the jazz radio show ''The Real Deal with Orbert Davis'' on
WDCB.
The Real Deal
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He performs regularly with his group, Orbert Davis with Strings Attached, and is a member of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble.Jon Faddis
Jon Faddis (born July 24, 1953) is an American jazz trumpet player, conductor, composer, and educator, renowned for both his playing and for his expertise in the field of music education. Upon his first appearance on the scene, he became known ...
in October 1999, Davis was a featured performer for the Jazz Institute of Chicago's "Tribute to Louis Armstrong: Legacy for the Millennium" where he performed compositions from Armstrong's Hot 5 and Hot 7 recordings. This performance was repeated in August 2001 at the Chicago Jazz Festival. He has performed with Dr. John, Kurt Elling, Ramsey Lewis, Thelonious Monk, Wynton Marsalis,Grover Washington Jr.
Grover Washington Jr. (December 12, 1943 – December 17, 1999) was an American jazz-funk and soul-jazz saxophonist. Along with Wes Montgomery and George Benson, he is considered by many to be one of the founders of the smooth jazz genre.
He wr ...
, Ernie Watts
Ernest James Watts (born October 23, 1945) is an American jazz and rhythm and blues saxophonist who plays soprano, alto, and tenor saxophone. He has worked with Charlie Haden's Quartet West and toured with the Rolling Stones. On Frank Zappa's ...
, Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...
, and the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra
The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra (SJMO) is the national jazz orchestra of the United States. It is based at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., where it is the orchestra-in-residence. The SJMO was founded in 199 ...
.
Davis and Mark Ingram own Orbark Productions. Their credits include projects for Atlantic, Capitol, CBS, Epic, MCA, and the Warner Bros. record labels. Other projects include arrangements and on-camera performances for films such as ''A League of Their Own'' and ''The Babe''.
Discography
* ''Unfinished Memories'' (1996)
* ''Priority'' (2001)
* ''Blue Notes'' (2004)
* ''Collective Creativity'' (2008)
* ''DuSable to Obama'' (2010)
* ''Home & Away'' (2012)
* ''Sketches of Spain'' (2012)
* ''Havana Blue'' (2016)
* ''Paradise Blue'' (2017)
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Orbert
1960 births
Living people
Jazz musicians from Illinois
People from Momence, Illinois
21st-century trumpeters
American jazz trumpeters
American male trumpeters
Bienen School of Music alumni
DePaul University alumni
University of Illinois Chicago faculty
21st-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians