Nathan Davis

Nathan Davis balanced his professional life as a skilled tenor saxophonist with his role as a jazz educator. In 1955 he performed briefly alongside Jay McShann, studied at the University of Kansas, and completed military service in Berlin from 1960 to 1963 before settling in Paris. There he worked with Kenny Clarke from 1963 to 1969, joined Eric Dolphy in 1964, and performed with Art Taylor, while also joining European tours led by Art Blakey in 1965 and Ray Charles. Beginning in 1969 he taught jazz at the University of Pittsburgh and Moorhead State University. His principal musical projects centered on leading the Paris Reunion Band from 1985 to 1989 and forming the ensemble Roots in 1991. After forty-four years he stepped down from the University of Pittsburgh in June 2013. Davis died of congestive heart failure in Florida in April 2018 at the age of eighty-one.