Kim Davis

As a young bass player attending the High School of Music & Art in New York City I was influenced by Stanley Clarke,Jaco Pastorius,Alphonso Johnson,Paul Chambers,Eddie Gomez,Ray Brown,Larry Graham,Louis Johnson and Verdine White,but my heroes were the professional bass players on the scene here in New York.Kats like Milt Hinton,Bob Cranshaw,Marcus Miller, Tom Barney and Al Mcdowell were my sources for information and inspiration:I will forever be grateful to these extraordinary bass players.

I got my first bass on August 24, 1976, I was thirteen years old, it was a natural wood Univox bass with humbucker pickups.I played clarinet and saxophone before I got my first bass but I had to stop playing because for some reason it made my lips breakout into a horrible rash.

I lived in Queens,New York for a couple of years and it was a Mecca for live bands and bass players in the 70's,everyone knows Marcus Miller but their were some other hot bass players jammin at that time too.The bass guitar was the king of the rhythm section so it wasn't a hard choice to start playing bass.

I tried to take lessons but my bass teacher Michael Powell was so busy chasing girls he never had time for me, so I mainly listened to the radio & records and tried to copy what the bass player was doing.

I listened to all the R&B and funk stuff that was out at the time like The Jackson Five, B.T. Express, Ohio Players, Brass Construction, Brothers Johnson, Slave, Graham Central Station and Stevie Wonder.

I used to see Marcus walking around the neighborhood or driving around in his gold Monte Carlo,but I didn't know him then. My Music teacher Mr. Guarino in Intermediate School (I.S 72 Queens) would always tell me about his clarinet player (Marcus) who became a professional bass player to encourage me to stick with the bass guitar since I couldn't play clarinet or saxophone anymore.Marcus wouldn't have a major impact on my playing until my high school days.

I started to get serious when I heard Stanley Clarke's School Days Album,after I regained my composure I realized that there was no limit to what could be done on the bass. After hearing Stanley Clarke I began to look around for other hot bass players and I found out about Jaco Pastorius, Alphonso Johnson, Jeff Berlin and Byron Miller.

I went to the famous High School of Music & Art in New York.

Well,my first day in school I sat down in my seat and it just so happened that pianist Bernard Wright was in the seat next to me,we talked for awhile and things clicked between us and we pretty much became a duo during his stay at Music & Art.During that time Bernard was into Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Chic Corea and Marcus Miller so that meant if I was going to hangout with him I better know all the jazz standards and then be able to go back to the funk.I could cover the funk but straight ahead jazz was new to me so it forced me to get into another style of playing and checkout acoustic bass players like Paul Chambers, Eddie Gomez, Ron Carter, Percy Heath and Ray Brown.

Another blessing was my jazz ensemble teacher Justin DiCioccio,he has to be the premier jazz educator in the United States. JD was never preoccupied with the notes of a tune.JD wanted the music to feel good,he would always say "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing". Mr. DiCioccio is a drummer so he knows what a quality rhythm section should sound like.Needless to say with the influence of those two (2 ) kats my bass playing improved quite a bit.

Yeah,after hearing about Marcus from my intermediate school teacher Mr. Guarino and Bernard Wright talking about him in high school everyday, I figured it was time for me to actually hear him play for myself.I went after school with Bernard to the Billie Holiday Theatre in Restoration Plaza,Brooklyn where they were in the pit band for a Weldon Irvine play (Young,Gifted & Broke) that was playing at the theatre.The band was Bobby Broom on guitar,Poogie Bell on drums,Bernard Wright on piano and Marcus Miller on bass and they played their asses off.That night I got a lesson in versatility 101 because Marcus would make the smooth transition from funk,to jazz, to funk,to samba,to funk, to improvisation without blinking an eye. After that night Marcus gave me his phone number and when he wasn't busy we got together a couple of times to play bass duets, subsequently he officially became my hero.

Oh yeah, Milt Hinton, Bob Cranshaw, Al MacDowell, Tom Barney, Wayne Brathwaite (rest in peace,my brother), TM Stevens and Victor Bailey were my heroes also because whenever I reached out to them for guidance they wouldn't hesitate to point me in the right direction.Bob Cranshaw is like my musical father,whenever I need advise he's the first one I call.

I started playing acoustic bass in High school because the bass guitar wasn't considered an orchestral instrument,so you had to choose acoustic bass as a major.It turned out to be very beneficial to my bass guitar playing and now me and my upright (1950 Juzek) are inseperable.

It was a neighborhood band out in Jamaica,Queens called The Masters of Sound,we used to play R&B tunes off the radio and perform whatever gigs we could come up with.You could say that's the first band I ever went out on the road with because we used to go to Holyoke,Mass and do some gigs up their alot.

Everyone has offered something different to my musical experience but I must say playing with McCoy Tyner was beyond my wildest expectations.He would start playing his solos and by the third chorus you wouldn't recognize the chords anymore.He would be so far away from the root of the chord, you thought you were playing the wrong changes: incredible.

People have told me that,whether its on the road or records I've played on.I think the similarities are there because my bass setup is similar to his.I take it as a compliment though,its like someone saying you play basketball like Michael Jordan.