Meet Keith Davis | Jazz pianist, composer and educator

I don’t think there was any other choice. I grew up in a family that was deeply involved in church music. I grew with that my whole young life, singing in church choirs, etc. My dad was in the Air Force, but also served as music director at churches wherever we moved in the service. My mom was either playing the piano or singing in the choir.

Here’s a link to my introduction on my podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-1-introduction-to-notes-on-jazz/id1650660956?i=1000583464710

I could go on about it. I started piano lessons at eight years old. I never had great training, but my mom always found me teachers wherever we went.
I finally discovered jazz and got serious about it when I was about 16. I was lucky enough to find a good teacher in Atlanta, Ted Howe. I’ve actually re-connected with Ted recently, and I’m studying with him again. He has a unique approach to jazz harmony which I have found fits with my current direction.

Here’s an interview with Ted from my podcast and Substack:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-48-ted-howe-interview-my-first-jazz-teacher/id1650660956?i=1000650272512

https://open.substack.com/pub/keithdavis/p/interview-with-ted-howe?r=18u2d&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Again, I can go on more…

I love to play the piano, whether it’s solo or with groups. I like accompanying singers, and other instrumentalists. Playing with other good musicians is always fun and energizing. Playing for attentive audiences, too. Even one person listening adds so much energy to a performance. It’s an exchange between performers and listeners, give and take. It’s give and take between fellow musicians, too. The more attention everyone gives to the situation, the more energy is generated. And I don’t mean volume or speed or other seemingly obvious things. It’s a quality of interaction and attention. It’s all about being present in the moment. The best players always “show up”!

It’s not always easy. The music business is notoriously unstable and unpredictable. It has only gotten worse over the years. The pay hasn’t increased along with increases in the cost of living, etc. There are less venues available. People don’t go out to listen to live, local music as much, I think for a variety of reasons that I won’t bother to go into here. We do it because we love it and we have to do it, but we also want and need to get paid.

These days, I’m working on creating an online presence. I have a website, I produce a podcast and a Substack, both about music (and a little about Internal Martial Arts, another interest). I’m trying to do more teaching online. I’m advertising my podcast in a national Jazz magazine. I produce videos for my Substack and make sure to reach out on social media outlets.

I’m learning to produce audio and video in my own studio at home for my outlets. I like to write music, and try to do it as much as I can. I hope that as I get my online stuff more streamlined, I can make more time to write. I also plan to start doing live-streaming as soon as I get my video stuff streamlined, in the next few days, actually.