14. Watch out for Davis

In the last Second of Jazz post I wrote about our project for the International Jazz Day. As I mentioned in the post, we have two wonderful piano trios playing at the Building Bridges event, one in Oslo and the other one in New York. A while back, I also wrote about the Norwegian trio, Espen Berg Trio,that will take the stage at the Oslo Concert Hall on this event. This Second of Jazz post is dedicated to pianist and composer, Davis Whitfield, who will lead his trio through a program of original music on stage at Smalls Jazz Club.

While attending high school, Whitfield was accepted by the Jersey City University Visual and Performing Arts Program, and served as the principal pianist in its jazz ensemble for four years. In 2008, Whitfield became the assistant director for the Jazz Standard Youth Orchestra, writing arrangements and performing weekly at the Jazz Standard in New York City.

Davis received full scholarships to attend the Berklee Summer Jazz Workshop in 2009 and 2010. He also received a scholarship from the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts in 2011. As a member of the Inna Dudukina Quartet, Whitfield performed in the 2013 Nancy Jazz Pulsations Festival in Nancy, France. In the Summer of 2014 he received his Bachelor's Degree in Piano Performance from Berklee College Of Music on a Presidential Scholarship.

Davis plays on the newly released record, Grace, which is a magnificent album with original music composed by Mark Whitfield. I think Grace will be a beautiful addition to your record collection.

During my trip to New York in January, I had the pleasure of hearing Davis perform live at Smalls, and I’m very excited to hear him play again in April. If you’re in Oslo or New York City on International Jazz Day, April 30th, please come out and join the live audiences at Smalls and Oslo Concert Hall in our celebration of music and jazz. Both concerts will be streamed on the Facebook page: Second of Jazz.