| Show All |
2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 |
| Ronald Davis (2009) | |
|---|---|
| Ronald Davis may see the jazz world through a photographer's lens, but the shots he takes are informed by a musician's ear.
Like so many of his contemporaries in the Berkeley School system, Ronald was exposed to jazz at an early age (playing first the trombone and later the bass, before basketball claimed him). But unlike contemporaries such as Rodney Franklin and Peter Apfelbaum (members of the 6th-Grade band which was, at the time, the youngest band to be invited to perform at the Reno Jazz festival), he didn't make music his career. Rather, he studied Visual Design at UC Berkeley, and began work in the corporate world as an in-house photographer. Ronald struck out on his own some years later, running first a commercial photography business and currently a small design firm in Emeryville, for which his clientele runs the gamut of the Silicon Valley's best-known names. In the interim, he attended Cal State Hayward part-time, studying saxophone, until that inevitable need to make a living caused him to put education on hold. That's only Ronald's day job though. In the evenings you'll find him in the clubs, at the festivals and at other venues photographing the likes of Patrice Rushen, Lalah Hathaway and Ledisi. As Ronald himself puts it, he has the best seat in the house. |
| Pick | Artist | Album | Song | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| # 1 | Bob James and Kirk Whalum | Joined at the Hip | The Prayer | (Warner Bros) |
| # 2 | Joe Sample | The Pecan Tree | X Marks the Spot (Marie Laveau) | (Verve) |
| # 3 | Miles Davis | Kind of Blue | Freddie Freeloader | (Columbia) |
| # 4 | Gerald Albright | Live at Birdland West | Limehouse Blues | (Atlantic) |
| # 5 | Kenny Garrett | Happy People | Monk-ing Around | (Warner Bros) |
| # 6 | Phyllis Hyman | The Legacy of Phyllis Hyman | In a Sentimental Mood | (Arista) |
| # 7 | Rodney Franklin | Love Dancin' | She's True | (Nova) |
| # 8 | Michael Brecker | Time Is of the Essence | Arc of the Pendulum | (Verve) |
| # 9 | John Coltrane | Coltrane's Sound | Equinox | (Atlantic) |
| # 10 | Charlie Parker | 20th Century Masters—The Millennium Collection: The Best of Charlie Parker | K.C. Blues | (Verve) |
| Book | Paul DeVille, "Universal Method for Saxophone" | |||
| Luxury Item | A saxophone | |||
| Alternate Picks/Not Broadcast | ||||
| Alt 1. | Will Downing | Invitation Only | When Sunny Gets Blue | (Mercury) |
| Alt 2. | Eric Marienthal | Got You Covered | Two-Part Invention #4 in D Minor | (Peak) |
| Alt 3. | Grover Washington jr | Next Exit | Take Five (Take Another Five) | (Columbia) |
| Gilad Atzmon
12 Jun Carolyn Brandy 19 Jun Stuart Brinin 16 Oct Ralph Carney 04 Sep India Cooke 20 Feb Ronald Davis 23 Oct Mark Feldman 27 Mar Herb Gibson 06 Mar Nancy Gilliland 29 May | Jon Hendricks
16 Jan Laurence Hobgood 10 Jul Bill Horvitz 13 Nov Nat Johnson 01 May Tom Madden 13 Mar Charlie McCarthy 06 Nov Don Neely 25 Sep Nathan Oliveira 28 Aug Ed Reed 24 Jul | Walter Savage
14 Aug Adam Theis 21 Aug Mads Tolling 17 Apr Hristo Vitchev 22 May Paul van Wageningen 10 Apr Nancy Wright 20 Nov Jim Zimmerman 06 Feb |