# Kris Davis

Kris Davis (born 1980) is a Canadian jazz pianist and composer.

## Early life

Davis was born in Vancouver in 1980 and grew up in Calgary, Alberta. She studied classical piano from the age of six and discovered jazz while a high school student. She transcribed performances by pianists Herbie Hancock and Keith Jarrett. She later reported that, "By the eighth grade I knew I wanted to be a jazz musician." She later majored in jazz piano at the University of Toronto.

## Later life and career

Davis moved to New York in 2001. After her first album, Lifespan, was recorded in 2003, Davis says she "decided not to play chords anymore, just to play lines."
In 2009, Davis played solo concerts during a tour of Portugal. She followed this with a solo piano album, Aeriol Piano, which included sections for prepared piano. Her 2014 trio album Waiting for You to Grow was the follow-up to Good Citizen around five years earlier. On the change in style over the two releases, Davis said, "I had this concept to make [Good Citizen] almost like a pop record, where the tunes are really short [while] on the new record the tunes are much longer and explore multiple areas. I just wanted to write and not have any preconceived ideas".
In 2013, Davis composed a suite for four bass clarinets, guitar, piano, organ and drums. In 2014, Davis had a six-day residency at The Stone in New York City and played in the UK for the first time.
Davis completed her master's degree in composition at the City College of New York in 2014.
In 2015, Davis received a Doris Duke Impact Award. The following year, she performed John Zorn’s Bagatelles in both Quebec and New York City in a quartet with Mary Halvorson, Drew Gress, and Tyshawn Sorey. Her album Duopoly was included in 2016 best-of lists in publications including The New York Times, NPR Music, and PopMatters. Davis also founded the label Pyroclastic Records in 2016, and three years later she formed a nonprofit organization to support the label.
In 2019, Davis began work as instructor and assistant director at Berklee College of Music's Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. Later that year, her record Diatom Ribbons was named jazz album of the year by The New York Times and the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll.
The DownBeat Critics Poll named Davis 2017 Rising Star Pianist, 2018 Rising Star Artist, and 2020 winner of the piano category. In 2020, she was named Composer of the Year and Pianist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. Davis' co-led album New Standards Vol. 1 won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.

## Personal life

Davis was formerly married to the drummer Jeff Davis. She married guitarist Nate Radley in 2012.

## Awards and honors

* 2016: DownBeat magazine: 25 for the Future
* 2021: Doris Duke Performing Artist Award

## Discography

An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.

### As leader/co-leader

| Year recorded | Title | Label | Personnel/Notes |
| 2003 | Lifespan | Fresh Sound | Sextet, with Tony Malaby (tenor sax, soprano sax), Russ Johnson (flugelhorn, trumpet), Jason Rigby (tenor sax, soprano sax, clarinet, bass clarinet), Eivind Opsvik (bass), Jeff Davis (drums) |
| 2005 | The Slightest Shift | Fresh Sound | Quartet, with Tony Malaby (tenor sax), Eivind Opsvik (bass), Jeff Davis (drums) |
| 2005 | Fiction Avalanche | Clean Feed | As part of the RIDD Quartet; with Jon Irabagon (sax), Reuben Radding (bass), Jeff Davis (drums) |
| 2007 | Rye Eclipse | Fresh Sound | Quartet, with Tony Malaby (tenor sax), Eivind Opsvik (bass), Jeff Davis (drums) |
| 2008 | Three | Clean Feed | As part of the band SKM; trio, with Stephen Gauci (sax), Michael Bisio (bass) |
| 2009 | Paradoxical Frog | Clean Feed | As part of the band Paradoxical Frog; trio, with Ingrid Laubrock (tenor sax), Tyshawn Sorey (drums) |
| 2009 | Good Citizen | Fresh Sound | Trio, with John Hebert (bass), Tom Rainey (drums) |
| 2009 | Aeriol Piano | Clean Feed | Solo piano |
| 2011 | Union | Clean Feed | As part of the band Paradoxical Frog; trio, with Ingrid Laubrock (tenor sax), Tyshawn Sorey (drums) |
| 2012 | Capricorn Climber | Clean Feed | Quintet, with Mat Maneri (viola), Ingrid Laubrock (sax), Trevor Dunn (bass), Tom Rainey (drums) |
| 2012 | Vermilion Tree | For Tune | As part of the band 3d; trio, with Tomasz Dąbrowski (trumpet, balkan horn), Andrew Drury (drums) |
| 2012 | Massive Threads | Thirsty Ear | Solo piano |
| 2013* | Lark | Skirl | As part of the band Lark; quartet, with Ingrid Laubrock (tenor sax), Ralph Alessi (trumpet), Tom Rainey (drums) |
| 2013 | Waiting for You to Grow | Clean Feed | Trio, with John Hebert (bass), Tom Rainey (drums) |
| 2014 | Save Your Breath | Clean Feed | With Joachim Badenhorst, Andrew Bishop, Ben Goldberg, Oscar Noriega (bass clarinet), Gary Versace (organ), Nate Radley (guitar), Jim Black (drums) |
| 2016* | Duopoly | Pyroclastic | Duos, with Don Byron (clarinet), Tim Berne (alto sax), Marcus Gilmore (drums), Billy Drummond (drums), Angelica Sanchez (piano), Craig Taborn (piano), Julian Lage (guitar), Bill Frisell (guitar) |
| 2016 | Octopus | Pyroclastic | Duo, with Craig Taborn (piano) |
| 2017* | Asteroidea | Intakt | As part of the Borderlands Trio; with Stephan Crump (bass), Eric McPherson (drums) |
| 2018 | New American Songbooks Volume 2 | Sound American | Vinyl only; 6 solo piano tracks: 1xKris Davis, 2xMatt Mitchell, 1xAruán Ortiz, 2xMatthew Shipp |
| 2019* | Diatom Ribbons | Pyroclastic | With Esperanza Spalding (voice), J.D. Allen (tenor saxophone), Tony Malaby (tenor saxophone), Ches Smith (vibraphone), Nels Cline (guitar), Marc Ribot (guitar), Trevor Dunn (electric bass), Val Jeanty (turntable), Terri Lyne Carrington (drums) |
| 2019* | Zoning | Astral Spirits/Monofonus Press | Trio, with Nick Fraser (drums), Tony Malaby (saxophone) |
| 2020* | Bloodmoon | Intakt | Duo, with Ingrid Laubrock (saxophones) |
| 2020* | Inland Empire | Clean Feed | with Øyvind Skarbø (drums), Fredrik Ljungkvist (saxophones), Ole Morten Vågan (double bass) |
| 2022* | New Standards Vol. 1 | Candid | Co-led with Nicholas Payton (trumpet), Matthew Stevens (guitar), Linda May Han Oh (bass), Terri Lyne Carrington (drums); various guests |
| 2022 | Diatom Ribbons Live at The Village Vanguard | Pyroclastic | Quintet, with Julian Lage (guitar), Val Jeanty (turntables, electronics), Trevor Dunn (bass), Terri Lyne Carrington (drums); in concert |
| 2024 | Run the Gauntlet | Pyroclastic | Trio, with Robert Hurst (bass), Johnathan Blake (drums) |

### As sidewoman

| Year recorded | Leader | Title | Label |
| 2006 | Rocket Engine | What Is This That Stands Before Me? | Loyal |
| 2008* | Jon Irabagon | Outright! | Innova |
| 2010* | Jeff Davis | We Sleep Outside | Loyal |
| 2010* | Ingrid Laubrock | Anti-House | Intakt |
| 2011* | Kermit Driscoll | Reveille | 19/8 |
| 2011* | Tony Malaby | Novela | Clean Feed |
| 2011* | Andrea Wolper | Parallel Lives | Jazzed Media |
| 2013* | Ingrid Laubrock | Strong Place | Intakt |
| 2013* | Eric Revis | City of Asylum | Clean Feed |
| 2016* | Eric Revis | Crowded Solitudes | Clean Feed |
| 2014* | Michael Musillami | Pride | Playscape |
| 2014* | Matt Bauder | Nightshades | Clean Feed |
| 2014* | Tom Rainey | Obbligato | Intakt |
| 2015* | Ingrid Laubrock | Roulette of the Cradle | Intakt |
| 2015* | Nick Fraser | Too Many Continents | Clean Feed |
| 2015* | Devin Gray | Relative Resonance | Skirl |
| 2017 | Tom Rainey | Float Upstream | Intakt |
| 2018* | Ingrid Laubrock | Contemporary Chaos Practices | Intakt |
| 2018 | Winged Serpents | Six Encomiums for Cecil Taylor | Tzadik |
| 2019 | Ken Vandermark | Momentum 4 (Consequent Duos: 2015>2019) | Audiographic (Box Set) |