Playing without a Net

By: Angelina Berube
Posted In: Entertainment

It is 8:30 p.m. in a brightly lit Cecilia Hall. Ten students position themselves in their seats as Peter Davis signals the start of rehearsal. The drums pound. Flutes and saxophones move the music number along. Davis stands in front of his group of students playing air guitar. The music stops. Davis instructs the flute section, telling them to play harder. Telling jokes and rocking out, Davis conducts his jazz ensemble as they practice for their Salve Regina University Jazz Summit performance that weekend.

A professional musician and true fan of music, Davis serves as the music department chair and plays bass for the MSD Quintet, a local jazz ensemble that plays both original and cover songs. He is also a music theory teacher and the band director. Besides music, Davis is a father and loves to spend time with his 12-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter.

For the past 19 years, Davis has taught music at Salve Regina University. He has

also directed numerous band concerts and performed his own shows throughout the years, including shows at the Orpheum Theater in Boston and the Ritz in New York City. He performed with female artists such as Cyndi Lauper and Tina Turner and backed popular 1980s bands such as the Scottish band Big Country and the German band Trio.

Davis uses his performing skills when he teaches and when he directs jazz ensembles. Davis puts together repertoire for the ensemble, learns the material, and then teaches it to the students.

Davis’ schedule leaves him little free time. He teaches classes in the morning, gives private lessons and attends meetings in the afternoon, and conducts rehearsals at night. He sometimes starts his day at nine in the morning and ends around 11 at night. “If you want to be a musician, you have to understand that your schedule won’t be like everyone else’s,” Davis said. “When you do get on stage to play or conduct or even just supervise, you have to be there 100 percent with your head, your body, and your time.”

Davis plays an array of instruments, including the guitar, bass, and saxophone, but his main interest is the bassoon. Davis minored in saxophone in college, but does not play as much as he used to. He knows most of the woodwind instruments and says he has enough piano skills to teach music theory.

Besides those instruments, Davis always wished he played the drums. “I always wanted to be a drummer,” Davis said. “I never had the coordination.”

Michael Johnson, a longtime friend for 35 years and fellow MSD Quintet band

mate, considers Davis as one of the best musicians he’s ever played with.

“He has the ability to read anything,” Johnson said. “He is a conductor. He’s well educated. He has the whole presence. It’s always an assuring feeling having him on stage.”

Davis’ childhood shaped his love for music. Born in Providence, R.I., Davis grew up in Little Compton and later moved with his family to Portsmouth. Davis has five sisters, four older and one younger. His younger sister, Ellen Davis, said the two grew close as children.

“We were the two youngest so we played together a lot,” Ellen Davis said. “We hung around together, until he moved out.”

Ellen Davis explained their family’s living situations. “There was always some kind of music in the house,” Davis said. “There was everything from classical, swing, jazz, and of course rock and roll. That is rock and roll when our parents weren’t around.”

All five of his sisters played an instrument as did his parents. Ellen Davis played the saxophone. His mother encouraged him to pursue music. She told him to start the clarinet and see where playing led him.

Davis started with the clarinet and took lessons during school in the third grade. He learned the clarinet within a week and wanted to learn more instruments, Davis said.

In third grade, Davis described himself as a shy kid in class with a crush on his clarinet teacher, but eager to learn music. “When I went to the lesson I just thought that was the best thing,” Davis said. “I got to get out of class and go to a clarinet lesson everyday.”

Davis describes this moment as the time he knew he wanted to be a professional musician. The clarinet came easy. Davis wanted more. He arranged music for his friends and they would play them together. Instruments intrigued Davis and he enjoyed learning how they worked.

In seventh grade, Davis’ band played the National Anthem for the opening of the Newport Jazz Festival. He stayed backstage all night and met Duke Ellington, a legend in jazz.

Davis also toured with the Christian band, the Good News Kids.

Johnson describes time spent with Davis on tour.

“We bonded musically,” Johnson said. “Those times are making these times happen.”

At 15, Davis made the McDonald’s All-American high school band.

Davis describes the All-American high school band as one of the most memorable musical experiences in his life. Davis marched in the Macy’s Day Parade, recorded in RCA studios in Los Angeles, and filmed a TV show at the NBC studios in Burbank, Cali.

Davis listened to Ray Charles, Chicago, Santana, and the Woodstock album in his teen years. He listened to his sisters’ Sly and the Family Stone records.

He also listened to The Beatles, who to this day, is his favorite band.

“I remember myself buying the Abbey Road album when it first came out, the first day it came out and listening to the second side and just turning it up as high as it could go,” Davis said. “I listened to it while lying on my living room floor, speakers on

either side of my head, thinking it couldn’t get better than this.”

In his twenties, Davis juggled college and concerts. Davis attended the University of Rhode Island where he received his masters in music with a concentration in performance. Ellen Davis admired her brother’s bands. “I followed him around in all his rock bands,” Ellen Davis said. “I was kind of a groupie.”

After college, Davis moved in with a group of musicians in Westport, Mass. He began to give private music lessons to supplement his income and attracted local kids. In 1986, the Westport superintendent contacted Davis and asked him to be the high school’s band director. Davis was trained in conducting and did not have a teaching degree. Regardless, the superintendent found a way to hire him.

A few years later, Davis left his band director position to teach at Salve Regina.

The Newport setting opened doors for Davis. He appeared in movies such as “True Lies”, “The Buccaneers”, and “Meet Joe Black”. Davis received a call from the producer for “Meet Joe Black,” a 1998 remake of the 1934 film “Death Take a Holiday,” explaining the criteria they were looking for and asked him to do a screen test in Warwick, R.I. About to undergo knee surgery, Davis called his doctor to postpone the procedure. He drove to Warwick for a screen test and walked as though his knee was fine. Impressed, the producer hired him to play Sydney Brown, an on-screen orchestra director.

Filming lasted long hours for six weeks. Certain scenes where Davis’ character, Sydney Brown, interacted with Anthony Hopkins, best known for his gruesome role as

Hannibal Lector in “The Silence of the Lambs,” took a long time. “There was this one scene where I handed him a microphone because he was about to make a speech,” Davis said. “Just handing him that microphone took two and a half nights.”

“When it was finally over I remember Anthony Hopkins coming up to me and shaking my hand saying, ‘Good job, Peter,'” Davis said.

Recently, Davis and the MSD Quintet released their CD entitled, “Driven” which was recorded in a week’s time. The CD went through its mastering phase for a couple months. Then it shipped off to Los Angeles.

Songs off “Driven” appear in the Top 10 spots on a site called, ourstage.com, which offers different rewards for the top artists in each category. One category is for a spot at the annual Newport Jazz Festival. The MSD Quintet hopes to win that category.

Davis receives updates from Johnson, who writes most of songs. “The hope of playing there this summer is a goal of the Quintet,” Johnson said. “It’s here in Newport, and is the biggest festival. It’s right here but so far away. It will happen in time.”

Davis’ spring and summer schedules are full of planning and performing.

Over the next few weeks, Davis will put together a band for this year’s commencement ceremony at Salve Regina University along with planning spring band concerts.

Davis is also working on the two main summer concerts he is involved with. One concert celebrates Father’s Day and the other the fourth of July on Washington Square with the sounds of the Newport Community Band.

In the summer, Davis also plans to spend time with his children. He will be taking his son to a baseball game at Wrigley field in Chicago and traveling to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio with his daughter.

Davis hopes to learn more this summer. “I plan on playing a lot of music and learning as much as I can,” Davis said. “I like to link playing and learning because that makes your playing better.”

Davis sees music in his future for years to come. “I see myself, concentrating a lot on music, and teaching students hungry for music,” Davis said. “So I would just like to build on what I have now. I always want to build on what I have.”

He continues to build on his music and is playing music that three years ago he never dreamed of pursuing.

“My friend Michael, who’s the keyboard player, pushed me and now I’m finding stuff that was almost impossible for me to play three years ago, I can play now,” Davis said. “I used to tell people that performing that music on a night was like performing without a net in a circus and I was always afraid I was going to fall off and hit the floor. Sometimes I did, but as time goes on I see I’m more and more capable. I want to keep building on that.”

Johnson agrees. “The music is challenging both of us,” Johnson said, speaking of the MSD Quintet. “He has pulled it off and has been well-received.”

Johnson knows Davis is the person he is destined to play music with. Johnson traveled the world playing music. While living in San Francisco, he received lasting

advice from Russell Ferrante of the Yellow Jackets. “He said, ‘Don’t worry about getting a band together,'” Johnson said. “‘Find one person you want to play together with.’ And that’s Peter Davis.”

Davis’ jazz rehearsal carries on. Davis calls out “one, two, three.” Davis signals. The music stops. “It’s jazz, play without a net!” Davis yells to a student, encouraging him to take risks. The student listens. Davis calls out, “one, two, three.” The ten students continue. After a few tries, the jazz ensemble performs the piece perfectly.

Davis strives for the best in his student ensemble and his own music. “There’s no feel in the world when a plan comes together when you’re on a stage,” Davis said. “And there’s a group of people feeling a synergy.”