September 2021 Featured Artist
Jazz & Blues Bassist Ruth Davies
Shares Her Journey and How Finding the Groove Hits Her Soul
Photo Credit: Bob Hakins
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Ruth Davies is a Bay Area native who has performed with jazz and blues greats Charles Brown, Elvin Bishop, Clark Terry, John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt, Jay McShann, Van Morrison, Maria Muldaur, Junior Mance, Linda Tillery, Barbara Dane, Barbara Morrison, Etta Jones, Elvis Costello, Eric Bibb, Keb' Mo', Sammy Hagar, Terry Gibbs, Jimmy Witherspoon and Little Jimmy Scott.
Her discography (including several Platinum and Grammy-winning recordings) covers various jazz and blues styles as well as movie soundtracks. She has recorded with Charles Brown, Bonnie Raitt, John Lee Hooker, Van Morrison, Sammy Hagar, Clark Terry, Vassar Clements, Toots Thielemans, Ernie Watts, Elvin Bishop, Maria Muldaur, Jackie Ryan, and Ramblin' Jack Elliott, among others. She toured the world for ten years with the late Charles Brown, performing at major jazz and blues festivals, clubs and concerts as well as radio and television broadcasts worldwide. Ruth continues to spend considerable time abroad. She has recorded and performed internationally with Maria Muldaur, Elvin Bishop, Barbara Dane, Denise Jannah and European pianist/composer Amina Figarova. Lately, she has "returned to the roots" and traveled for eight years with the Elvin Bishop band. Ruth believes in teaching and bringing music into the public schools. She has been on the faculty at the Stanford Jazz Workshop for 20 years and has had a very successful annual "Ruth Davies’ Blues Night” at the Stanford Jazz Festival for 18 years. She has also been involved in The San Francisco Symphony’s "Adventures in Music" program and the "Just Say Jazz" project which delivers music education to the classroom. For the last three years, Ruth has been with the SFJAZZ education department working with middle school students in the Oakland Unified School District in California. |
Myrna Beth Haskell, executive editor, spoke with Ruth about her musical journey, her ten-year tour with the late Charles Brown, her teaching experiences and why she loves playing bass.
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Who was an early mentor for you?
I would have to say my mom and my high school teacher. My mom was a classical pianist and a music teacher, but it was my high school music teacher who suggested I play bass. In high school, I was initially playing cello, but he [my music teacher] had me switch to bass because all of the bass players were graduating, and they needed someone for jazz band. I could already read the bass clef, and I knew how the string instruments worked. So, he sent me home for the summer with a bass method book and a Ray Brown record. Ha! I came back the next school year and was in the jazz band. Do you play piano? Just as a tool. I’m not super proficient, but I can use it. I have my mother’s grand piano in my living room. It’s a 1907 Steinway grand. So, I have a lot of rehearsals here. |
Tammy Hall & Ruth Davies perform "A Grand Night for Swinging"
(sans audience) at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Kruz, CA (July 20, 2020) |
Ruth in her Element
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What was it like to play at Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration?
It was just very inspiring. Maya Angelo was there to read her poem. Maya Angelou recited “On the Pulse of the Morning” at the 1993 Presidential Inaugural Celebration. We played free music out on the National Mall with Charles Brown. It was wild and wonderful to be there. What do you love about bass? I love the feel of it. It’s the heartbeat of just about every style of music there is. I call it the ‘Border Collie.’ You’re laying down the foundation, the groove, the chord changes, the form. If you’re doing your job right, everybody else can listen to you and know where they are at all times. |
It also hits my soul - especially when I played with Charles Brown. The groove was so strong and so heartfelt. I had fallen in love with the bass before playing with Charles, but he showed me a different way of presenting the groove. It's a ‘living in the moment’ part of the groove.
Tell me more about what it was like to tour with Charles Brown.
Charles Brown hit it really big in the 1940s with “Driftin’ Blues” and “Merry Christmas Baby.” I was incredibly lucky to travel with him for ten years and did lots of recordings with him. It opened so many doors for me, and I met so many people. I worked with Charles Brown and John Lee Hooker on the album Don’t Look Back which won two Grammys. This led to Ruth also working with Van Morrison.
Everybody loved him, and he would bring all of these artists out on the road with him. Charles was the first one to bring out Ruth Brown and Fats Domino. When we played in New Orleans, Fats Domino always came and sat on the stage with us…just sat there watching Charles with love and appreciation. Ruth starts to laugh. Then, he would whisk Charles away in his Rolls Royce with a Fats Domino on the side in gold. It was wild! The House of Blues in New Orleans wanted to get Fats to play since it had opened. I was playing there with Charles, so Fats decided ‘Oh, I’ll play here.’ [House of Blues] got Fats because of Charles. Bonnie Raitt also fell in love with Charles and took him out on the road with her right after she had won all those Grammys.
You’ve also played with Amina Figarova, a former featured artist in Sanctuary.
I met Amina through another musician I was working with. I fell in love with her music. Musically, she is phenomenal. Playing with Amina is such a kick. I played with her in Rotterdam with an all-women tango group, and that was so much fun! We became incredibly good friends. When she and Bart [Amina’s husband] were living in Rotterdam, I would visit them when I was in the area on a break. I spent so much time there. Ruth laughs. It’s funny. For some reason, every time I went, they had painted my room a different color.
You’ve collaborated with so many artists. Is there anyone you would really like to work with in the future?
I’d love to play with Taj Mahal. I was asked to play with him in New York, but at the time, I had a conflict and couldn’t do it. It was an incredible offer, but I had already committed to something else. I’d love it if another opportunity came up.
Tell me more about what it was like to tour with Charles Brown.
Charles Brown hit it really big in the 1940s with “Driftin’ Blues” and “Merry Christmas Baby.” I was incredibly lucky to travel with him for ten years and did lots of recordings with him. It opened so many doors for me, and I met so many people. I worked with Charles Brown and John Lee Hooker on the album Don’t Look Back which won two Grammys. This led to Ruth also working with Van Morrison.
Everybody loved him, and he would bring all of these artists out on the road with him. Charles was the first one to bring out Ruth Brown and Fats Domino. When we played in New Orleans, Fats Domino always came and sat on the stage with us…just sat there watching Charles with love and appreciation. Ruth starts to laugh. Then, he would whisk Charles away in his Rolls Royce with a Fats Domino on the side in gold. It was wild! The House of Blues in New Orleans wanted to get Fats to play since it had opened. I was playing there with Charles, so Fats decided ‘Oh, I’ll play here.’ [House of Blues] got Fats because of Charles. Bonnie Raitt also fell in love with Charles and took him out on the road with her right after she had won all those Grammys.
You’ve also played with Amina Figarova, a former featured artist in Sanctuary.
I met Amina through another musician I was working with. I fell in love with her music. Musically, she is phenomenal. Playing with Amina is such a kick. I played with her in Rotterdam with an all-women tango group, and that was so much fun! We became incredibly good friends. When she and Bart [Amina’s husband] were living in Rotterdam, I would visit them when I was in the area on a break. I spent so much time there. Ruth laughs. It’s funny. For some reason, every time I went, they had painted my room a different color.
You’ve collaborated with so many artists. Is there anyone you would really like to work with in the future?
I’d love to play with Taj Mahal. I was asked to play with him in New York, but at the time, I had a conflict and couldn’t do it. It was an incredible offer, but I had already committed to something else. I’d love it if another opportunity came up.
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When everything closed down due to the pandemic, what did you do?
We were able to figure out new ways to get to people when the venues closed. At first, people would send a kind of basic track, and you would play along with it with your phone and do a recording. Then, we started to do ‘live’ streams at different clubs with no audience. This was good because we could at least get together and play on stage. Even though there was no audience, it was incredibly helpful [to work with other musicians in person again]. I felt very lucky to have worked with SFJAZZ for a few years before the pandemic hit. (The SFJAZZ Center is an all-ages music venue in San Francisco, California and is considered the first free-standing building in America built for jazz performance and education.) I had been embedded in and working with middle school jazz bands – helping bass players and rhythm sections. When everything shut down, we also learned about Zoom. Ha! I think we all did! There is Zoom for musicians [High Fidelity Music Mode for Zoom] which helps with the sound settings and stuff. There was a huge learning curve with all of this – I got my Blue Yeti microphone and my interfaces. |
Ruth Playing in Sacramento, CA (2015)
Photo Credit: Phil Kampel Photography |
[All of this technology allowed us to] be able to work with the kids. They couldn’t play all at the same time, though, because we didn’t have the technology to get rid of the latency. But a lot of the schools were using Soundtrap (an app that provides a simple and quick way to record and develop music ideas collaboratively which is accessed through web access or a mobile app). This allowed the kids to record themselves over a track that the teachers would put down, for instance. It was incredible. They had to learn to be their own engineers right from the get-go.
What do you love about teaching?
Jazz is a mystery. So, I love it when I see the lightbulb go off – the moment I realize a student gets it.
As a teacher, you have to help them unravel the mystery and teach them to hear things better, to learn the intervals. How you choose to mix up the notes (words) and scales (sentences) becomes a conversation. You don’t have to play the scales in a certain order. It can be something new each time.
That was the beauty of playing with Charles – learning to present a piece as if it were the first time you played it. He was a master at that! That’s what living in the moment is. It’s the feeling you’re putting into it.
You’ve also been involved with the Stanford Jazz Workshop and the Stanford Jazz Festival.
The workshop is a jazz camp that goes for two weeks every summer. This is different from the Stanford Jazz Festival. I have the Blues Night,* and we get an incredible special guest each time. It was going to be my nineteenth year when the pandemic hit.
*Ruth Davies’ Blues Night is a regular feature at the Stanford Jazz Festival.
You’ve played in venues all around the world. Do you have a favorite?
One of my favorites is definitely Billboard Live Tokyo in Japan. It is one of the most unique and beautiful clubs. I played with Maria Muldaur and with Elvin Bishop there.
It’s a cool-looking place. When you walk in the front door [of Billboard Live Tokyo], you can go down to the main floor or you can look up and see all of these balconies with tables. When we’re playing, there’s this black curtain behind us. But when we’re not, the curtain is opened, and the entire skyline of Tokyo presents a spectacular view.
I also love the country, and I’ve spent a lot of time there. I love the food, the people… and the sumo wrestling! It is incredible.
Have you done anything new that you’d like to share?
I am traveling with Pamela Rose. It’s an incredible show, and it’s called Blues is a Woman. It’s all women, and we’re only doing female blues artists, like Nina Simone and Bessie Smith.
What do you love about teaching?
Jazz is a mystery. So, I love it when I see the lightbulb go off – the moment I realize a student gets it.
As a teacher, you have to help them unravel the mystery and teach them to hear things better, to learn the intervals. How you choose to mix up the notes (words) and scales (sentences) becomes a conversation. You don’t have to play the scales in a certain order. It can be something new each time.
That was the beauty of playing with Charles – learning to present a piece as if it were the first time you played it. He was a master at that! That’s what living in the moment is. It’s the feeling you’re putting into it.
You’ve also been involved with the Stanford Jazz Workshop and the Stanford Jazz Festival.
The workshop is a jazz camp that goes for two weeks every summer. This is different from the Stanford Jazz Festival. I have the Blues Night,* and we get an incredible special guest each time. It was going to be my nineteenth year when the pandemic hit.
*Ruth Davies’ Blues Night is a regular feature at the Stanford Jazz Festival.
You’ve played in venues all around the world. Do you have a favorite?
One of my favorites is definitely Billboard Live Tokyo in Japan. It is one of the most unique and beautiful clubs. I played with Maria Muldaur and with Elvin Bishop there.
It’s a cool-looking place. When you walk in the front door [of Billboard Live Tokyo], you can go down to the main floor or you can look up and see all of these balconies with tables. When we’re playing, there’s this black curtain behind us. But when we’re not, the curtain is opened, and the entire skyline of Tokyo presents a spectacular view.
I also love the country, and I’ve spent a lot of time there. I love the food, the people… and the sumo wrestling! It is incredible.
Have you done anything new that you’d like to share?
I am traveling with Pamela Rose. It’s an incredible show, and it’s called Blues is a Woman. It’s all women, and we’re only doing female blues artists, like Nina Simone and Bessie Smith.
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I played with Mia Pixley on her recently released, full-length CD (Margaret in the Wild). Mia is a cellist and singer-songwriter who is also a clinical psychologist. There are two wonderful videos: “Everything is Slow Motion” and “In the Daylight.”
Where do you find sanctuary? On stage! No matter what’s going on in the world, the minute I get on stage, that’s where the magic happens! There’s such a connection with the other musicians and the audience. It’s an experience that is in the moment. The reaction from the audience feeds you, and you, in turn, feed the audience. There’s a euphoria that happens when you play. |
“No matter what’s going on in the world, the minute I get on stage, that’s where the magic happens!” ~ Ruth Davies |
I also like to walk a lot – in places where I’m surrounded by nature.
