Quincy Davis - Q Vision (2020)

QUINCY DAVIS, born in Grand Rapids, MI, comes from a very musical family. He began taking piano and drum lessons at age 6 and often would play with his brother Xavier Davis (piano) in their basement. In his elementary and middle school bands, he also played trumpet and tuba. Both of his parents are musicians who exposed him to all different styles of music including instrumental jazz, vocal jazz, European classical, gospel, opera, R&B and jazz-fusion.

His formal musical studies began during his 11th grade year at Interlochen Arts Academy (IAA). There he studied classical percussion as well as trap-set drumming. IAA is where he received his first experience playing with a jazz band. IAA proved to be an important contribution to Davis’ future successes.

In 1995, Davis graduated from IAA and began college at Western Michigan University. There he studied with drum master, Billy Hart. Along with learning more about the drums, Mr. Hart instilled in Davis a deep knowledge of music, which has proven to be very important to his career. During these collegiate years, Davis played at various collegiate jazz festivals where notable musicians like Benny Green, Bunky Green, Jon Faddis, Rufus Reid, Roy Haynes, Carl Allen, Louis Hayes, and Wallace Roney heard and recognized Davis’ talents with written accolades and awards.

After graduating in 1999, Davis taught elementary and middle school instrumental music in the Grand Rapids area for one year before moving to New York City.

In the summer of 2000, Davis moved to New York City. He quickly became one of the sought after “young cats” on the New York jazz scene. In New York, Davis played with many great musicians such as Frank Wess, Ernestine Anderson, Cecil McLorin-Salvant, Russell Malone, Eric Reed, Paquito D'Rivera, Kurt Elling, Christian McBride, Buster Williams, Eric Alexander, Leslie Odom Jr., Seamus Blake, Vanessa, Rubin, Aaron Goldberg, Jon Faddis, Jimmy Heath, Gerald Clayton, The Clayton Brothers, Harold Mabern, Peter Bernstein, Jimmy Heath, David Hazeltine, Roy Hargrove, Randy Johnston, Bob Sheppard, Paula West, Houston Person, Curtis Fuller, New York Voices, The Mingus Orchestra, Ryan Kisor and Wessell Anderson. Davis continues to play with many of these great artists.

In 2010, Davis accepted a teaching position at the University of Manitoba (Canada) where he was the Assistant Professor of jazz drum set studies. Though performing has been a major part of his life, he has also always enjoyed teaching and sharing his musical experiences with young and talented students. The University of Manitoba proved to be the perfect fit for this highly respected performer and educator.

In 2013, Quincy released his debut recording as a leader Songs In the Key of Q, which in just its third week of being released, quickly rose to the top 5 albums on Jazz Week’s jazz chart. The following week Songs In the Key of Q rose to #1 where it stayed for 2 weeks.

After seven years teaching at the University of Manitoba, Davis began teaching at the highly regarded University of North Texas as the Assistant Professor of jazz drum set.

Quincy can be heard on over 50 albums playing with many notable jazz artists including Tom Harrell, Gretchen Parlato, Bobby Watson, Benny Golson, Ted Rosenthal, Marcus Printup, Dave Stryker, Walt Weiskopf, Stefon Harris, Benny Green, Aaron Diehl, Frank Wess, Bobby Watson, Xavier Davis, Danny Grissett, Vincent Gardner, Frank Wess, Darmon Meader, Sachal Vasandani and many more.

Davis stays very active as a performer keeping an active performance schedule and traveling internationally to perform. His passion for teaching is not only evident through his teaching at the University of North Texas, but also through his many videos on jazz drumming on his YouTube channel which has around 10k subscribers.

Quincy is a proud endorser of Zildjian cymbals, Yamaha drums and Vic Firth drumsticks. His signature model drumstick will be released in 2019.