Suzanne Davis

Position
Professor
Affiliated Departments
Telephone
617-747-8258

For media inquiries, please contact Media Relations

Career Highlights
  • Pianist for the Four Seasons Hotel, Boston (1985–2004) and the Taj Hotel, Boston
  • Performances in New York and Boston with the Suzanne Davis Quartet, featuring Phil Grenadier on trumpet
  • Performances in Paris, France and the Mortefontaine Jazz Festival
  • Recordings include Hymn to Freedom, The Suzanne Davis Quartet: First Set, and A High Tolerance for the Truth
  • Film scores include The Asian Task Force Video; Origami Alive, an award-winning animated short film by Joe Davis; and In Between, an independent film by Deborah Twiss
  • Performances with Joe Hunt, Ted Kotick, John Neves, Herb Pomeroy, Greg Hopkins, George Garzone, Phil Granadier, Grover Washington, Jr., and the Ron Levy Blues Band
  • Recordings with Radon Projects, a New York–based independent rock band
  • Teaching methods concentrate on the development of improvisation techniques, peripheral listening, sight-reading, and comping skills
  • Author of Jazz Piano Comping
  • Private lessons with Phyllis Moss, Charlie Banacos, and Hal Crook
Awards
  • Composition "Transition Waltz" featured in short animated film and received Print magazine’s 1999 Digital 6 Award
  • Received the Hubert Weldon Lamb Prize for Musical Composition from Wellesley College
Education
  • School Name
    Wellesley College
    State or Province
    Massachusetts
    Degree
    Bachelor of Arts (BA)
    Field of Study
    French
    Date Degree Received
In Their Own Words

"When I teach improvising techniques to advanced students, we do what is called 'peripheral listening.' It's the art of playing as though you're having a conversation. It involves dividing your attention and listening as hard to the other players in an ensemble as you listen to your own playing. Exercises involve taping your own playing, listening to what you sound like as you're playing in an ensemble, and critiquing."

"It's important to listen to a wide variety of artists and styles while building a repertoire of standards and learning to play well in an ensemble. The more kinds of music you listen to, the better, so I try to get my students to listen to some of my own musical heroes."

"I encourage students to find their own style, but not to be afraid of imitation as a learning tool. One way I learned was by listening to the artists I really like, transcribing, and playing the transcriptions. And that was very valuable. As a learning tool, it's okay to learn someone else's solo and play it."

"Just because my students are learning jazz harmony, jazz voicing, or jazz theory, it doesn't mean they have to play jazz. They can apply that knowledge to any style of music. If you can learn closed position and spread voicings with tensions in your jazz voicings, you can pretty much apply them to any style of music. And if you can master those voicings, you can pretty much do anything."