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Ronald Davis (2009)

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Ronald Davis may see the jazz world through a photographer's lens, but the shots he takes are informed by a musician's ear.

Like so many of his contemporaries in the Berkeley School system, Ronald was exposed to jazz at an early age (playing first the trombone and later the bass, before basketball claimed him). But unlike contemporaries such as Rodney Franklin and Peter Apfelbaum (members of the 6th-Grade band which was, at the time, the youngest band to be invited to perform at the Reno Jazz festival), he didn't make music his career. Rather, he studied Visual Design at UC Berkeley, and began work in the corporate world as an in-house photographer.

Ronald struck out on his own some years later, running first a commercial photography business and currently a small design firm in Emeryville, for which his clientele runs the gamut of the Silicon Valley's best-known names. In the interim, he attended Cal State Hayward part-time, studying saxophone, until that inevitable need to make a living caused him to put education on hold.

That's only Ronald's day job though. In the evenings you'll find him in the clubs, at the festivals and at other venues photographing the likes of Patrice Rushen, Lalah Hathaway and Ledisi. As Ronald himself puts it, he has the best seat in the house.
Pick Artist Album Song Label
# 1 Bob James and Kirk Whalum Joined at the Hip The Prayer (Warner Bros)
# 2 Joe Sample The Pecan Tree X Marks the Spot (Marie Laveau) (Verve)
# 3 Miles Davis Kind of Blue Freddie Freeloader (Columbia)
# 4 Gerald Albright Live at Birdland West Limehouse Blues (Atlantic)
# 5 Kenny Garrett Happy People Monk-ing Around (Warner Bros)
# 6 Phyllis Hyman The Legacy of Phyllis Hyman In a Sentimental Mood (Arista)
# 7 Rodney Franklin Love Dancin' She's True (Nova)
# 8 Michael Brecker Time Is of the Essence Arc of the Pendulum (Verve)
# 9 John Coltrane Coltrane's Sound Equinox (Atlantic)
# 10 Charlie Parker 20th Century Masters—The Millennium Collection: The Best of Charlie Parker K.C. Blues (Verve)
         
Book Paul DeVille, "Universal Method for Saxophone"
         
Luxury Item A saxophone
Alternate Picks/Not Broadcast
Alt 1 Will Downing Invitation Only When Sunny Gets Blue (Mercury)
Alt 2 Eric Marienthal Got You Covered Two-Part Invention #4 in D Minor (Peak)
Alt 3 Grover Washington jr Next Exit Take Five (Take Another Five) (Columbia)
Castaways by date
Gilad Atzmon
12 Jun
Carolyn Brandy
19 Jun
Stuart Brinin
16 Oct
Ralph Carney
04 Sep
India Cooke
20 Feb
Ronald Davis
23 Oct
Mark Feldman
27 Mar
Herb Gibson
06 Mar
Nancy Gilliland
29 May
Jon Hendricks
16 Jan
Laurence Hobgood
10 Jul
Bill Horvitz
13 Nov
Nat Johnson
01 May
Tom Madden
13 Mar
Charlie McCarthy
06 Nov
Don Neely
25 Sep
Nathan Oliveira
28 Aug
Ed Reed
24 Jul
Walter Savage
14 Aug
Mike Stern
12 Dec
Adam Theis
21 Aug
Mads Tolling
17 Apr
Hristo Vitchev
22 May
Paul van Wageningen
10 Apr
Nancy Wright
20 Nov
Jim Zimmerman
06 Feb