Update Personnel: Steve Davis, trombone, Roy Hargrove, trumpet, Peter Bernstein, guitar, Anthony Wonsey, piano, Nat Reeves, bass, Joe Farnsworth, drums.  Tracks: Marie Antoinette, Fenja, Bird Lives, Grove's Groove, The Maze, Daydream, Wildflower, Moment to Moment, Leanin' and Preenin'

In May 2006, Trombonist Steve Davis released his 9th CD as a leader. Update, on the Criss Cross label, features the stellar line-up of Peter Bernstein, Anthony Wonsey, Nat Reeves, Joe Farnsworth and special guest Roy Hargrove.

If you do not know Steve Davis, he’s been an in-demand trombonist as a sideman. He has been featured on over seventy recordings and has worked in recent years with a broad range of jazz icons, among those being, Horace Silver, Cecil Payne, Larry Willis, Freddie Hubbard (w/ New Jazz Composers Octet), The Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Star Big Band/Sextet, Slide Hampton`s World of Trombones, Wynton Marsalis (w/ Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra) and Steve Turre's One 4 J.

His recorded work as a leader and sideman represents some of the best playing in the post-bop arena in many years. Each and every one of his recordings as a leader, represents some of the best jazz talent New York City has to offer. Update is no exception, with the inclusion of trumpeter Roy Hargrove and guitarist Peter Bernstein, this group represents some of the finest in the jazz recording industry in 2006!

If you’re a listener who loves tradition, especially from an era where Jazz icons like Hank Mobley, Curtis Fuller and Lee Morgan ruled, this is a can’t miss buy for you. Davis embraces this tradition from the style of repertoire to the flawless execution of each and every improvisation. Furthermore, the band embraces the goals of this disc musically. So many recordings lack a consistent focus and a stylistic goal. From Roy Hargrove’s burning solo on Bird Live’s, to Bernstein’s interpretation of Strayhorn’s Daydream, this album has focus, center and plenty of great taste!

I’m a big fan of Davis. A lot of what he has achieved in his musical growth is noteworthy and valued, especially in keeping up a mainstream tradition in today’s Jazz circles.  He not only plays with an artistic precision but values jazz in higher education (Faculty at the Hartt School of Music), educational outreach and is an important figure to keeping an idiomatic discipline alive and active.

Congrads Steve on another great contribution to the Jazz canon.

For more information about Steve Davis and his music, please visit: SteveDavis.com