Caroline Davis (saxophone, electronics)

Caroline Davis’ solo performances are chosen spontaneously, given the atmosphere of the room and the people present. She explores sonic textures offered by interactive technologies, sharing sounds from the saxophone that she considers to be distinctive and quirky. She makes use of Pure Data patches developed by the open source community surrounding the Organelle (the technobear, shreeswifty, critterandguitari, tony j morton, nobuyasu sakonda, soxsa, varicela, nicky-system, samesimilar, and chrisk). Most of the titles and songs from her solo performances are in reverence to bell hooks and include: Love as a practice of freedom, Radical openness, Pain severing bonds, Maintenance of commitment, Using community as a means of escape, Accept when, Belief in one's capacity to transform, Deep longing to avoid conflict, What it means to listen, Eliminating elimination.

Caroline Davis’s dreams for playing music come from a desire to connect and a wish for listeners to expand their ears, minds, and hearts. Her Swedish-British family moved from Singapore to the US around age 6, where she enjoyed R&B, full of horns that lured her to choose the saxophone. Caroline’s musical expression covers a wide range of styles. She has released eight of her own albums and is a collaborater on countless others. She has worked with Lee Konitz, John Zorn, Angelica Sanchez, The Femme Jam, Miles Okazaki, Nicole Mitchell, Rajna Swaminathan, and Matt Mitchell. Caroline has been a resident fellow of MacDowell, The Jazz Gallery, The Rockefeller Estate, Mutual Mentorship for Musicians, UCross, and Civitella Ranieri. She is a recipient of Guggenheim Foundation, Jerome Hill, Chamber Music America, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The Jazz Gallery, and NYFA fellowships, and the winner of Downbeat Critic’s Poll Alto-Saxophone Rising Star Award. Her teaching practice centers around gender studies in jazz at The New School and a private saxophone studio at Manhattan School of Music. Caroline is an active advocate for gender equity (This Is A Movement) and current/formerly incarcerated people (Justice for Keith LaMar, Keys Beats Bars, Creatives Beyond Incarceration).