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Richard Davis believed knowledge not shared was knowledge wasted.
That’s why the legendary bassist left New York at the height of his playing prowess – having performed with Eric Dolphy, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Igor Stravinsky and many more – to become a professor at UW-Madison in 1977. As a double bass performance teacher, he noticed incoming students being less technically skilled than their peers on other instruments, so he founded the Richard Davis Foundation for Young Bassists in 1993 to sharpen the essentials early.
String Theory: The Richard Davis Method captures the organization’s 2018 conference through its lessons, workshops, performances and interviews with volunteer instructors and Davis himself. Davis passed away in September 2023; with the film framed around this loss, director Michael Neelsen gives heartfelt recognition to an overlooked aspect of Davis’ legacy, one that might just be his most influential.
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Why do young bassists need a two-day conference? There’s a hint in the opening shots of the conference, which show kids lugging husks of wood twice as large as them. It’s endearing, but instructors point out that the size of the instrument prevents some from learning as early as, say, a violin. (Child-size basses are a thing, but they’re pricier.)
Violinists also tend to get more attention (and therefore instruction) as the main melodic instruments in the orchestra, while bassists get relegated to the background. This attitude bothered Davis, who described himself in the film as always having a chip on his shoulder. As a result, the conference tries to open young bassists minds to possibilities beyond accompaniment.
The performances throughout String Theory exemplify this point magnificently. The volunteer instructors are first-rate professional musicians, who play solo bass arrangements of “Fly Me to the Moon” and Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1. They sound and look like magical ephemera trapped in amber; the moody, intimate space contributes to this, and how each shot is framed and paced. The camera lingers on the meticulously trained fingers and the concentrated, blissful expression of each instructor eager to share their craft.
The film comes alive when it shows the instructors working with students. The patience, kindness and understanding from the teachers in these interactions underscore a sense of community. Instructor John Kennedy explains: bass is always supporting the orchestra – of course bass players support one another.
This film is not a biography of Richard Davis in a strict sense; only at the beginning does it offer any glance of his musical career or his extensive activism against racism. Instead, it’s a film about teaching the joy of music. How do you teach beyond technique and telling students what to do? How do you teach control, open-mindedness and passion?
Following our screening on Saturday, foundation artistic director Peter Dominguez pulled out Richard Davis’ bass – the same one used on Astral Weeks, Out to Lunch! and countless other recordings – and began to play. During a rendition of “Jive Samba,” a woman got out of her seat and danced in tandem to Dominguez. It was a sweet moment fitting for Davis’ ethos. Music is a universal force – and the bass is a perfect instrument to channel it.
SEE FOR YOURSELF: You can catch the Milwaukee Film Festival’s showings of String Theory: The Richard Davis Method at the Oriental Theatre on Saturday, April 20 at 6 p.m.
