BIOGRAPHY

Belfast-based drummer Stephen (DAKIZ) Davis mainly plays jazz and improvised music. He is the drummer in Anthony Braxton group 'The New Standard’, and active in the UK and European improvised/creative music scenes. As well as Braxton he has worked with Mark Ribot, Evan Parker, Ralph Alessi, Kris Davis, Alexander Hawkins, John Taylor, Rufus Reid, Paul Dunmall, Django Bates, Van Morrison, Matthew Bourne and many others. He is a composer and has his own projects published on Babel Label London as well as Intakt records Switzerland. Steve is an assistant lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast.

For the best part of a decade, Davis has been one third of heavyweight UK free-jazz trio, Bourne Davis Kane, alongside pianist Matthew Bourne and double-bassist Dave Kane, releasing several highly regarded CDs including collaborations with veteran British saxophonist Paul Dunmall. He also leads the quartet, Human, featuring Alexander Hawkins, Alex Bonney and Dylan Bates, which released a debut album, Being Human, on Babel in 2013.

Grants and Scholarships

2013 (SIAP) General Individual Arts Award form Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
2013 PRS Biennial New Music Award.
Nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation award for composers 2013.

2010 Composition and performance commission from the Arts Council of N. Ireland and the Belfast Festival. Produced by ‘Moving on Music.’

2002 Arts Council Scholarship to study Jazz in Skidmore Institute New York