There were too many saxophones. This was the response that Nathan Davis received after he… There were too many saxophones. This was the response that Nathan Davis received after he tried to participate in the school marching band.

Many people would have given up at this point, but Davis had too much invested in music. He had really gotten serious about playing, performing in clubs and touring. So instead he asked, “What do you need?” When the answer was trombones, he searched through his friend’s basement to find a dented, ratty old trombone filled with mildew.

His mother, who was a nurse and afraid of germs, helped him to soak it in the bathtub full of bleach and alcohol. Davis then carefully taped the instrument’s many holes. When he returned to the marching band, he took his place – last chair in the trombone section, while keeping up his saxophone in the jazz band.

Years later, after playing his saxophone for multiple records with an extensive list of jazz greats, Davis still has the same determination. It may be this trait that has helped him to build a successful music program at Pitt.

This program includes the history of jazz course, one of the largest and most popular courses on campus, as well as an improvisation course, a jazz arranger course and the graduate program in ethnomusicology, where students can earn their doctorate in jazz or blues.

Davis’s attitude toward teaching has also helped his academic successes. He tries above all to keep it close to real life, joking that his course is a sort of “back of the bus” history, from the viewpoint of the musician.

“I can talk about a lot of things that I actually was there to witness, and not what I read,” he said. “The performance and the scholarly things, the theory and the history, would have to go hand in hand with actual performance.

Another element of his course is that he tries to tell the truth about the history of jazz as he experienced it, instead of a glossed over textbook-like history. In this way, he is following the advice of his personal friend and mentor, Kenny Clarke, the famous jazz drummer.

“When I talked to Kenny Clarke, he said, ‘Nat, if you take the job, you’ve got to tell the truth. That’s the best thing you can do because it will help jazz.'”

Clarke was also a major force in persuading Davis to leave Paris and take the teaching job at Pitt, even when other musicians were pressing him to stay in Europe. Pointing to the need for more black role models in the Pitt teaching staff, Clarke believed Davis now had a great opportunity to help.

Other famous musicians, such as Dizzy Gillespie and Donald Byrd, added that the field for jazz teaching was opening up, so people with degrees could really help to push jazz.

Now Davis also helps to push jazz in his classes, but he takes a much more laid-back approach.

“I see myself as a guide because I’ve had more experience, but there are many things in many areas that I can learn from students,” he said.

For Davis, this is hardly just a cliche or saying. Aside from the varieties of woodwind instruments, as well as the trombone and the fluegelhorn, Davis is learning to play the guitar from one of his students. For Davis, it’s just another part of keeping some perspective and staying busy.

“The whole thing is being real. I have this expression: You’re born, you live, you die and the rest of the time you try to get through the best you can,” he said.