Not to be confused with the great choreographer and teacher Chuck Davis, this recording artist has combined musical and production talents in a career that spans both jazz and pop music. If the bridge-building context of spanning comes to mind, along with it comes the disturbing image of musical guerillas who would have gladly dynamited any such structures. In the early '70s, when albums such as Black Byrd by Donald Byrd came out, such dissension was actually expressed peacefully, via tough assaults from jazz critics who felt these albums represented a horrid sellout for Byrd, and were even less impressed with the subsequent noodlings of Blue Note best-seller Bobbi Humphrey. For Byrd, Davis worked as an assistant engineer and mixing assistant; for Humphrey, he produced, engineered, and made musical contributions. In the '90s, the advent of styles such as acid jazz and trip-hop allowed the work of producers such as Davis and his former partner, Larry Mizell, a fresh listening context, most importantly removed from the notion of jazz itself being threatened by a state of crumbling from within. Davis continued to be involved in various aspects of pop production in the new millennium, often adding percussion as a signature aspect. Some of his later clients have included Brulé and Nicole. Various critical opinions have become set in stone. These include both the hard boppers and the free jazzers' unending hatred of Davis' '70s and '80s productions and the acid jazz tastemakers' creed that the man's career hit an artistic peak during the series of Humphrey recordings. ~ Eugene Chadbourne