Fresh Air host Terry Gross lost her husband, acclaimed writer Francis Davis, on April 14. They were together for 47 years. Today, she shares some of Francis with the audience, including the story of how they met and became a couple.Also, we listen back to our 2005 interview with George Clooney. He just received a Tony nomination for his role as Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck on Broadway.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. This is my first show back in about two and a half weeks. Today's show is all about why. My husband, my partner of 47 years, Francis Davis, died after a long illness on Monday, April 14th.
You may know about Francis from his writing about jazz and popular culture, or from the time he was a jazz critic on Fresh Air, when it was a local show, and in the early days when we went national. Often when I introduce a guest, I quote from reviews and profiles that sum up their contributions better than I think I could.
To sum up my husband's place as a writer, I'm going to quote from a couple of the obits. In the New York Times, Adam Nossiter wrote, "...his specialty was teasing meaning from the sounds he heard, situating them in America's history, culture, and society." That approach, and the fluency of his writing, made him one of the most influential writers on jazz in the 1980s and beyond.
The headline of the NPR obit by Nate Chenin described him as a giant of jazz criticism. In addition to jazz, Francis also wrote essays about other forms of music, as well as movies, TV, and books. For me, reading him is now my best way of feeling like I'm spending time with him. I've been reading him a lot lately.
Before I get back to doing interviews and immersing myself in the lives of my guests, I want to share some of Francis with you. On today's show, I'm going to read you excerpts of a few of his essays and play recordings he praised in those pieces. Along the way, I'll also tell a few stories about him, including the story of how we met and became a couple. Fresh air played a big part in that.
Francis wrote for The Atlantic magazine, The New York Times, The Village Voice, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and various music magazines. He had seven books and received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
He founded and ran the Village Voice Annual Jazz Critics Poll, which after several years moved to NPR Music and is now on artsfuse.org, where it's run by Tom Ho, who will be continuing the poll, which he renamed the Annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll. Francis also won a Grammy for his liner notes to the Miles Davis 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition of Kind of Blue.
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