PETER BODGE – In Memoriam
Peter Bodge – Bio
He was a saving grace for any junior high kid that didn’t want to go hang with the mainstream at lunch or study hall. Always gave us a pass to come to the art room to work on art and listen to music. I learned about Marving Gaye and Duke Ellington through him…I have talked about him over the years to my kid and husband.
– Former student
Peter Bodge lived a vibrant life of creativity and curiosity. Educator, visual artist, self-taught drummer and jazz historian, exuberant lifelong learner. The Artful Bodger.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New Hampshire, he served in the US Army, worked as a labor organizer, and then spent the better part of five decades as an educator, primarily teaching art in middle and high schools in California and Massachusetts. His classrooms were hubs of artistic expression and a safe haven for students who needed one. Peter also taught art history and jazz history to adults, art for non-artists, and creative thinking to educators. In the midst of which, he earned a Master’s degree at Cambridge College.
Jazz was a lifelong passion. As a child, inspired by his father, Peter taught himself to play drums and into his 70s, he moonlighted as a professional musician on the New England jazz circuit. As a visual artist, his work focused on his jazz heroes, from Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington to Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and Eric Dolphy. His linoleum prints featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, and seven portraits are housed in the National Museum of American History, in Washington, DC. A testament to his unique and compelling vision.
Peter’s connection to Montclair goes back nearly two decades, when his daughter and her family moved here. He hosted monthly listening sessions at the Montclair Public Library (MPL) for the arts nonprofit Seed Artists, created stunning artwork for their jazz festivals, and inspired Seed’s art programming for kids at the MPL. His donation of more than 600 jazz books establishes a permanent and free public resource, extends his legacy as an educator, and provides a platform for future jazz programming, from concerts to film screenings and projects for kids.
Peter died on September 5, 2025, age 87, at the hospital in Lawrence, Massachusetts, where he was born.
RICHARD DAVIS – In Memoriam
April 15, 1930 – September 6, 2023
We were deeply honored to have Richard as a member of our Advisory Board for several years, and twice to present him in concert—at the Eric Dolphy: Freedom of Sound festival in 2014, and in 2015 at William Paterson University, his last concert performance. In 2018, we contributed to a beautiful celebration of his life’s work—as an artist, an educator, and a civil-rights activist—in Madison, Wisconsin.
All of us at Seed Artists consider ourselves fortunate to have had these opportunities, not only because we so revere Richard’s life’s work, but because he was genuinely gracious, kind and modest. When he asked about your family, your job, he wasn’t just being polite, he was interested in you and your life.
If you think you haven’t heard Richard play bass, chances are that you have. He appeared on more than 3,000 recordings, including seminal works by Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill, Sarah Vaughan, Joe Henderson, Pharaoh Sanders, Roland Kirk, Wes Montgomery, Jimmie Smith, Shirley Scott, Herbie Mann, Booker Ervin, Elvin Jones—really, one could go on. And one should, to give a sense for Richard’s place in music history. He recorded or performed with Satchmo, Dizzy, Miles, Mingus and Sinatra, Dexter Gordon, Chet Baker, George Benson, Johnny Hodges, Shirley Scott, Stan Getz, Kenny Burrell and Kenny Dorham. But that’s just jazz. Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks? Richard not only played but chose the musicians and directed the music. He recorded with Bruce Springsteen, Bo Diddley, Paul Simon, Carly Simon, Janis Ian, Buffalo Springfield, Ruth Brown, Judy Collins, The Rascals, Bonie Raitt, Don Henley, Phoebe Snow, and Laura Nyro. And performed under the batons of Stravinsky, Bernstein, Boulez, Stokowski, and Gunther Schuller. DownBeat named him Best Bassist from 1967-74, and he was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2014.
Richard’s work outside of performance and recording was equally impressive. He taught at the University of Wisconsin for 39 years and there established the Richard Davis Foundation for Young Bassists and the Richard Davis Bass Camp, which continues to nurture young talent from as young as age three. As a civil rights and peace activist, he founded the Retention Action Project (R.A.P.) and the Madison chapter of the Institutes for the Healing of Racism, to educate the community and promote racial healing and cooperation. His humanitarian works earned him numerous honors, including the City of Madison’s Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award.
We encourage donations to Richard’s foundation.
And we encourage you to listen to Richard seeking The New at age 85, in concert with Andrew Cyrille, Angelica Sanchez and Aska Kaneko at William Paterson University in November 2015. His last concert appearance and his last recorded performance. Funded in part by a generous grant from the Robert D. Bielicki Foundation.
Diane Moser: In Memoriam
July 29, 1957 – December 17, 2020
If you spent time with Diane Moser—as a colleague, a student, an audience member, a friend—you quickly discerned that she was passionate and committed to the things that she cared about, and was endlessly curious and always ready to roll up her sleeves. Diane was a founding Board member of “Seed Artists 2.0,” in Montclair, where she played an integral role in helping us bring adventurous music to new audiences. For Eric Dolphy: Freedom of Sound in 2014, she not only composed a new work, “Birdsongs for Eric,” and performed it with her band, she did everything from posting flyers and selling t-shirts to wrangling musicians. These images from her sublime set at the festival express well the joy that she brought to and took from the creative experience.
As composer, pianist, bandleader, educator and mentor, Diane lived the music and was a tireless advocate for her fellow musicians, for new works, and for opening ears and minds. Her rousing, risk-taking Composers Big Band ran a remarkable 23 years and was easily one of the most compelling big bands around. It was a vehicle not only for her own compositions and those of her bandmates but guest composers and canny reimaginings of everything from Roland Kirk and George Russell to Frank Zappa. In every setting, Diane directed attention to her bandmates and to the music, and encouraged deep listening.
Diane was also a jazz fixer and matchmaker. As a musician, a community activist, a neighbor, a parent, she kept her ear to the ground in service of helping others realize their vision. She connected countless colleagues and students who went on to create new projects and unfailingly remembered to check in because she wanted you to succeed and to pass it on. Beyond her own recordings, Diane scored films, taught master classes and beginners alike, played piano at her church, and donated her time to countless local charities. She was a superfan of her son, Chad, and believed every child was innately creative and capable of great things. She walked the walk with every step, in every facet of her life.
For far too many years, Diane did so through recurring bouts of cancer, which she wouldn’t mention if you didn’t ask. That voicemail connecting you with so-and-so might have come from a hospital bed. Because things needed to get done. Diane made things happen, and she made the world a better place. We miss her.
Listen here here to “Birdsongs for Eric,” which Diane composed for the 2014 Dolphy festival.
And consider giving here to the Dizzy Gillespie Memorial Fund at the Jazz Foundation of America, which helps uninsured jazz musicians obtain life-saving medical care. Diane was a champion of the fund, started in Dizzy’s name owing to the cancer treatment he received at Englewood Hospital in New Jersey, where Diane also received treatment.
