Where are they now? - Jon Davison

This page last updated: 30 Jul 2020
YES and projects with several Yesmen
Jon
Anderson
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Squire
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Howe
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White
Geoff
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 Horn
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Jon Davison
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Jon Davison's Official Facebook: Jon 'Juano' Davison

Yes
Davison is in Yes: see the main page.

He is also in Arc of Life with Billy Sherwood and Jay Schellen: see the main page.

In Continuum
Davison guests on 2 albums from In Continuum (Facebook; Twitter; YouTube), a project by Dave Kerzner (Sound of Contact, worked with Jon Anderson, Steve Hackett, Steven Wilson, ex-Giraffe). Acceleration Theory is a 2-part, science fiction, concept album about a female alien named AlienA (Leticia Wolf), who falls in love with a human, Kai (Gabriel Agudo). She warns the Earth that we are in danger of being annihilated by aliens who have been responsible for man's evolution over millions of years. The project arose from material by Kerzner had originally written for Sound of Contact, including with Matt Dorsey, Simon Collins (son of Phil Collins) and Kelly Nordstrom, before that band split up.

Davison is on 3 tracks of the debut album, Acceleration Theory Part One, on which the core band was Kerzner (keys, vocals), Agudo (Steve Rothery Band; vocals), Randy McStine (The Fringe, Sound of Contact; guitar), Marco Minnemann (The Sea Within, Levin Minnemann Rudess, Steven Wilson, The Aristocrats, Mike Keneally, worked with Eddie Jobson, UK, Trey Gunn, Alex Lifeson, Joe Satriani; drums) and Dorsey (Sound of Contact; bass, guitar, vocals). Guests include Nick D'Virgilio (ex-Spock's Beard, Big Big Train, ex-Genesis, ex-Tears for Fears, worked with Chris Squire; drums), Steve Hackett (ex-Genesis, ex-GTR, ex-Squackett), Steve Rothery (Marillion; guitar on 1 track), Alex Cromarty (Mostly Autumn, Mantra Vega), Fernando Perdomo (Dave Kerzner Band, The New Empire), John Wesley (Porcupine Tree, Sound of Contact; guitar, vocals), Wes Dearth (worked with Porcupine Tree; guitar, vocals), and Wolf (Dead Deads; vocals). A debut single, "Be the Light", was released Dec 2018. There is a 4:33 single edit available on Amazon, or a more expensive 3-track release on Bandcamp:
  1. "Be the Light (single edit)" [mus: Kerzner/McStine; lyr: Kerzner] (4:33)
  2. "Be the Light (radio edit)" (3:59)
  3. "Meant to Be" [mus: Kerzner/Jon Anderson/Nordstrom; lyr: Kerzner] (2:17)

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There is an accompanying music video. "Be the Light" is performed by Agudo (lead vocals), Wolf (vocals), Davison (vocals), Kerzner (keys, vocals), Rothery (guitar solo), Dorsey (bass), McStine (guitar), Perdomo (guitar), Minnemann (drums). The piece was mixed by Chris Lord-Alge, with additional mixing and mastering by Kerzner, and produced by Kerzner. Audio editing was by Andrew Gonzalez and Kerzner; the music was recorded by Kerzner, Minnemann, Perdomo, Davison, Dorsey et al.

Kerzner wrote "Meant to Be" with Jon Anderson. It was performed by Davison (vocals), Agudo (vocals), Wolf (vocals), Kerzner (keys, vocals), McStine (guitar), Dorsey (bass), Minnemann (drums), Wolfberg (violin, viola), Celli (cello). In mid-Nov 2018, on ProgressiveEars.com, Kerzner said, "it's been fun working with [Davison] on my original project "In Continuum". He sings quite a bit on it including a song I co-wrote with Jon Anderson that he's singing tomorrow in fact!" The song was previously considered for Sound of Contact's Dimensionaut. Kerzner also uploaded the track to SoundCloud as "Meant to Be (I Remember Reprise)": there, the track is credited as vocal melody written by Kerzner/Anderson, produced by Kerzner.
 
Acceleration Theory Part One: AlienA was released 1 Jan 2019. Acceleration Theory Part Two: Annihilation was released Nov 2019. Part One tracks:
  1. "Acceleration Theory" [Kerzner] (5:12), with Kerzner (keys), D'Virgilio (drums), Dorsey (bass), McStine (guitar), Perdomo (acoustic guitar), Wolfberg (violin, viola), Ruti Celli (cello), Joe Deninzon (violin), Wolf (spoken word)
  2. "Crash Landing" [mus: Kerzner/Perdomo/McStine; lyr: Kerzner] (5:52), with Kerzner (lead vocals, keys, sound design), Davison (additional vocals), Hackett (guitar solo), Dorsey (bass), Minnemann (drums), McStine (guitar), Perdomo (guitar), Wolfberg (violins, violas), Celli (cello); video
  3. "I Remember" [mus: Kerzner/Collins/Nordstrom; lyr: Kerzner/Collins] (5:47)
  4. "Two Moons Setting with the Sun" [mus: Dorsey/Kerzner; lyr: Kerzner] (6:20), with Agudo (vocals), Wolf (vocals), Kerzner (keys), Dorsey (guitar, bass), Perdomo (guitar), Minnemann (drums), D'Virgilio (additional drums)
  5. "Scavengers" [Kerzner] (3:58), with Kerzner (lead vocals, keys), Dorsey (bass), McStine (guitar), Minnemann (drums), Davison (additional vocals); video
  6. "Be the Light" (4:53), as above
  7. "Hands of Time" [mus: Kerzner/Nordstrom; lyr: Kerzner] (11:13)
  8. "Racing Through the Past" [Kerzner] (3:12)
  9. "AlienA" [mus: Kerzner/Wolf; lyr: Wolf/Kerzner/Collins] (4:46), with Wolf
  10. "Meant to Be" (2:08), as above
  11. "Man Unkind" [mus: Kerzner/Nordstrom; lyr: Kerzner] (5:50)
  12. "Banished" [Kerzner] (3:03)
There is a pre-order for both albums in hi res audio. The album was mixed, mastered and produced by Kerzner, except for tracks 5 and 6 mixed by Lord-Alge. Artwork was also by Kerzner.

In all, Davison sings on at least 6 pieces (with 3 on Part One: AlienA, then at least 3 on Part Two: Annihilation), playing a specific character in the album's story. Davison did his recordings in May 2018. Agudo also did his final vocal recordings that month, with a few more sessions with other artists planned for the summer. Kerzner was mixing the album in late Nov. Annihilation is over 70 minutes in length, with material by Kerzner, Dorsey, Collins, Nordstrom, McStine and Perdomo, plus one song, "All That is", by Kerzner and Anderson. Kerzner explained, "In 2005, I sent an instrumental piece with working title "Shell Sea" to Jon Anderson of Yes. He wrote a melody for it and sent me a demo of him singing it without words. Many years later I asked Jon if either he wanted to write the lyrics to it or if he minded if I did since it was part of my elaborate concept album. We decided I would do it and have another singer play the character of the song." The song is performed by Davison (vocals), Kerzner (keys, vocal and drum samples), Celli (cello) and Wolfberg (violin). Also returning for the second album are Agudo (lead vocals), Wolf (lead vocals), Dorsey (bass, guitar), McStine (guitar), Wesley (guitar), Perdomo (guitar, bass, drums), Deninzon (violin), D'Virgilio (drums) and Minnemann (drums). New for Part Two is Michael Sadler (lead vocals). The album was mixed, mastered and produced by Kerzner. "All That Is" was available with Bandcamp pre-orders of the album. Tracks:
  1. "Impending Annihilation" (2:52)
  2. "You Don't Know How It Feels" (6:05)
  3. "The Path" (4:02)
  4. "In Her Cocoon" (1:32)
  5. "AlienA Pt2" (2:22)
  6. "Vampire of the Soul" (4:25)
  7. "Made of Stars" (2:58), with Davison
  8. "Know That You Are" (8:31)
  9. "The War Room" (1:50)
  10. "All That Is" (3:35)
  11. "Annihilation" (20:48)
  12. "Interstellar Reunion" (4:36)

Acceleration Theory Special Edition Part One & Two is a 4CD physical release that is forthcoming, or a shorter digital release that came out 3 Jul 2020. Tracks—Special Edition Bonus Disc and digital bonus tracks:

  1. "Be the Light (Live Unplugged 2020)" (2:54)
  2. "The Path (Instrumental Version)" (4:03)
  3. "Hands of Time (Gabriel Agudo Version)" (8:41)
  4. "Scavengers (Instrumental Version)" (4:05)
  5. "Know That You are (Dave Kerzner Version)" (8:36)
  6. "The Battle (A Capella)" (0:38)
  7. "Their Arrival" (1:20)
  8. "All That is (Instrumental Version)" (3:36)
  9. "The Mothership of Light (Randy McStine Extended Solo)" (9:44)
  10. "Interstellar Reunion (Instrumental Version)" (4:37)

The physical release, but not the download version, will have a fourth CD of a live show performed by Kerzner, Agudo, McStine, Dorsey and Minnemann, plus guests.

"All That Is" is also on Kerzner's 2CD, 21 track (plus bonus track through Bandcamp), best-of Breakdown: A Compilation 1995-2019, released 8 Nov 2019. This also includes "Scavengers" and "Crash Landing" from Part One: AlienA. "All That Is" is also on the Nov 2019 Prog cover disc.
  
The band played Cruise to the Edge 2019, with Kerzner (keys, vocals), Agudo (vocals), Dorsey (bass), McStine (guitar) and Minnemann (drums). Their first show had guests including Davison, Hackett and Thijs Van Leer (Focus). Dearth, Wolf, Perdomo, Celli and Joe Deninzon were also expected to guest at some point. The set list for the first show included the album in full; Kerzner also talked about playing material by Sound of Contact. Davison guested on additional vocals for at least "Scavengers", which also had Kerzner (keys, lead vocals) and Perdomo (guitar) on it.

Davison also guested live, singing "Tom Sawyer", with the Dave Kerzner Band at the pre-cruise show. The cruise also included a show by Mike Portnoy & Friends (8 Feb, I think), which included a Transatlantic set by Portnoy, Neal Morse and Roine Stolt, with Ted Leonard, Randy George, Bill Hubauer and Davison. They performed "Suite Charlotte Pike/Abbey Road Medley", with Davison singing "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window".
 
Kerzner said on ProgressiveEars.com late Nov 2018 that, "Jon Davison and I have talked about co-writing together and doing more (whether it's with/for IC or not I don't know yet)." Kerzner described on Instagram on 11 Jun 2019 about "an upcoming album I'm making with some of the guys from Yes this year [2019]! A cool collaboration with Jon D and friends using @ikmultimedia iRig PRO IO and AXE IO while Yes is on their Royal Affair Summer tour!" The project is also with Billy Sherwood. See on the main page for details.

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With Glass Hammer
Davison was in Glass Hammer 2009-14. Lately, the band have been working with Susie Bogdanowicz as their lead singer, but they have remained open to working with their previous singers. Their Untold Tales (2017) was a compilation of rare and unreleased tracks, spanning the band's history 1993-2017 and celebrating their 25th anniversary. The tracks are arranged approximately in a chronological order, with tracks 10 & 11 from Davison's time:

  1. "Shadows of the Past 2008" [Schendel] (2:25), instrumental, a 2008 re-recording of the piece on the band's first album, Journey of the Dunadan
  2. "Infusion" [Schendel/Cloud], instrumental from the 1990s, previously released on Tracy Cloud's Love Changes (1995)
  3. "Identity Principle" [Schendel]
  4. "Hold Your Head Up", Argent cover, recorded c. 1997
  5. "Babb's Bach" [JS Bach] (3:18), arrangement by Babb of Bach's "Zion hört die Wächter singen"
  6. "And Then She Sighed" [Babb] (1:59), recorded 2009
  7. "Eiger Dreams" [Babb] (2:23), instrumental, mixed 2008
  8. "It's All Too Much" (4:36), The Beatles cover, recorded 2009
  9. "Troll" [Babb] (5:03), written 2008
  10. "A Grain of Sand" [Shikoh] (2:58), instrumental, written for If; performed by Schendel, Babb, Shikoh and Davison (using a vocal track from "If the Stars")
  11. "Cool Air" [Schendel/Babb] (9:44), previously released on the multi-artist The Stories of H.P. Lovecraft (2012), with Davison
  12. "The Impulsive Type" [Schendel/Babb/Shikoh]
  13. "No Man's Land (Live)" [Schendel/Babb], May 2017 live performance
Buy from Amazon (US)
Details in Yescography. Track 12, "The Impulsive Type", is based around a pre-existing Neil Peart (Rush) drum track and was originally intended for the Sonic Elements project (see on main page), organised by Dave Kerzner (Sound of Contact, worked with Jon Anderson, Billy Sherwood, Francis Dunnery, Steve Hackett, Steven Wilson, ex-Giraffe), who said on Facebook in Feb 2014: "I'll be mixing a unique track from the progressive rock band Glass Hammer next week! This song will have a very interesting new "element" in it." I asked Babb about their contribution in a Mar 2014 interview and he explained the track consists of Glass Hammer (Babb, Schendel, Shikoh, Groves) playing to a drum part by Peart: "Fred composed most of the music for this track, and I did the lyrics. Alan added a good deal too. Carl Groves is singing this one. We were given many of Peart's tracks to choose from, then asked to write music to his drumming and to incorporate his ideas into the Glass Hammer sound."
 
In early Aug 2017, during Yes's Yestival tour, Davison told one fan that he is back working with Glass Hammer: it is unclear whether this is new material or was a reference to Untold Tales. He sang live with them on the 2018 Cruise to the Edge, singing on "If the Sun" and "If the Stars" with  Bogdanowicz. In the Jan 2019 issue of Prog, Babb said, "We'll probably do some more with him [Davison] in the future[.] I think he wants to." Davison said in a Jul 2020 interview: "I hope Glass Hammer and I can work together again in some context."

Possible future solo project
In the Jul 2020 interview, Davison talked of work with keyboardist Claudio Pesavento (worked with Chris Squire, Frank Marino): "We have [...] some songs sort of in the wings waiting to be further developed and hopefully we can do more together". Asked if this would be a solo project, Davison replied, "I think it would be a solo project [...] solo of mine, but he would be certainly involved [...] I've got a lot of irons in the fire. Not always enough time, but."

With Taylor Hawkins
Get the Money (Shanabelle/RCA Records), out 8 Nov 2019, was the third album from Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders, the band led by Davison's childhood friend and the Foo Fighters drummer Hawkins (vocals, drums), with Chris Chaney (ex-Alanis Morissette; bass), Brent Woods and John Lousteau (The Birds of Satan). The opening track, "Crossed the Line" (audio), saw Davison (backing vocals) and Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, ex-Nirvana) guest. Details in Yescography.

In an Aug 2014 interview, Davison described how Hawkins had been working with Chris Squire and that the three had been considering a project together (see under Squire).

Other projects
Cov3r to Cov3r (Radiant Records) is the third in a series of covers albums by Neal Morse, Mike Portnoy and Randy George. It includes a cover of Yes's version of "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed" with vocals from Davison. The album was released 24 Jul on CD, gatefold 2LP + CD, and digital download. Tracks: "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed" (version by Yes), "Hymn 43" (Jethro Tull), "Life on Mars" (David Bowie), "Baker Street" (Gerry Rafferty), "It Don’t Come Easy" (Ringo Starr), "Baby Blue" (Badfinger), "One More Red Nightmare" (King Crimson), "Black Coffee in Bed" (Squeeze), "Tempted" (Squeeze), "Runnin' Down a Dream" (Tom Petty), "Let Love Rule" (Lenny Kravitz). The album is also included as part of Cover to Cover Anthology (Vol. 1-3), out the same day, which compiles all three albums. The first two have been re-sequenced and remastered, and there is new artwork.

Davison sings harmony vocals and plays bass on some of Steve Howe's forthcoming solo album, Love Is, due Jul 2020.

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He sang "C'est la Vie" on A Tribute to Keith Emerson & Greg Lake, produced by Sherwood: see on the main page for details. Davison sang "Run with the Fox" on A Prog Rock Christmas, produced by Billy Sherwood: see on main page for details. He is also due to guest on Sherwood's third Prog Collective album: see under Sherwood for details. Leon Alvarado has said Davison and Sherwood join him for a new project called White Car: see details on main page.

Davison has recorded vocals for a track with Edison's Lab, but is now talking to the band about the possibility of an EP or album together: see details on the main page.

He guested on 2 songs (3 tracks) of United Progressive Fraternity's Planetary Overload Part 1: Loss, now out: see on main page.

Davison sang "Ride My See Saw" with John Lodge at a London show by Lodge's band in Apr 2019, and on the Royal Affair tour. Davison has guested at further US shows with Lodge: in Nov 2019 and Feb 2020 (lead vocals and acoustic guitar on "Nights in White Satin"). Lodge released the single "In These Crazy Times (The Isolation Mix)" (3:41; promo video) about the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Jul 2020. Performing are Lodge (vocals, guitars, keys, drums), Davison (backing vocals), Kristian Lodge (John's son; lead guitar) and Kirsten Lodge (John's wife; backing vocals). John Lodge's daughter (and Jon Davison's girlfriend), Emily, project managed.

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YES and projects with several Yesmen
Jon
Anderson
Chris
Squire
Steve
Howe
Alan
White
Geoff
Downes
Trevor
Horn
Tony
Kaye
Peter
Banks
Patrick
Moraz
Bill
Bruford
Rick
Wakeman
Trevor
Rabin
Billy
Sherwood
Igor Khoroshev
Oliver Wakeman
Benoît David
Jon Davison
Asia
CIRCA:
Anderson & Wakeman
Others associated with the band

Any news, additions or corrections, please e-mail Henry Potts. Thanks.