Al Davis

Al Davis is a host of Jazz on 89.7 for GBH.

As a youngster, Al loved playing music to entertain guests at his parents’ home. As soon as he could get in, he began attending the matinee shows at local Boston Jazz clubs, seeing such greats as Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. After attending Northeast Broadcast school in the early '80s, Al began to fill in as on-air host for the WMBR MIT radio jazz shows. Eventually this landed him a gig on WUMB UMass radio under Pat Monteith, where he hosted an R & B show for several years. When the station changed its format, an offer came in to host the weekly Jazz show on New Hampshire’s WEVO, which Al happily accepted. He was there for 14 years, and regularly hosted the Strawberry Bank Jazz Festival as well as the North Country Jazz and Blues Fests. As seemed to be the trend at the time, New Hampshire public radio also decided to change to a mostly news format, ending Al’s many years as the Jazz host there.

But as luck would have it, a previous affiliation with Boston’s WGBH radio and Eric Jackson paid off, as Al was able to secure a spot as a substitute host on the various jazz shows being hosted by the station at that time. This led to a permanent slot for him on the Friday overnight Jazz Gallery there for several years. Al then became Eric Jackson’s number one replacement on "Eric in the Evening," filling in whenever Eric had a night off, until Eric’s untimely death in September of 2022. Now he co-hosts the Jazz show with hosts Larry Schind and Va Lynda Robinson.

Although jazz is perhaps his most loved musical genre, Al is open to most other types of music, which he loves to blend into his repertoire. It is not unusual to hear blends of Smooth Jazz and World Music along with traditional and modern jazz. His ability to blend these different forms of music seamlessly and to make it all sound pleasing is his special skill.

Surprisingly, while continuing to do the thing he loves the most, music, Al had a parallel career in the electrical supplier industry, staying at the same company for 45 years and eventually landing a position in management. Now that he’s retired, Al says: “I can finally focus on the thing that I love most, and I am grateful to WGBH and Eric Jackson for giving me that opportunity.”