Mike Davis has lived several distinct musical lives. He has been a student, a serious student of performance and of theory and of composition and of art. He has been a gig warrior, playing multiple shows in multiple styles on different instruments at different venues with different bands on the same day numerous days per week, week after week after week. He has been a record producer, sitting in front of a computer and a rack of mic pres and compressors – recording, editing, mixing, picking on artists until he finally feels they ‘got it’. He has been a recording artist, obsessing over whether the material is right, whether the concept is strong, whether the ensemble gets it. He has been a record label owner, pondering how best to market a project and to whom, begging for reviews and hoping they don’t stink, dealing with logistics that are a world away from the music they serve. He has been a band leader, a sideman, an extrovert, a recluse. What follows is a brief history of those lives, some of which are still being lived.