When he was twelve, he became the organist at the Zion Temple Fire Baptized Holiness Church of God, where his parents were pastors.
[3] He attended the Boston Latin School, graduating in 1959,[4] then enrolled at Harvard College on a full scholarship, studying biochemistry.
[5] During this time, he began a long period of experimentation with various kinds of drugs, which may have led to the psychological issues that would later manifest themselves.
[6] He apparently landed on his feet, however; Milford Graves later recalled that by 1965, Davidson was "with a big laboratory up in Boston, with a big-time guy".
(Prior to playing with Motian for the first time, Keith Jarrett heard him on a tape with Davidson; he later stated: "it completely knocked me out".
He experimented with graphic and proportional notation, and assembled a book consisting of shapes created by a color copier.
[1] (Guitarist Joe Morris recalled Davidson pointing to a small part of one of his graphic scores and telling him "if we practice for six months we might be able to play that".
[1]) Davidson also experimented with scores made from aluminum foil riddled with pin holes and held over a light in order to "burn the shape of the music into your synapses".
[12] In 1997, Morris released Antennae, an album inspired by some of Davidson's graphic scores, with bassist Nate McBride and drummer Jerome Deupree, on the AUM Fidelity label.
He had an unusual aura; a cloud of white sparks traveled with him as he walked around the studio talking to himself... Lowell made Sun Ra look normal.
"[17] Pianist Ethan Iverson described Davidson as having "an approach somewhere between the fury of Cecil Taylor and the romance of Paul Bley".
He understood and played with such harmonic sophistication that he may be compared in this respect only to Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols and Don Pullen.
"[22] Regarding Davidson's funeral, Morris stated: "The music played by the church band circled and rose to the ceiling.