Eddy Davis

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Eddy Davis in Lisbon 2006
Woody Allen with the Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band at Gasteig Munich 2011

Eddy Ray Davis (born September 26, 1940 in Lafayette (Indiana) ; † April 7, 2020 in New York City ) was an American musician ( banjo , arrangement ) and bandleader of traditional jazz , which was internationally renowned mainly through decades of collaboration with the clarinetist and filmmaker Woody Allen became known.

Live and act

Davis began playing the banjo during his senior year in high school to play Dixieland with a college band called The Salty Dogs . The Purdue-based group played throughout the American Midwest and had supporting acts for greats like The Four Freshmen and The Kingston Trio . He moved to Purdue for a year, then to Chicago. There he became an integral part of the jazz scene at venues such as the Gaslight Club and Bourbon Street and often worked for variety or comedy acts, etc. a. with actor David Huddleston. He has also appeared on a Dixieland revue at Disneyland and served as musical director on a tour resumption of the musical Whoopee! ! In 1966 he recorded his debut album Live! At the Old Town Gate , with a group that was renamed Eddy Davis Dixie Jazzmen . Next albums under the Davis name included Whiz Bang (1973), a satirical flute and tuba production, and Plays and Sings Just For Fun (1974, mainly dedicated to Jelly Roll Morton ).

Davis went to New York and gained recognition from the local jazz traditionalists: he played drums in the earliest edition of Vince Giordano's Nighthawks . In 1976 he appeared in Germany with his European colleagues Herbert Christ , Jean-Pierre Mulot and René Franc in the Hot Jazz Orchestra of Europe . In 1979 he played in the American edition of this Hot Jazz Orchestra with Max Kaminsky , Vince Giordano, Bobby Gordon and Dill Jones ; In 1983 Eddy Davis and The Hot Jazz Orchestra included clarinetist Jack Maheu and pianist Don Ewell . With Stanley's Washboard Kings to Stan King he was on tour in Japan in the same year. He also orchestrated and conducted a musical by Terry Waldo , with whose Waldo's Gutbucket Syncopators he recorded several albums.

When the conductor Maurice Peress performed Paul Whiteman's Aeolian Hall Concert from 1924 for his 60th anniversary, he hired Davis as a banjoist. At this time he was regularly performing in the Red Blazer Too club in a trio with his banjo colleague Cynthia Sayer and bassist Pete Compo . With Sayer, Davis also founded the New York Banjo Ensemble , which recorded an album with compositions by George Gershwin in 1984 and an album with Rags in 2005 .

Davis' association with Woody Allen began in Chicago in the 1960s, when Davis headlined a club on Rush Street and Allen was both a comedian and a band member at the club. Allen played in Eddy Davis' New Orleans Jazz Band , with whom Allen - otherwise known as a filmmaker - played clarinet in New York for around 35 years. The band has played every Monday evening (when not on international tour) at Cafe Carlyle since 1997 ; previously she performed weekly in Michael's Pub since 1985 . Davis also appeared on the soundtrack to Allen's film Radio Days (1987) and appeared as a band member in Sweet and Lowdown . He received a Grammy Award for his contribution to the soundtrack for Midnight in Paris . The documentary Wild Man Blues records Allen's first tour with Davis' band. Davis also performed weekly at The Cajun on Eighth Avenue in Chelsea during the late 1990s and early 2000s . In the band he led there, Scott Robinson played on the C-Melody saxophone . In addition, other recordings such as The Bunk Project (1993) or Just Sittin 'Here Strummin' This Ole Banjo (2005) were made.

According to Tom Lord, Davis was involved in 73 recording sessions between 1957 and 2012, including a. with Leon Redbone , Turk Murphy , Doc Cheatham and Frank Vignola . Davis died of SARS-CoV-2 infection at Mount Sinai West Hospital in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City . He was 79 years old.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Nate Chinen: Eddy Davis, Banjo Virtuoso Who Carried a Torch For Trad Jazz, Dies of COVID-19 at 79th WBGO , April 9, 2020, accessed on April 9, 2020 (English).
  2. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed April 9, 2020)
personal data
SURNAME Davis, Eddy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Davis, Eddy Ray (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician (banjo, arrangement and band leader)
DATE OF BIRTH September 26, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Lafayette (Indiana)
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 2020
Place of death New York City