Kay Davis
Kay Davis (* 5. December 1920 in Evanston , Illinois as Kathryn Elizabeth Davis ; † 27. January 2012 in Apopka , Florida ) was an American singer . She sang in the Duke Ellington Orchestra .
Live and act
Davis studied singing and piano from 1938 to 1945 and in 1944 he became a member of Duke Ellington's band , who used them in his orchestra alongside Joya Sherrill and Al Hibbler . Duke often used her coloratura soprano for scat arrangements, e.g. B. together with Jimmy Hamilton's clarinet . He also used her voice on concert pieces and spirituals or in the wordless Obligato that Adelaide Hall created for the title Creole Love Call .
In 1948 she visited England and France with Ellington and Ray Nance and took part in the orchestra's European tour in the same year; At the end of 1949 she left the Duke Ellington Orchestra and has not been musically active since.
Davis can be heard on the Duke Elligton tracks I Ain't Nothing But the Blues (1944), It Don't Mean a Thing, But It Ain't that Swing and Solitude (1945), Transbluency and Minnehaha (1946), On a Turnquoise Cloud (1947) and Creole Love Call (1948). In contrast to her colleague Joya Sherrill , who worked with her in the band at the same time (occasionally in a trio with Marie Ellington ), Kay Davis was not actually a jazz singer; she is more likely to be seen as a concert singer.
Selection discography
- Duke Ellington: Carnegie Hall Concert, December 1944 (Prestige)
- Duke Ellington: Treasury Shows (DETS, 1945)
- Duke Ellington: 1946 (Classics)
- Duke Ellington: 1947-1948 (Classics)
Secondary literature
- JL Collier: Duke Ellington . Berlin, Ullstein, 1998
- Bielefeld Catalog Jazz 2001
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide of Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
Remarks
- ↑ Dennis Hevesi: Kay Davis, Coloratura, Soared in Wordless Songs, Dies at 91 - Obituary in The New York Times
- ↑ cit. after Collier, p. 360
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Davis, Kay |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Davis, Kathryn Elizabeth (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 5th December 1920 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Evanston , Illinois |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 27, 2012 |
| Place of death | Apopka , Florida |