Blind John Davis

John Davis ( born December 7, 1913 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi; † 12 October 1985 in Chicago, Illinois), also known as Blind John Davis, was an American blues pianist and singer.

Childhood and youth

When Davis was three years old, his family moved from the southern United States to Chicago. During Prohibition, his father earned money to illegal alcohol serving. At age nine, Davis became blind to the consequences of an infection - he had stepped into a rusty nail. At 14, he learned to play in the bars of his father's piano. He had some success in the Speak Easy's in and around Chicago, among others, with his bands "Johnny Lee's Music Masters " and " Johnny Davis Rhythm Boys ".

Studio musicians and more

By 1937 Davis was hired by Lester Melrose " Wabash Music Company " as the house pianist. Until 1942, he played in over 100 recordings piano, among others. Accompaniment of Tampa Red, Merline Johnson, Lonnie Johnson, Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Minnie, Doctor Clayton and Sonny Boy Williamson I. In 1938 he recorded with George Barnes, one of the first who played the electric guitar.

During the Second World War, Davis was with his group "Johnny Davis Rhythm Boys " in the West and Midwest of the States on tour. He founded with George Barnes (guitar) and Ransom Knowling (double bass), the " John Davis Trio", which made in 1949 and 1951 recordings, but then broke up. Davis went solo again in Chicago, occasionally together with Judge Riley (drums).

1952 belonged to Davis and Big Bill Broonzy to the first blues musicians that occurred in Europe and made ​​recordings. After Davis was playing in the Chicago clubs and got out of town largely forgotten.

Stroke of fate and final rediscovery

1955 burned down his house and a few days later, his wife died, with whom he had been married since 1938. In 1958 and 1959 he was accepted for the Library of Congress. In 1964 he performed at the Newport Folk Festival on.

In 1973, Davis was regularly traveling in Europe and came increasingly to festivals in America. In the 1970s, he took care of his friend, Tampa Red, who lived in a home in Chicago.

Blind John Davis died in 1985 in Chicago, where he had spent most of his life - he was on his way to the airport to travel to a festival in Texas, when he probably died of a heart attack.

Style and influences

Davis was unlike many of his piano -playing contemporaries such as Memphis Slim, Sunnyland Slim, or the slightly older Roosevelt Sykes does not socialize in the rural South, but in urban Chicago. This city had - as well as New Orleans - a very distinctive jazz tradition. This tradition was in Chicago - also influenced by very white musicians of Eastern European and German origin - unlike New Orleans. A good example of the mutual influence of the musician John Davis and the Russian-born Art Hodes. Because of this diversity of styles Davis was predestined to accompany the stylistically diverse bluesmen adequately and to adjust to this within a short time. Maybe, but this talent also prevented its own successful recording career, as Davis was considered valuable by the record company owners as a sideman than a solo artist. In his live program Woogie were found along with blues and boogie also standards such as "Bye bye blackbird " or "Georgia".