Spanky Davis

Ronald J. " Spanky " Davis ( * (March 6, 1943 in Indianapolis ) is an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader.

Life and work

Davis grew up in Fort Wayne (Indiana ); his mother was a music teacher. He received first piano lessons from the age of six and began playing the trumpet at the age of seven. At fifteen, he had his first professional appearances and played in local bands in Indiana and later in Nebraska and from 1963 to 1966 in Chicago. Then he came up with the big band of Howard McGhee first time to New York City, but then went back to Chicago, where he worked as a musician until 1978. In 1979 he moved permanently to New York, when he was transferred by Roy Eldridge directing the Jimmy Ryan All Stars, which originally appeared as the house band of jazz clubs, Jimmy Ryan's in New York until its closure in 1983. The Jimmy Ryan's All-Stars existed until the late 1990s; Members were, inter alia, Ted Sturgis, Joe Muranyi and Eddie Locke.

He was particularly known for his membership in the bands of Charlie Palmieri (1979 ), Sam Jones ( 1979-82 ) and Machito (1980 /81). In the early 1980s he worked with Dick Meldonian ( Listens Gene Roland Music), also with Benny Goodman (1982 /83), Al Cohn (1983 /84), Bob Haggart (1984 /85), Buddy Tate ( 1986-90 ), Buck Clayton ( 1986-92 ), Vince Giordano ( The Gold chain Project 1988), Ruth Brown ( 1990), Joey DeFrancesco ( Where Were You? , 1990), Annie Ross (1991 /92) and Frank Sinatra ( 1991-93 ).

Davis led his own quartet in 1986, the Eddie Locke, Richard Wyands and Murray Wall seniority; 1984 to 1991 he played with the reformed Savoy Sultans. Mid-1980s, he worked with Arvell Shaw as a member of its formation Armstrong Legacy. Since 1997, Davis appeared in Chuck Folds ' band in the New York jazz club Sweet Basil. In 1999, he participated in Dan Barrett Album Being a Bear.