1. Taj Mahal Musician Youtube
2. Taj Mahal Musician

Dancing The Blues! Bring your dancing shoes and be a part of dance history! Taj Mahal and the Phantom Blues Band's January 19th show in Agoura Hills, CA.

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks (born May 17, 1942), who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American blues musician, a singer-songwriter and film composer who plays the guitar, piano, banjo, harmonica, and many other instruments.^[1] He often incorporates elements of world music into his works and has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, and the South Pacific.^[2]

• 5Discography

Early life[edit]

Born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, Jr. on May 17, 1942, in Harlem, New York, Mahal grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was raised in a musical environment; his mother was a member of a local gospel choir and his father was an Afro-Caribbean jazz arranger and piano player. His family owned a shortwave radio which received music broadcasts from around the world, exposing him at an early age to world music.^[3] Early in childhood he recognized the stark differences between the popular music of his day and the music that was played in his home. He also became interested in jazz, enjoying the works of musicians such as Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Milt Jackson.^[4] His parents came of age during the Harlem Renaissance, instilling in their son a sense of pride in his Caribbean and African ancestry through their stories.^[5]

Because his father was a musician, his house was frequently the host of other musicians from the Caribbean, Africa, and the U.S. His father, Henry Saint Clair Fredericks Sr., was called 'The Genius' by Ella Fitzgerald before starting his family.^[6] Early on, Henry Jr. developed an interest in African music, which he studied assiduously as a young man. His parents also encouraged him to pursue music, starting him out with classical piano lessons. He also studied the clarinet, trombone and harmonica.^[7] When Mahal was eleven his father was killed in an accident at his own construction company, crushed by a tractor when it flipped over. This was an extremely traumatic experience for the boy.^[6]

Taj Mahal Musician Youtube

Mahal's mother later remarried. His stepfather owned a guitar which Taj began using at age 13 or 14, receiving his first lessons from a new neighbor from North Carolina of his own age who played acoustic blues guitar.^[7] His name was Lynwood Perry, the nephew of the famous bluesman Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup. In high school Mahal sang in a doo-wop group.^[6]

For some time Mahal thought of pursuing farming over music. He had developed a passion for farming that nearly rivaled his love of music—coming to work on a farm first at age 16. It was a dairy farm in Palmer, Massachusetts, not far from Springfield. By age nineteen he had become farm foreman, getting up a bit after 4:00 a.m. and running the place. 'I milked anywhere between thirty-five and seventy cows a day. I clipped udders. I grew corn. I grew Tennessee redtop clover. Alfalfa.'^[8] Mahal believes in growing one's own food, saying, 'You have a whole generation of kids who think everything comes out of a box and a can, and they don't know you can grow most of your food.' Because of his personal support of the family farm, Mahal regularly performs at Farm Aid concerts.^[8]

Taj Mahal, his stage name, came to him in dreams about Gandhi, India, and social tolerance. He started using it in 1959^[9] or 1961^[6]—around the same time he began attending the University of Massachusetts. Despite having attended a vocational agriculture school, becoming a member of the National FFA Organization, and majoring in animal husbandry and minoring in veterinary science and agronomy, Mahal decided to take the route of music instead of farming. In college he led a rhythm and blues band called Taj Mahal & The Elektras and, before heading for the U.S. West Coast, he was also part of a duo with Jessie Lee Kincaid.^[6]

Career[edit]

In 1964 he moved to Santa Monica, California, and formed Rising Sons with fellow blues rock musician Ry Cooder and Jessie Lee Kincaid, landing a record deal with Columbia Records soon after. The group was one of the first interracial bands of the period, which likely made them commercially unviable.^[10] An album was never released (though a single was) and the band soon broke up, though Legacy Records did release The Rising Sons Featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder in 1992 with material from that period. During this time Mahal was working with others, musicians like Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Muddy Waters.^[7] Mahal stayed with Columbia after the Rising Sons to begin his solo career, releasing the self-titled Taj Mahal in 1968, The Natch'l Blues in 1969, and Giant Step/De Old Folks at Home with Kiowa session musician Jesse Ed Davis from Oklahoma, who played guitar and piano (also in 1969).^[11] During this time he and Cooder worked with the Rolling Stones, with whom he has performed at various times throughout his career.^[12] In 1968, he performed in the film The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. He recorded a total of twelve albums for Columbia from the late 1960s into the 1970s. His work of the 1970s was especially important, in that his releases began incorporating West Indian and Caribbean music, jazz and reggae into the mix. In 1972, he acted in and wrote the film score for the movie Sounder, which starred Cicely Tyson.^[12] He reprised his role and returned as composer in the sequel, Part 2, Sounder.^[13]

In 1976 Mahal left Columbia and signed with Warner Bros. Records, recording three albums for them. One of these was another film score for 1977's Brothers; the album shares the same name. After his time with Warner Bros., he struggled to find another record contract, this being the era of heavy metal and disco music.

Stalled in his career, he decided to move to Kauai, Hawaii in 1981 and soon formed the Hula Blues Band. Originally just a group of guys getting together for fishing and a good time, the band soon began performing regularly and touring.^[14] He remained somewhat concealed from most eyes while working out of Hawaii throughout most of the 1980s before recording Taj in 1988 for Gramavision.^[12] This started a comeback of sorts for him, recording both for Gramavision and Hannibal Records during this time.

In the 1990s he was on the Private Music label, releasing albums full of blues, pop, R&B and rock. He did collaborative works both with Eric Clapton and Etta James.^[12]

In 1998, in collaboration with renowned songwriter David Forman, producer Rick Chertoff and musicians Cyndi Lauper, Willie Nile, Joan Osborne, Rob Hyman, Garth Hudson and Levon Helm of the Band, and the Chieftains, he performed on the Americana album Largo based on the music of Antonín Dvořák.

In 1997 he won Best Contemporary Blues Album for Señor Blues at the Grammy Awards, followed by another Grammy for Shoutin' in Key in 2000.^[15] He performed the theme song to the children's television show Peep and the Big Wide World, which began broadcast in 2004.

In 2002, Mahal appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot and Riot in tribute to Nigerian afrobeat musician Fela Kuti. The Paul Heck produced album was widely acclaimed, and all proceeds from the record were donated to AIDS charities.

Taj Mahal contributed to Olmecha Supreme's 2006 album 'hedfoneresonance'.^[16] The Wellington-based group led by Mahal's son Imon Starr (Ahmen Mahal) also featured Deva Mahal on vocals.^[17]

Mahal partnered up with Keb' Mo' to release a joint album TajMo on May 5, 2017.^[18] The album has some guest appearances by Bonnie Raitt, Joe Walsh, Sheila E., and Lizz Wright, and has six original compositions and five covers, from artists and bands like John Mayer and The Who.^[19]

In June 2017, Mahal appeared in the award-winning documentary film The American Epic Sessions, directed by Bernard MacMahon, recording Charley Patton's 'High Water Everywhere'^[20] on the first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s.^[21] Mahal appeared throughout the accompanying documentary series American Epic, commenting on the 1920s rural recording artists who had a profound influence on American music and on him personally.^[22]

Musical style[edit]

Mahal leads with his thumb and middle finger when fingerpicking, rather than with his index finger as the majority of guitar players do. 'I play with a flatpick,' he says, 'when I do a lot of blues leads.'^[7] Early in his musical career Mahal studied the various styles of his favorite blues singers, including musicians like Jimmy Reed, Son House, Sleepy John Estes, Big Mama Thornton, Howlin' Wolf, Mississippi John Hurt, and Sonny Terry. He describes his hanging out at clubs like Club 47 in Massachusetts and Ash Grove in Los Angeles as 'basic building blocks in the development of his music.'^[23] Considered to be a scholar of blues music, his studies of ethnomusicology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst would come to introduce him further to the folk music of the Caribbean and West Africa. Over time he incorporated more and more African roots music into his musical palette, embracing elements of reggae, calypso,^[11] jazz, zydeco, R&B, gospel music, and the country blues—each of which having 'served as the foundation of his unique sound.'^[3] According to The Rough Guide to Rock, 'It has been said that Taj Mahal was one of the first major artists, if not the very first one, to pursue the possibilities of world music. Even the blues he was playing in the early 70s – Recycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff (1972), Mo' Roots (1974) – showed an aptitude for spicing the mix with flavours that always kept him a yard or so distant from being an out-and-out blues performer.'^[11] Concerning his voice, author David Evans writes that Mahal has 'an extraordinary voice that ranges from gruff and gritty to smooth and sultry.'^[1]

Taj Mahal believes that his 1999 album Kulanjan, which features him playing with the kora master of Mali's Griot tradition Toumani Diabate, 'embodies his musical and cultural spirit arriving full circle.' To him it was an experience that allowed him to reconnect with his African heritage, striking him with a sense of coming home.^[4] He even changed his name to Dadi Kouyate, the first jali name, to drive this point home.^[24] Speaking of the experience and demonstrating the breadth of his eclecticism, he has said:

Taj Mahal Musician

The microphones are listening in on a conversation between a 350-year-old orphan and its long-lost birth parents. I've got so much other music to play. But the point is that after recording with these Africans, basically if I don't play guitar for the rest of my life, that's fine with me....With Kulanjan, I think that Afro-Americans have the opportunity to not only see the instruments and the musicians, but they also see more about their culture and recognize the faces, the walks, the hands, the voices, and the sounds that are not the blues. Afro-American audiences had their eyes really opened for the first time. This was exciting for them to make this connection and pay a little more attention to this music than before.^[4]

Taj Mahal has said he prefers to do outdoor performances, saying: 'The music was designed for people to move, and it's a bit difficult after a while to have people sitting like they're watching television. That's why I like to play outdoor festivals-because people will just dance. Theatre audiences need to ask themselves: 'What the hell is going on? We're asking these musicians to come and perform and then we sit there and draw all the energy out of the air.' That's why after a while I need a rest. It's too much of a drain. Often I don't allow that. I just play to the goddess of music-and I know she's dancing.'^[5]

Mahal has been quoted as saying, 'Eighty-one percent of the kids listening to rap were not black kids. Once there was a tremendous amount of money involved in it ... they totally moved it over to a material side. It just went off to a terrible direction. ...You can listen to my music from front to back, and you don't ever hear me moaning and crying about how bad you done treated me. I think that style of blues and that type of tone was something that happened as a result of many white people feeling very, very guilty about what went down.'^[25]

Awards[edit]

Taj Mahal has received three Grammy Awards (ten nominations) over his career.^[1]

• 1997 (Grammy Award) Best Contemporary Blues Album for Señor Blues^[15]
• 2000 (Grammy Award) Best Contemporary Blues Album for Shoutin' in Key^[15]
• 2006 (Blues Music Awards) Historical Album of the Year for The Essential Taj Mahal^[26]
• 2008 (Grammy Nomination) Best Contemporary Blues Album for Maestro^[15]
• 2018 (Grammy Award) Best Contemporary Blues Album for TajMo^[27]

On February 8, 2006 Taj Mahal was designated the official Blues Artist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.^[28]

In March 2006, Taj Mahal, along with his sister, the late Carole Fredericks, received the Foreign Language Advocacy Award from the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in recognition of their commitment to shine a spotlight on the vast potential of music to foster genuine intercultural communication.^[29]

On May 22, 2011, Taj Mahal received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He also made brief remarks and performed three songs. A video of the performance can be found online.^[30]

In 2014, Taj Mahal received the Americana Music Association's Lifetime Achievement award.

Discography[edit]

Albums[edit]

• 1968 – Taj Mahal
• 1968 – The Natch'l Blues
• 1969 – Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home
• 1971 – Happy Just to Be Like I Am
• 1972 – Recycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff
• 1972 – Sounder (original soundtrack)
• 1973 – Oooh So Good 'n Blues
• 1974 – Mo' Roots
• 1975 – Music Keeps Me Together
• 1976 – Satisfied 'n Tickled Too
• 1976 – Music Fuh Ya'
• 1977 – Brothers
• 1977 – Evolution
• 1987 – Taj
• 1988 – Shake Sugaree
• 1991 – Mule Bone
• 1991 – Like Never Before
• 1993 – Dancing the Blues
• 1995 – Mumtaz Mahal (with V.M. Bhatt and N. Ravikiran)
• 1996 – Phantom Blues
• 1997 – Señor Blues
• 1998 – Sacred Island AKA Hula Blues (with The Hula Blues Band)
• 1999 – Blue Light Boogie
• 1999 – Kulanjan (with Toumani Diabaté)
• 2001 – Hanapepe Dream (with The Hula Blues Band)
• 2005 – Mkutano Meets the Culture Musical Club of Zanzibar
• 2008 – Maestro
• 2014 – Talkin' Christmas (with Blind Boys of Alabama)
• 2016 – Labor of Love
• 2017 – TajMo (with Keb' Mo')

Live albums[edit]

• 1971 – The Real Thing
• 1972 – Recycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff
• 1972 – Big Sur Festival - One Hand Clapping
• 1979 – Live & Direct
• 1990 – Live at Ronnie Scott's
• 1996 – An Evening of Acoustic Music
• 2000 – Shoutin' in Key
• 2004 – Live Catch
• 2015 – Taj Mahal & The Hula Blues Band: Live From Kauai

Compilation albums[edit]

• 1980 – Going Home
• 1981 – The Best of Taj Mahal, Volume 1 (Columbia)
• 1992 – Taj's Blues
• 1993 – World Music
• 1998 – In Progress & In Motion: 1965-1998
• 1999 – Blue Light Boogie
• 2000 – The Best of Taj Mahal
• 2000 – The Best of the Private Years
• 2001 – Sing a Happy Song: The Warner Bros. Recordings
• 2003 – Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues – Taj Mahal
• 2003 – Blues with a Feeling: The Very Best of Taj Mahal
• 2005 – The Essential Taj Mahal
• 2012 – Hidden Treasures of Taj Mahal

Various artists featuring Taj Mahal[edit]

• 1968 – The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
• 1968 – The Rock Machine Turns You On
• 1970 – Fill Your Head With Rock
• 1985 – Conjure: Music for the Texts of Ishmael Reed
• 1990 – The Hot Spot – original soundtrack
• 1991 – Vol Pour Sidney – one title only, other tracks by Charlie Watts, Elvin Jones, Pepsi, The Lonely Bears, Lee Konitz and others.
• 1992 – Rising Sons Featuring Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder
• 1992 – Smilin' Island of Song by Cedella Marley Booker and Taj Mahal.
• 1993 – The Source by Ali Farka Touré (World Circuit WCD030; Hannibal 1375)
• 1993 – Peace Is the World Smiling
• 1997 – Follow the Drinking Gourd
• 1997 – Shakin' a Tailfeather
• 1998 – Scrapple – original soundtrack
• 1998 – Largo
• 1999 – Hippity Hop
• 2001 – 'Strut' – with Jimmy Smith on his album Dot Com Blues
• 2002 – Jools Holland's Big Band Rhythm & Blues (Rhino) – contributing his version of 'Outskirts of Town'^[31]
• 2002 – Will The Circle Be Unbroken, Volume III – lead in and first verse of the title track, with Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Alison Krauss, Doc Watson
• 2004 – Musicmakers with Taj Mahal (Music Maker 49)
• 2004 – Etta Baker with Taj Mahal (Music Maker 50)
• 2007 – Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino (Vanguard) – contributing his version of 'My Girl Josephine'
• 2007 – Le Cœur d'un homme by Johnny Hallyday – duet on 'T'Aimer si mal', written by French best-selling novelist Marc Levy
• 2009 – American Horizon – with Los Cenzontles, David Hidalgo
• 2011 – Play The Blues Live From Lincoln Jazz Center – with Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton, playing on 'Just a Closer Walk With Thee' and 'Corrine, Corrina'
• 2013 – 'Poye 2' – with Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba on their album Jama Ko
• 2013 – 'Winding Down' – with Sammy Hagar, Dave Zirbel, John Cuniberti, Mona Gnader, Vic Johnson on the album Sammy Hagar & Friends
• 2013 – Divided & United: The Songs of the Civil War – with a version of 'Down by the Riverside'
• 2015 – 'How Can a Poor Boy?' – with Van Morrison on his album Re-working the Catalogue
• 2017 – Music from The American Epic Sessions: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – contributing his version of 'High Water Everywhere'

Filmography[edit]

Live DVDs

• 2002 – Live at Ronnie Scott's 1988
• 2006 – Taj Mahal/Phantom Blues Band Live at St. Lucia
• 2011 – Play The Blues Live From Lincoln Jazz Center – with Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton, playing on 'Just a Closer Walk With Thee' and 'Corrine, Corrina'

Movies

• 1972 – Sounder – as Ike
• 1977 – Brothers
• 1991 – Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
• 1996 – The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
• 1998 – Outside Ozona
• 1998 – Six Days, Seven Nights
• 1998 – Blues Brothers 2000
• 1998 – Scrapple
• 2000 – Songcatcher
• 2002 – Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
• 2017 – American Epic
• 2017 – The American Epic Sessions

TV Shows

• 1985 - Theme song from Star Wars: Ewoks
• 1992 – New WKRP in Cincinnati – Moss Dies as himself
• 1999 – Party of Five – Fillmore Street as himself
• 2003 – Arthur – Big Horns George as himself
• 2004 – Theme song from Peep and the Big Wide World

Notes[edit]

1. ^ ^abcEvans, et al., xii.
2. ^Komara, 951.
3. ^ ^abDiCaire, 9
4. ^ ^abcTipaldi, 179–185
5. ^ ^ab'Deep African roots help shape Taj Mahal's blues Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly'. Straight.com. April 13, 2006. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
6. ^ ^abcdeWhite, Billboard
7. ^ ^abcdMadsen, 60–73
8. ^ ^abGeorge-Warren, et al., 129
9. ^Strong, 493–494
10. ^Weissman, 160
11. ^ ^abcBuckley, et al., 1050
12. ^ ^abcdVickers, album insert
13. ^Eder, Richard (October 14, 1976). 'Film: A Sequel:'Sounder Part 2' Is Gloomy and Full of Sentimentality'. The New York Times. Retrieved May 25, 2017.
14. ^'Taj Mahal and the Hula Blues Band'. Brudda.com. Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. Retrieved 2011-12-30.
15. ^ ^abcd[1]^{[dead link]}
16. ^Supreme, Olmecha. 'hedfoneresonance'. Bandcamp.com. Bandcamp. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
17. ^'Olmecha Supreme'. MusicNet.co.nz. Retrieved March 23, 2019.
18. ^Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. 'TajMo - Taj Mahal / Keb' Mo''. AllMusic. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
19. ^Cunningham, Scott (March 15, 2017). 'TajMo: Taj Mahal and Keb' Mo' team up for new album'. Oregon Music News. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
20. ^'Taj Mahal - High Water Everywhere, The Sessions, American Epic, Arena - BBC Four'. BBC. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
21. ^'The Performers in 'The American Epic Sessions''. WTTW Chicago Public Media - Television and Interactive. June 6, 2017. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
22. ^''The influence of Charley Patton can not be understated ...', Part 2: Blood and Soil, American Epic, Arena - BBC Four'. BBC. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
23. ^Weissman, 117
24. ^Elam & Jackson, 301–302
25. ^Tianen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
26. ^[2]Archived February 11, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
27. ^'Taj Mahal'. Grammy.com. November 28, 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2018.
28. ^'Session Laws: Chapter 19 of the Acts of 2006'. Mass.gov. February 8, 2006. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
29. ^'The James W. Dodge Foreign Language Advocate Award'. Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Archived from the original on August 21, 2014. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
30. ^'Wofford College - Commencement 2011'. Wofford.edu. October 22, 2007. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
31. ^Richie Unterberger (January 8, 2002). 'Jools Holland's Big Band Rhythm & Blues - Jools Holland Songs, Reviews, Credits'. AllMusic. Retrieved October 7, 2015.

References[edit]

• Buckley, Peter; Buckley, Joanathan (2003). The Rough Guide to Rock (3rd ed.). London, U.K.: Rough Guides. ISBN1-84353-105-4.
• Dicaire, David (2002). More Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Artists from the Later 20th Century. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. ISBN0-7864-1035-3.
• Elam, Harry Justin; Jackson, Kennell (2005). Black Cultural Traffic: Crossroads in Global Performance and Popular Culture. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. ISBN0-472-09840-3.
• Evans, David (2005). The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Blues. New York City: Berkley Publishing Group. ISBN0-399-53072-X.
• George-Warren, Holly; Hoekstra, Dave; Natkin, Paul; Willie Nelson; et al. (2005). Farm Aid: A Song for America. Emmaus, PA: Rodale. ISBN1-59486-285-0.
• Komara, Edward M. (2006). Encyclopedia of the Blues. New York City: Routledge. ISBN0-415-92699-8.
• Madsen, Pete (December 8, 2006). 'Mojo master (interview with Taj Mahal)'. Acoustic Guitar. 17 (6).
• Strong, M.C. (1998). The Great Rock Discography. Giunti. ISBN88-09-21522-2.
• Tianen, Dave (January 12, 2003). 'Taj Mahal a well-rounded blues scholar'. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved July 4, 2008.^{[dead link]}
• Tipaldi, Art (2002). Children of the Blues: 49 Musicians Shaping a New Blues Tradition. San Francisco, CA: Backbeat Books. ISBN0-87930-700-5.
• Vickers, Tom (2003). Blues With a Feeling/The Very Best of Taj Mahal (album insert). Private Music/BMG Heritage.
• Weissman, Dick (2005). Which Side are You On?: An Inside History of the Folk Music Revival in America. New York, NY: Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN0-8264-1698-5.
• White, Timothy. 'Taj mahal: a giant step ahead of his time'. Billboard. 112.
• 'Taj Mahal'. Acoustic Magazine.

External links[edit]

• Taj Mahal on IMDb

Jesse Edwin Davis (September 21, 1944 – June 22, 1988) was a Native Americanguitarist. He was well regarded as a session artist and solo performer, was a member of the band Taj Mahal and played with musicians such as Eric Clapton, John Lennon, and George Harrison.^[1] In 2018, Jesse Ed Davis was inducted into the Native American Music Hall of Fame at the 18th Annual Native American Music Awards Native American Music Hall of Fame.

• 4Discography

Early life and education[edit]

Davis was born in Norman, Oklahoma. His father, Jesse Ed Davis II, was Comanche, and his mother's side was Kiowa. His father was an accomplished painter in the 'flat-style' tradition of Southern Plains painting; his works were exhibited in the state capitol in Oklahoma City.^{[citation needed]}

Davis began his musical career in the late 1950s in Oklahoma City and surrounding cities with John Ware (later a drummer for Emmylou Harris), John Selk (later a bass player for Donovan), Jerry Fisher (later a vocalist with Blood, Sweat & Tears), Mike Boyle, Chris Frederickson, drummer Bill Maxwell (later with Andrae Crouch and Koinonia) and others.^{[citation needed]}

He graduated from Northeast High School in 1962.^{[citation needed]} Davis graduated with a degree in English Literature from the University of Oklahoma; even into his later years, he was remembered to enjoy quoting Socrates and Plato.^[2] By the mid-1960s, he had quit school and went touring with Conway Twitty.^{[citation needed]}

Career[edit]

Davis eventually moved to California. For eight years, he lived in Marina del Rey with his companion, Patti Daley, and her son, Billy. Through his friendship with Levon Helm, he became friends with Leon Russell, who introduced him to recording session work.^{[citation needed]}

Davis joined Taj Mahal and played guitar and piano on Mahal's first three albums. He played slide, lead and rhythm, country and even jazz during his three-year stint with Mahal. Mahal and his band were invited to England by the Rolling Stones,^[3] and they appeared as a musical guest in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus.^[4]

After Mahal's 1969 album Giant Step, Davis turned to session work for David Cassidy, Albert King, Willie Nelson and others.^{[citation needed]} In 1970, he played on and produced Roger Tillison's only album for Atco Records, a division of Atlantic. Davis and Tillison − both Oklahoman − were joined at the Record Plant by Bobby Bruce (fiddle), Larry Knechtel (organ and harmonica), Stan Szelest (piano); Billy Rich (bass); Jim Keltner (drums) and Sandy Konikoff (percussion); Don Preston and Joey Cooper were vocal accompanists. Roger Tillison's Album was recorded live. It was finally released on CD by Wounded Bird Records in 2008, with Davis playing electric guitar, bottleneck (slide) guitar and banjo.^{[citation needed]} The Woody Guthrie song 'Old Cracked Looking Glass' has become a standard for Oklahoma bands.^{[citation needed]}

In 1971, Davis recorded his first solo album after Atco Records signed a contract with him to record two albums with the label. The first was the album Jesse Davis (1971), which featured backing vocals by Gram Parsons and performances by Leon Russell and Eric Clapton, among others.^{[citation needed]}

Davis was close friends with Gene Clark. In 1971, he played on and produced Clark's second solo album, White Light, and provided lead guitar on Clark's album No Other in 1974. At Jackson Browne´s debut in 1972, he played the solo on Brown's hit song 'Doctor My Eyes'.

After guesting with Russell on Bob Dylan's 1971 single 'Watching the River Flow', Davis went on to work with George Harrison, performing at the ex-Beatle's 1971 Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden, along with Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Russell, Keltner, Clapton and others.^[5]

Two more solo albums followed: in 1972 Ululu, which included the original release of Harrison's 'Sue Me, Sue You Blues'^{[citation needed]}, and in 1973 Keep Me Comin, occasionally listed as Keep On Coming. Around this time, Davis began playing with John Lennon, for whom he played lead guitar on the albums Walls and Bridges (1974) and Rock 'n' Roll (1975). In addition, Davis was a guest performer on other albums by former Beatles: Harrison's Extra Texture (1975) and Starr's Goodnight Vienna (1974) and Ringo's Rotogravure (1976).^{[citation needed]}

In the late summer and fall of 1975, he performed with the Faces as second guitarist throughout their final US tour. It was on this tour that Davis became addicted to drugs.^[3]

After the Faces tour, Davis continued to work as a session player. In addition to the artists listed above, Davis contributed to albums by Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Keith Moon, Steve Miller, Guthrie Thomas, Harry Nilsson, Ry Cooder, Neil Diamond, Rick Danko, Van Dyke Parks and others. He played on Leonard Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man (1977), produced by Phil Spector.^{[citation needed]}

In 1977, he moved to Hawaii; In 1981, he returned to Los Angeles 'broke and ravaged by drug and alcohol addiction'.^[2] In and out of clinics, Davis disappeared from the music industry for a time, spending much of the 1980s dealing with alcohol and drug addiction. Throughout the ten years he was with Patti Daley, they never married. In the following years he married twice.^{[citation needed]} While married to his second wife,^{[citation needed]} in 1985 he formed and played in the Graffiti Band, which coupled his music with the poetry of the Native American activist John Trudell (American Indian Movement). The result of this collaboration was the album, released initially only on cassette, called 'AKA Grafitti Man', which Bob Dylan called the best album of the year.^[3][6]

In the spring of 1987, the Graffiti Band performed with Taj Mahal at the Palomino Club in North Hollywood, California. At this show, George Harrison, Bob Dylan and John Fogerty got up from the audience to join Davis and Mahal in an unrehearsed set which included Fogerty's 'Proud Mary' and Dylan's 'Watching the River Flow', as well as classics such as 'Blue Suede Shoes', 'Peggy Sue', 'Honey Don't', 'Matchbox' and 'Gone, Gone, Gone'.^{[citation needed]}

Death[edit]

Davis collapsed in the laundry room of an apartment building and was pronounced dead in Venice, California, on June 22, 1988. Police stated his death appeared to be the result of a drug overdose. Davis had a fresh needle mark on one arm and burned matches and tin foil were scattered on the ground nearby ^[7] He was 43 years old.

In 2002, he was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.

In 2018, Jesse Ed Davis was inducted into the Native American Music Hall of Fame at the 18th Annual Native American Music Awards. A performance tribute was held by his former Graffiti band members, Mark Shark and Quiltman. His cousins Richenda Davis Bates and Constance Jean Carter were in attendance.

Discography[edit]

With Junior Markham & The Tulsa Review[edit]

• 'Let 'em Roll Johnny / Operator Operator' (Uptown Records, 1967)
• 'Black Cherry / Gonna Send You Back to Georgia' (Uptown Records, 1967)

With Taj Mahal[edit]

• Taj Mahal (Columbia Records, 1968)
• The Natch'l Blues (Columbia Records, 1968)
• Giant Step (Columbia Records, 1969)
• The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus (ABKCO Records, 1996)

As leader[edit]

• Jesse Davis (Atco Records, 1971)
• Ululu (Atco Records, 1972)
• Keep Me Comin or Keep On Coming (Epic Records, 1973)
• Bonus Record (An exclusive interview in Los Angeles with KMET-FM's B. Mitchel Reed - Jesse 'Ed' Davis talks about his background, his music and his new album, Epic Records, 1973)

As sideman[edit]

• Daughters of Albion - Daughters of Albion (1968)
• Look Inside the Asylum Choir - The Asylum Choir (1968)
• Live at Bill Graham's Fillmore West - various artists (1969)
• 'Watching the River Flow / Spanish is the Loving Tongue' - Bob Dylan (1971)
• Roger Tillison's Album - Roger Tillison (1971)
• Minnows - Marc Benno (1971)
• Feel Your Groove - Ben Sidran (1971)
• There's Gotta Be a Change - Albert Collins (1971)
• Booker T. & Priscilla - Booker T. & Priscilla (1971)
• Warm Waters - Charles Lloyd (1971)
• Happy Just to Be Like I Am - Taj Mahal (1971)
• She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina - Buffy Sainte-Marie (1971)
• Leon Russell and the Shelter People - Leon Russell (1971)
• Asylum Choir II - The Asylum Choir (1971)
• Endless Boogie - John Lee Hooker (1971)
• Lovejoy - Albert King (1971)
• White Light - Gene Clark (1971)
• The Concert for Bangladesh - George Harrison & Friends (1971)
• Ambush - Marc Benno (1972)
• Out the Window - Jim Pulte (1972)
• Salty - Alex Richman (1972)
• L.A. Midnight - B.B. King (1972)
• Jackson Browne - Jackson Browne (1972)
• Recall the Beginning...A Journey from Eden - Steve Miller Band (1972)
• Rod Taylor - Rod Taylor (1973)
• These Foolish Things - Bryan Ferry (1973)
• Last of the Brooklyn Cowboys - Arlo Guthrie (1973)
• Home at Last - Wayne Berry (1974)
• Arlo Guthrie - Arlo Guthrie (1974)
• L.A. Turnaround - Bert Jansch (1974)
• No Other - Gene Clark (1974)
• Walls and Bridges - John Lennon (1974)
• Goodnight Vienna - Ringo Starr (1974)
• Pussy Cats - Harry Nilsson (1974)
• That's a Plenty - Pointer Sisters (1974)
• ST11261 - Brewer & Shipley (1974)
• Burnin' Thing - Mac Davis (1975)
• The Eyes of an Only Child - Tom Jans (1975)
• See How the Years Have Gone By - Valdy (1975)
• Stars - Cher (1975)
• Two Sides of the Moon - Keith Moon (1975)
• Extra Texture (Read All About It) - George Harrison (1975)
• Rock 'n' Roll - John Lennon (1975)
• Duit on Mon Dei - Harry Nilsson (1975)
• Born to Be with You - Dion (1975)
• New Arrangement - Jackie DeShannon (1975)
• Earthbound - The 5th Dimension (1975)
• Midnight on the Water - David Bromberg Band (1975)
• Atlantic Crossing - Rod Stewart (1975)
• A Night on the Town - Rod Stewart (1976)
• Sandman - Harry Nilsson (1976)
• Diggin' It - Dunn & Rubini (1976)
• Cupid's Arrow - David Blue (1976)
• Welcome to Club Casablanca - Long John Baldry (1976)
• Time Is on My Side - Tracy Nelson (1976)
• Motion - Geoff Muldaur (1976)
• Attitudes - Attitudes (1976)
• Home Is Where the Heart Is - David Cassidy (1976)
• Beautiful Noise - Neil Diamond (1976)
• Slow Down World - Donovan (1976)
• No Reason to Cry - Eric Clapton (1976)
• Ringo's Rotogravure - Ringo Starr (1976)
• Clang of the Yankee Reaper - Van Dyke Parks (1976)
• Death of a Ladies' Man - Leonard Cohen (1977)
• Blue Collar (soundtrack) - with Captain Beefheart and Jack Nitzsche (1978)
• A Little Kiss in the Night - Ben Sidran (1978)
• The Legend of Jesse James - various artists (1980)
• Kent State (soundtrack) - various artists (1981)
• Hobo Eagle Thief - Guthrie Thomas (1983)
• AKA Grafitti Man - John Trudell (1986)
• Heart Jump Bouquet - John Trudell (1987)
• Taj - Taj Mahal (1987)
• Slide of Hand - Scott Colby (1987)
• It's a Sin to Be Rich - Lightnin' Hopkins (1992, recorded in 1972)
• '1000 Dollar Wedding' and 'Hot Burrito #1' - Gram Parsons (1992, Extended play side B only, recorded in 1971)

References[edit]

1. ^Simmonds, Jeremy. The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches. p. 235.
2. ^ ^abMARK ARAX and PAUL FELDMAN OBITUARIES : Backed Up Major Artists : Jesse Ed Davis, 43; Noted Rock Guitarist, June 24, 1988. Los Angeles Times
3. ^ ^abcDocumentary film, Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World, 2017
4. ^'Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, The (1995) - Full Credits - TCM.com'. Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
5. ^'The George Harrison Bangla Desh Benefit'. Rolling Stone. 2 September 1971. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
6. ^John Trudell, John Trudell Archives Re-releases The Critically Acclaimed Aka Grafitti Man, March 21, 2017
7. ^'Drug Overdose Blamed In Death of Guitarist'. The Oklahoman. July 25, 1988. Archived from the original on March 6, 2017. Retrieved March 6, 2017.

External links[edit]

• Jas Obrecht Jesse Ed Davis: “I Just Play the Notes That Sound Good” 2010 Jas Obrecht Music ARCHIVE.
• Dan Forte Jesse Ed Davis: Guitar Hero's Guitar Hero August 2005 Vintage Guitar (magazine).