John Davis

S = Standifer
JD = John Davis
L = Louie Armstrong

S It's August 27th and we're at the Red Roof Inn in Ann Arbor Michigan. We're talking to
Mr. John Davis
JD Yeah!

S He is going to give us some comments on his life and works and of his travels and some places he used to record for. How old are you Mr. Davis?
JD I'll be 70 December the 7th

S 70 years old December the 7th
JD 1913.

S Where were you born?
JD Hattiesburg, Mississippi

S Do you have family there now?
JD Oh yes I have a host of kin people there but I don't know none of them.

S How many children were in your family?
JD Well my mother and father, they had four all together

S How many boys?
JD I had a brother before me and three sisters

S Are they living now?
JD No. No one living now.

S What were their names?
JD there was Frances Davis, Lola Davis, Maurine Davis, and Bernice Davis

S Now what number what order did you come? Are you the oldest the youngest or the middle one?
JD No I'm next to the oldest.

S I see. What were your mother and fathers' names?
JD MY dads name was John Wesley Davis and my mothers name was Lilly Olivia Davis.

S Where did they come from originally? Mississippi?
JD My father Garlands Ville, Mississippi. My mother was from York Alabama.

S I see. Do you remember your grandparents?
JD Yes. I remember my two grandmothers. My grandmother on my fathers side was Indian her name was Sophie, and my mothers mother her name was Lulu Buck.

S Were they old enough at that time to be slaves. During the slavery time?
JD Yeah. My grandmother when the stars fell, when slavery was declared she was a thirteen year old girl.

S Oh my god! Really...did they tell you what plantation they were associated with?
JD Yes, but I don't recall what plantation now.

S Of course...as a boy do you remember having an automobile or a wagon or how did you get around transportation
Wise?
JD Well I had wagons bicycles and all that stuff.

S Oh you did have a bike,
JD Oh yeah...

S Well then you must be one of the more affluent Black then, because men of the Black didn't have
The luxurey of a bicycle.
JD Well uh...I was around twelve or thirteen years old and see my parents moved to Chicago in 1916, when I was just
Two and a half years old.

S Oh I see...so you really grew up in the city then
JD Yeah...Chicago is my home cause I have never been back to Mississippi.

S Where in Chicago? South north?
JD The Westside

S Westside.
JD Yeah all my life Westside

S What address is that?
JD My first place my father had for me and my mother come Chicago was 2552 West Lake Street.

S 2552 west Lake Street. Is that place still a residential area?
JD No, all of that is torn down now.

S Where did you move to from there?
JD We moved from there to 233 North Artesia.

S 233 North Artesia?
JD Yeah. Avenue.

S Is that on the south side?
JD Westside

S Oh that's on the Westside also.
JD ahuh.

S And are you living there now?
JD No, I own my own place now.

S Where is that located?
JD 317 North Long Avenue, it's the north district near Oak Park.

S What is the zip code?
JD 60644

S All right...are you living there alone or do you have a family?
JD No I just lost my wife, November 1st of 1982.

S Oh I see. Did you have any children?
JD Not by her but her but I have four kids.

S Are they boys, girls?
JD Two boys and two girls.

S What's the oldest?
JD My oldest boy Pat Davis.

S And what about names of the other three.
JD My other ah, my youngest boy is Johnny and my girl is Bernice and Mary.

S Are any of them musically inclined?
JD No.

S They didn't follow after fathers footsteps then.
JD No they didn't.

S I see. What about your wife was she musically inclined?
JD No.

S But she liked music.
JD Oh yes. She was a music fanatic she loved music.

S Lets go back to Mississippi for, well not to Mississippi I guess, your early age in Chicago how did you happen to be, get involved in music?
JD Well I'll tell you it's a funny thing. I learned music through jealously.

S Jealously? You have to explain this now.
JD My father had three or four speakeasies like and I would see him paying the different piano players so I asked him one night "say pa if I learn how to play, would you pay me?" He said "oh yeah"___?____ but I gave him a many sleepless night, me rehearsing, cause I had a little radio that they called a crystal set and ah if I hear something at two o'clock in the morning I'd get up and try to play it on the piano.

S So you obviously had a very good ear for music.
JD Yes.

S Did that help you as time went on in terms of trying to play for yourself and others?
JD Well then I went to blind school and I took music there.

S Oh you were blind at a very early age then.
JD Oh, I lost my sight at nine years old.

S do you recall....
JD 1922

S nine years old 1922and you were in Chicago?
JD yeah

S was there any thing that caused the loss of your sight?
JD Well I stuck a twenty penny rusty nail through my foot and a little jack legged doctor stopped and let me let it be. Some doctors say that was the cause of me to lose my sight. It settled in the weakest part about me and that was my eyes.

S Now when, what were you running around and just happened top step on a old rusty
JD No, me and a bunch of kids was playing cops and robbers, and it was in an old vacant lot with a whole bunch of broken down wagons. It was mostly all horses and wagons then, and we was jumping from wagon to wagon. And one of the boys pushed me and I missed the wagon and jumped down and stuck this old rusty nail through my foot on the wagon tongue.

S Ooh my goodness. Do you recall as a boy of nine years how you felt when you began to, well how did you begin

JD Well it started gradually, I imagine it took seven or eight months before the doctors pronounced me total blind.

S I see. How did you feel as a nine-year-old boy losing your sight?
JD I tried to kill myself.

S That's an incredible experience. Did your parents help to sort of bring you through that, even with the attempted? Suicide?
JD Yeah, yeah they did.

S So I guess it took an awful lot of love for them to bring you through this at this age.
JD Yes it did.

S Did you go to church much as a young boy?
JD Oh my god yes. My grandmother we went to church every night, she'd find some church someplace we'd go every night to church

S Do you remember, at least when I was a boy in Texas on Wednesday night we always went to prayer meeting
JD Well my grandmother was right there at everything, all the churches.

S As you grew up then of course you just said you went to church when did you start playing some of the songs that you play now?
JD Well I could sing a lot of the old songs before I started messing with piano. So after I lost my sight my father bought my mother an old player piano. And they wanted me to be a piano player because at one time he had a very dear friend was a piano player. She could see though and they called her Maud and he used to drive her thirty or forty miles in a buggy to play fir the rich people down in the south

S At parties?
JD Yes at parties, weddings and such things that the rich people used to have, and also my mothers baby brother. He played a little piano, and then I had a very famous cousin to the family Cody Vaughn he was kin to my father

S How old were you during those day at that time?
JD Well I started playing professional when I was about seventeen.

S I see. How old were you when you made your first recording
JD Oh when I made my first recording I was twenty-four.

S Twenty-four. So from seventeen to twenty four you were sort of ah perfecting your art huh?
JD Yep.

S Now being blind was it very difficult for you to learn or you just sit there and pick the notes out?
JD No, I guess it was really a god sent thing because

S You hear it you'd play it.
JD Anything I heard I could play. I could play with anybody, so I played with all the great blues players such as, Tamper Red I'd taken care of him till he passed in 1980.

S Now Tamper lived in Chicago too didn't he?
JD Yes he did he was the first one that give me my break.

S Do you considerer yourself influenced by tamper Reds style.
JD Well I play all different styles, I'm not just a blues player I play all different types of music.

S Let's digress for a minute, if you had to compare yourself or to describe your style considering Little Brother Montgomery's style, what's the difference, or is there a difference?
JD Well yes my God I have a style of my own I built my style.

S What do you do in your style that differs from many other blues pianists.
JD My style that a lot of other blues players can't do.

S Do you have more of a rolling bass with your left hand.
JD I have a very out standing rolling bass and I have a very tricky right hand

S And you use that to sort of develop your style then, those are trademarks. Is there any cord pattern that is typically? John Davis?
JD Well if anybody has ever heard me they will know when they hear my first beginning.

S At twenty-four had you made a recording at that time?
JD That was my first recording ah Tamper Red at that time Wally Simpson and the Prince of Wales had just got married, and he turned down to be a King for her so Tamper Red had wrote she is more to me than A________or King. At first Lester Melrose he had me come to 3719 Dearborn in Chicago to hear me. So it was washboard Sam and he didn't like me at that time for I played with him so Tamper Red wrote some very outstanding art stuff for that piano player so Melrose figured he'd get rid of me and take me around to 3432 State street to Tamper. So Tampers wife at that time had been sick and so tamper had tried three or four different piano players and they couldn't play in minor key for the way he wrote this song so when I got there Tamper looked at me, I'm blind so Tamper figured that out of the three of four pretty good piano players and they couldn't, they couldn't cut it so I don't imagine you can cut it so, so I said to Tamper well play it and let me hear it. So Tamper played a couple of chorus of it, I said, "That's the way it goes?" He said, "Yes!" So I sit down and I started, I pealed his wife out the bedroom door and she said, "Tamper that's it!" And Tamper and I have been together ever since until the day he died.

S Now you mentioned something about the King, I don't understand you and Tamper Red was actually playing or composing music for a real king and queen or something?
JD No this king...or this a Prince of Wales had turned down the throne to marry this American woman.

S Oh okay I understand now.
JD And Tamper wrote a song about it, she is more to me than a palace is to a king.

S Oh now I understand
JD You see what I mean?

S Do you think this Prince ever heard that music?
JD I imagine so.

S Now were you playing in those days that I was or did you ever appear on radio shows?
JD Oh my god yes I was on Jack L. Clippers, _________, and then I was with Stud Truckle

S Stud Truckle?
JD Yes

S Yeah he's still there in Chicago
JD Oh my god Studs and I were together on the forth, at Revinia festival

S Over in ah Evanston
JD Yeah Revinia Park, yeah

S Well now tell me a little bit about more, during those days that you would perform on the radio, early days, was Edith Wilson singing at that time?
JD Yes, as far as I know. I met Edith in later years.

S I see.
JD I didn't know her then but this other singer used to come to one of my fathers places, Maurine, she used to come
To one of my fathers places

S And you heard her sing?
JD Yes I heard her sing. I used to go to the show and heard her sing.

S Who was on the peak that would accompany Maurine? Cause she was a very special singer.
JD Well generally speaking I was just a boy and I don't know anyone that eh, but I think she did some
Recording with Grant Williams, and different ones like that.

S Now speaking of recordings what was the first label that you performed on?
JD with other people?

S Yeah.
JD My first label was RCA Victor.

S Ah I see, when did you get to Blue Note, and Chess,
JD Well I never played for Chess

S What about Blue Note?
JD I played at The Blue Note that was a night Club.

S What about those Reich records you hear so much about, did you make a recording on those records?
JD I imagine I did because I worked with everybody. I worked with Big Bill Grodency, Lonnie Johnson, Doctor Clayton, Sonny boy Williams, the real Sonny Boy Williams, Mempis Minnie, I worked with all of them Merlene Johnson the yes yes girl.

S Merlene Johnson?
JD Yes.

S Why'd they call her the yes yes girl?
JD Her word at that time, you'd say something to her she'd say yes yes yes yes yes

S Those gals now you evidently remember some of those hard driving singers such as, Alberta Hunter,
Edith Wilson and ah
JD Yes I remember them.

S Victoria Spive, they were pretty tough old girls too weren't they?

S Oh yea, they were full of spark.

S I see, well when did you begin to make your first recording as a solo Artist?
JD Well that was ah Vole Corrigan

S What's that again?
JD Vole Corrigan, and Blue berg

S Vole Corrigan?
JD Yeah, my first recording by my hits was No Mail Today

S No Mail Today,
JD yes

S What does that sound like? Can you give me a little of that, hum that tune?
JD I heard an echo sounds like my babies voice to me, I heard an echo sounds like my babies voice to me no, no, no, couldn't be baby said that we were through.

S So that's it, No Mail Today
JD Yeah.

S Did you write that?
JD Yes I did

S What inspired such a song like that, you just didn't get any mail, you waiting for something?
JD I don't know it was just out of the blue you know. There was no special inspiration

S Give me some titles of other songs you've written.
JD Every Hour in the Day

S Every Hour in the Day
JD Yeah, Booze Drinking Benny

S Booze Drinking Benny, Did you make any money off these songs? When other people would buy them in the

S tores?
JD I should have made money but Melrose was taking the money.

S Melrose, that's your company?
JD No that was the head of it.

S Oh I see, so that's like little brother, he's write a song but by the time it gets published he didn't see to much money from it.
JD that's right...

S Or someone would buy it out from under you, you know
JD yeah that's right.

S What about some of the touring did you do early touring in the twenties and thirties
JD Well I just got started really, I thought I was a pretty good piano player in 1927, "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" had just come out at that time.

S Who wrote that?
JD I haven't the slightest idea, but anyway I'd tell you the same thing at that time with both hands, the melody with both hands.

S Oh yeah!
JD Then pretty soon a song come out "Wake up Karen, Wake up".... all that stuff, then I went in for the Blues because I used to play for a lot of the house parties, the rocks, black snake blues and all that stuff back in those days.

S Back in those days blues pianist like Alex Moore, and Liddell Montgomery, and you did you every ,a were
There certain clubs in the United States you used to congregate at or did you just...
JD Well for many years I played for speak easy I played for Al Capone's brother and I played for the Tury Brothers I played for Jack of Diamonds,I played for Guy Bell, I played for all of those.

S Now you mentioned Al Capone do you remember the bootlegging and the ...
JD Yes and my father was a big boot legger... my father and my uncle made for many years.

S So Al Capone wasn't, all, the only one in the big crime business like that huh?
JD No.

S You don't hear too many about Blacks being in that you know.
JD Well we was in it at that time we used to, my dad and them used to make that gin, beer and stuff

S But who taught you, lets go back a little bit more did you do you read brail?
JD Yes I do.

S Did you go to a special school?
JD I went to a school for the blind Jacksonville Illinois.

S what did they do, did you board there or something?
JD Yes, I stayed, and I come home twice a year.

S When was that in the summer?
JD Yeah for the summer and for Christmas.

S Was it very lonesome being sent away by yourself like that
JD Well it was very prejudice it was about five hundred children there and there was just five of us colored. We had a pretty rough time of it because they were so prejudice.

S Oh it was?
JD Yes, oh my god yes.

S How could you tell in those days?
JD Well the teacher was and the...some of the kids from down states kept me fighting all the time. So I got Blackballed from school, there was one teacher there names Gerdock, every time he'd get near me he'd pinch me, so he made me mad one day and then I threw him down the steps.

S The teacher?
JD Yes.

S He'd pinch you?
JD Yeah.

S He was kind of crazy wasn't he.
JD Yes he was, he was even better after that though.

S Were you a big kid or a small child?
JD I was small until I was around fourteen years and then it looked like I just started growing.

S Shot on up huh? How long were you at that school?
JD About two years,

S And you came home. Did you still go to a special school?
JD No, at that time there wasn't no such thing as busing for blind and crippled children like there is today.

S Oh I see
JD So my father gets.... One of the greatest things I wish I could have got was a beautiful education but that's something that passed me over so the good god gave me the piano, and I've lived a beautiful life.

S Now you were lucky to have a piano in your home because a kid in those days, to get a piano was not an easy task.
JD Yes but every home had in those days, you wasn't nobody unless you had a piano.

S Was Georgia Tom around in those days?
JD Yes he was choir director at my father's church at one time.

S What was the name of that church?
JD Providence Baptist Church.

S Now that obviously after he stopped playing the blues and writing those songs though right?
JD I think that was before he started playing the blues.

S Oh I see,
JD he did a lot of recording with Tamper Red past retirement.

S When I talked with him and he was pointing out, why he wrote certain songs, but he's written quite a few very famous blues songs as well as Christian songs.

S We were just talking about Georgia Tom and that Georgia Tom played at the Davis's father's church. What are some of the most rewarding date that you had? What I mean by rewarding, when you really made a lot of money, can you remember one performance or recording that you really made good money from? Any time in your career?
JD I made about three thousand one night.

S One night, my goodness, where was that at a Club?
JD Smithsonian Institute.

S Oh in Washington, oh was that recently?
JD Oh about two years ago...

S I see... did they record you while you were performing?
JD Yes.

S Now speaking of recording have you done other interviews like this one where the Smithsonian or Library of Commerce has taped interviews with you?
JD Yes, I did with Little brother Montgomery, we did some recording for the House of Congress, quite a few year's with_____ Circle.

S Do you have copies of those interviews?
JD No I don't.

S But if I wanted some I maybe could check with the Smithsonian huh?
JD Yes, or the Library of Commerce.

S And that was you, Little Brother and who else?
JD Ran sum Northern.

S Now I didn't know him was he a pianist.
JD No he was a bass fiddle player.

S Oh the three of you played together?
JD Yes.

S Oh I see... Do you remember any of the songs that you might have...
JD No I don't, I know Little Brother Montgomery played suitcase _____.

S I see...well I'm going to look up those because that would be a good thing to put in the collection. We're going to try to develop a whole exhibit surrounding Blind John Davis, so that's why I'm getting some of this information from you. When did you marry, how old were you when you married?
JD Well my first marriage I was twenty and my bride her name was Ida.

S Ida?
JD Yes Ida Gresham,

S How did you happen to meet her?
JD Well my mother didn't have no telephone and she lived across the yard from my mother and so my mother went over there to use the telephone one day and my mother told me, "there's a cute little girl lives over there, so then I had made my business to make my phone calls over there. Then she asked me when was I going to take her to the show, and that's when the beginning was.

S Well did it take you long to get from there to the alter
JD No it didn't...

S Very quickly huh? So from that marriage did you have any children?
JD Yes John.

S Oh that's your oldest boy?
JD No that's my youngest boy...

S Oh your youngest, well then what did you divorce or did she die.
JD No we divorced, but my oldest son his mothers name was Susie, Susie Stray. She was from Carbondale, Illinois.

S Carbondale Illinois...I see...now how many times have you been married?
JD I've never been married but once, but I lived with two girls for about, one was seventeen years and another about eighteen years.

S So these kids who were living with each other isn't such a new thing, they have been doing it for years.
JD Yes...

S I've seen an awful lot of photographs of you and I always see that cigar in your hand, is that your Trademark?
JD That's one of my trademarks.

S I can tell you ...it always looks so elegant, they had a picture of you in the Ann Arbor News, what kind of cigars do you really like?
JD White Owl and Vestigial.

S Have you ever had those Cuban cigars?
JD Oh yes I've had some.

S Well we'll see if we can try and get you a box of those...ha ha ha, now tell me now when I talked with you several months ago you were getting ready to go to Europe...where did you go and what are some of the places you performed at?
JD Well I went to Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and Luxemburg, Germany.

S Checxlavochia maybe...all around and did Mr. Larry go with you?
JD No. No. When I 'd go over seas I'd go alone.

S I see, but did you have any traveling companion when you'd go like that?
JD Oh yes I'd have a road agent

S Ah, where'd you pick up the road agent in Europe?
JD Yes I'd pick him up in Karlone _______ Harland, or someplace on the road.

S I see
JD Frankly Germany or Harland or someplace say Niek Niek.

S And escort you around.
JD Yeah.

S Did you play mostly in halls or clubs or what?
JD Clubs, concert halls, and _________

S Did you do a recording while you were there?
JD Yes I did a recording for Happy Birth a few years ago then I did for oldie records Harlem and a few months ago Horras Liftmen was over and I made an album for him...

S There in Chicago?
JD Yeah...

S Has that been released yet?
JD I don't know it should be pretty soon if it hasn't...

S you don't know what label it will be on do you?
JD No I don't...

S Now if I wanted to go out today and go down to discount records to look for a recording to see and hear Blind John Davis playing, what label should I ask for.
JD Well you could ask for Oldies label or either happy birth

S Happy birth?
JD Yyeah

S Uh ha and on those labels I might be able to pick up some...
JD Or Alligator...

S Alligator label?
JD Yeah...

S Do you think they're available in stores now?
JD I know they are...

S okay...on these albums are you playing with a group?
JD Some of them yes but Alligator I'm playing alone

S and are you singing also
JD yep...

S Now would I, would it be right to bill you as a Blues pianist and singer or a Blues pianist, or singer...how... What do you want to be called?
JD Blues pianist and singer.

S Blues pianist and singer...good...as a singer do you feel that your style was influenced by any other performer?
JD No... My own everything I do is my own.

S what singers did you listen to as a young boy growing up?
JD Bessie Smith...

S Why is it that there weren't many male singers during Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey and Edith Wilson?
JD I don't know, don't know but it seemed as though the trade done turned cause there's mostly men blues singers now.

S Exactly I was reading about you last night and I was looking at the 20' &30's and all I could see was women Blues singers.
JD yes back in those days ________.

S That's very interesting. Now there's another ploy if you can be as honest and straightforward as you possible. Can, many people think a Blues singer woman or male had a tough life and knows awful lot about sex and hard times, heartbreak and booze is that something that the blues singers have put out on themselves or is it really true?
JD No...it's not true cause some that sing the blues lived on flour and butter beans all their life.

S So you don't have to have a hard time to sing about the blues.
JD No...cause I've had a lot of Whites come top me and ask me about the blues, and as I informed then a White man can't have the blues.

S why do you say that?
JD because he can't, he never lived the blues. A Black mans the only one that's ever had the blues he lived it.

S now when you said he lived the blues, what are you talking about he lived, you mean the hard times.
JD Yes...the hard times and the brutality that was handed down to him.

S so you're saying that the Blackman having been exposed to so much brutal life and hard times and lack of food and so forth, he's more realistic in singing the blues.
JD yes he's more realistic.

S I see...now when you tell a White person this and I'll be again right up front, what kind of answers do they get do they give you?
JD I don't know...like they come to me some of them "I feel." "Feel what".... They can be lonesome they can be sad but they haven't had the blues.

S I see...so we Blacks have maybe a special gift.
JD We have a gift of it, it was handed down.

S do you ever sing any gospel music?
JD yes I do, I told you I play all types of music.

S so you don't have a closed music mind, everything that comes into mind or that you need to play you play.
JD yes that's right, I play all types.

S what would you say to young people who would like to follow in Blind John Davis' footsteps. You have a lot of young boys and girls who are playing the blues these days but...
JD well the only thing I'll say to them like one of my teachers taught me-- be natural.

S be themselves huh?
JD yeah

S do you think that when you hear about drugs and booze that the young kids are into how do you avoid that in the big business of Showtime.
JD well from the way it looks at the period...at this time there's a lot of the young think they're great and they are anticipating in that segment and the only thing that I would say for god sakes, a wet lush is bad enough.

S what's that?
JD a wet lush is bad enough

S oh I see
JD stay away from it.

S it was very interesting on television last night Natalie Cole said she just came out of a institution because she was on drugs and so forth and she is trying to tell the kids to stay away from it.
JD that's right stay away from it because look and see how kids or babies are born with such birth defects it's pitiful. I was in the hospital a few years ago babies was born with their mouth in the wrong place, with their head like a bladder; you see something like that then you think your smart, stay away from it.

S I'm glad to hear that.
JD whiskey and wine, that's bad enough.

S I guess moderation is the bottom line huh?
JD I don't want a doctor to even give me a blood test, for god sakes don't stick your own self.

S I see, tell me now, when you...we all must die at one point or other, I may die before you but, lets say when your last days come do you want to be taken back to Mississippi or Chicago or what do you want to happen to your body? Now that's a strange question I know but I'm asking that.
JD I'll tell you...I'll give it to you like this___________________________________
_________ you know a memory.

S oh like a memorial service, and that's for... Cannonball Aderly is going to do Nat.
JD no Nat is giving the memorial for Cannonball.

S oh I see.
JD cause it's his brother.

S right...and he is going to be appearing in Chicago tomorrow. Have you ever performed with Nat, Mr. Davis?
JD no.

S but you know of him I guess?
JD I know of him...

S I see.
JD I played with Louie back in 24.

S oh you did?
JD yes...

S what ...can you tell me anything that was very interesting about Louie Armstrong when you met him. Was he an aggressive man or was he ...
JD Louie was a great man; he was just a beautiful person all the way down the line

S was he what you'd call a nice person
JD yes he was a great person. Just as beautiful as his childhood, he was a great person to know.

S was he ...at the time married to his first or second wife?
JD no...at the time when I first met him I think it wasn't long before he married Lil

S oh I see
JD Mary I think her name was.

S Lil is still living isn't she?
JD no...

S oh she died on television.
JD yes she died on a soap that she played on_________

S oh I see...that's what I heard then.
JD yes she died of a heart attack.

S are you considered to be a very healthy person or have you been sick in the last few years?
JD I'm supposed to be in top condition but from a young man I always had an irregular heart.

S I see...
JD but it has never been anything sever you know.

S when you get these engagements do you have an agent where you remain through?
JD well I have a booking agent in Chicago, that's Alligator and I have a booking agent in Europe, that's Rob Sherbet. In Cologne Germany, and I have a booking agent in Canada, Ken Weightly and Dick Ferro.

S what I'm going to do after we finish this interview, is go home and type up a letter which in essence says something about this interview but also to invite you down here, I'll give you two different dates. It will probably be the later part of October, the first of November... we don't want you down here when it's cold. So I should write that directly to you. Right?
JD Right.

S okay now I'll get your address, so I won't have to go through an agent.
JD no you don't.

S that's good cut out that middleman we don't need him.
JD no kidding...

S have you ever performed in Texas?
JD No.

S Mr. Davis, what are some of the places that you -performed that you found most to your liking?
JD well do you mean all over the world?

S Europe or sometime you had the best performance.
JD well I like Munich Germany.

S were the people very vocal when they would applaud you.
JD I'll be frank with you ...every where I go seems like the people like me, and we have a very lovely turn out.

S and they have a good reason for that, after last night they are still talking about you down there. They said it was such a terrific performance. I'm going to be there tonight to hear you. Now when you perform do you believe in eating before you perform?
JD no...no I never eat before I eat 4-5 hours before its time for me to perform.

S and what times do you not perform later...
JD my biggest meal is after I'm through at night.

S then you can sit down and relax. Are you a late riser or early riser in the morning?
JD Early...I'm up at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning.

S even though you might perform late at night?
JD Yes I'm up at 4,5,or 6 in the morning then about eleven or twelve I can get to sleep until 7.

S I see so you're sort of a night person.
JD yeah that's right.

S what about New York City, have you ever performed there?
JD oh my god yes...

S what are some of the places maybe Jimmy Reins?
JD I'll be playing there the 8th 9th 10th and 11th of this month.

S where?
JD the Tramp Club...

S is that in Manhattan or ...
JD 1529 west 15th Street.

S 1529 west15th, there's a man I want you to meet, and I give you the address, named Barney Josephson. He owns...
JD OH! The Cookery.

S Right, Cookery...
JD I've been trying to contact him that's where Alberta Henry's talking about/

S I talked to him just a week ago and he wants to get you to perform there.
JD well that's what I've got to do.

S so I'll give you his address, in fact I'll write it to you get that to Chicago. I don't have the address right now buts Barney Jopheson . Now you know that Adele Hall here at the cookery in February and that's when______ had his birthday you know just shortly after he died but Alberta had phoned me in Chicago...
JD Well I worked in her place...

S Oh you did?
JD yes I filled in for her.

S There in Chicago?
JD yes, she broke her hip in Lincoln Park

S what, did she fall to the ground or something?
JD yeah...

S what happened?
JD She slipped down it was bad weather.

S oh my goodness
JD she slipped down and broke her hip and I had to fill in for her.

S when was that in the winter?
JD yes.

S what, about December, January
JD somewhere around in there...

S I see, and they called you to perform in her place?
JD yeah...

S well now that's something else when you on the spur of the moment they call you to perform you must be always ready.
JD oh yeah...

S you don't let any grass grow under your feet huh?
JD ha ha...

S Have you written any songs recently?
JD yes I've got some things that I've written myself that I'm going to copy write them because I made them but Tamper Red and Big Bill and I'm going to do them on my next recording.

S what about any TV. Programs, have you done any recently?
JD oh yes I was on TV, last Saturday.

S there in Chicago?
JD yes...

S what channel was that?
JD channel 7.

S channel7?
JD yes

S what did you do a talk show or something?
JD no I played in the festival.

S I see, were you the only performer or were there others?
JD no, Coco Taylor was on.

S oh Coco just left Detroit; in fact she may still be there today and tomorrow.
JD no I think she's in Chicago today, they're having a Blues Fesrival in Chicago.

S oh I see, I didn't know that. How is it that you're not performing in that?
JD I was booked here an I have a couple more next week.

S what was the name of this program you appeared on, in television?
JD the Chicago something...

S cause I could write them maybe they'd give me a clip of that tape.
JD well you write me and I'll send you a clip.

S oh you've got one already huh?
JD I haven't got one but I can get one from Larry Ponds.

S okay I'll do that.
JD write to Larry Ponds in care of channel 7.

S Larry Ponds? How do you spell that last name?
JD P...P...

S Channel 7 okay I'll find it, Larry ponds... Do you know of or heard Jabot Smith? He's a trumpet player
JD oh God I've heard of him years ago.

S okay...his agent owns the Village Vanguard in Chicago, and a...
JD Now where is that located?

S I'm not sure, in New York, in fact its down in the village not too far from the Cookery, but he mentioned your name. Do you know the name Andy Kirk?
JD oh yeah...he used to be at the Grant?

S Right.
JD ____________________

S Right.
JD _______________

S Exactly... I just talked with him last week, he's eighty-two or eighty-three
JD sure enough...

S and he just retired about a month ago.
JD Man...

S He's working at Local 803...
JD he goes with Andy Kirk...

S oh do you know Andy Kirk?
JD Sure...that boy used to sing so pretty with me...

S there was one song he made very popular, I can't think of the name of it.
JD She's Walking to Heaven With You.

S Well Andy he lives up there in Harlem on Edge comb Ave. and he told me to tell you hello, and your right, he was the first one to introduce Mary Lou Williams.
JD ___________________________________________________________________
_____________________________

S how about Mommy Answer, did you ever know her?
JD Are you kidding! That's our baby, I told her I was going to give her birth...ha... I mean her and me were supposed to get married real soon.

S Now Mommy Answer, she's about ninety isn't she
JD No she's eighty-seven.

S eighty-seven
JD we was together the other day, and she's fine.

S is she singing anymore?
JD yes

S I'll be talking with her next week, Little Brother is trying to get a phone number so I can contact her, cause I'm going to her house.
JD Try to get her phone number...you better take it down, 779-... What's the rest of it...I got it.

S okay before I leave I'll have to get it from you, cause I already talked to her and she says she is going to give me an interview like this, cause I'd like to get...if I wanted to get two of you together what would be a good combination Mr. David
JD what was that?

S if I wanted to get you and plus a singer I know you sing your own thing but if I wanted to try to get you to come down here with someone.
JD Well that would be okay

S do you think Mommy Answer can travel at her age
JD no...

S I didn't think she could, maybe Fyffe Waters would perform with you.
JD probably so, I never met her but I've heard of her

S well she wrote right down here in Detroit, in fact she and Little Brother gave a concert.
JD _________________________________________________

S yeah I think I have it with me.
JD well give it to me

S okay I certainly will, cause she and Little Brother made a television program just recently. Mr. Louie is talking to me now and he is Blind John Davis' drummer right, Mr. Louie?
L that is true.

S What are some of the numbers that you played at the club last night?
L I played what?

S What are some of the numbers that Mr. Davis played last night, and sang?
L oh man...that's a heck of a question.

S well give me a couple of titles.
L Sweet Loraine...

S Sweet Loraine last night, what are your favorites?
L Oh like Misty...

S oh Misty, well a drummer doesn't have much to do in Misty though.
L the drummer don't want too much to do in the first place, we played Misty and Sweet Loraine that was by Mr. Hines and a we also do a verity of numbers because I mean just coming up and naming a song sir I don't know

S I see...
L because when John tell me what he going play I Longley know what he talking about.

S How long have you been playing with Mr. Davis?
L oh I guess about nine years now.

S I see...did you play with other people before him?
L yes...

S what were some of the groups?
L Ollie Wolf...

S oh Ollie Wolf...what about Muddy Waters?
JD yeah he played with Muddy Waters

S so you've been around for a while, your no little kid in this business.
L well, I'm not as young as Dude Rosé Street

S I see
L any way I'm happy where I am you know.

S you don't go on tours with Mr. Davis though?
L sometimes...

S if there in the United States I guess huh?
L mostly, yes in the states

S now what's your local union
L 10208

S is that local 10208, that's there in Chicago isn't it?
L that's right...

S now I understand they own a home there in Chicago that when you got older and you don't have no where to go you can go and...
L you'll have to ask Mr. Davis about that because I don't know anything about it.
JD that's at 53218...

S Top Palmer stays at one of those house that local owns.
JD yes...

S cause I talked to him, I know he's very sick though.
JD Oh Top?

S yeah that's what Jan told me...
JD I didn't know that...

S but he was very thin, he played piano and sang some songs for me.
JD well that wasn't Top Palmer, Top Palmer was a bass fiddle player.

S oh well this is another Palmer...I'll have to look in my directories, cause we went to see him and he was playing the piano, maybe its just another Palmer. Johnny Palmer or Hap palmer I don't remember his name right now. What are some other...do you know any other performers that have been to Chicago, besides Little Brother and you.
JD ummm
L Sunlight Sam's still there, and Eddie Taylor is still there. You talking about the old fellows?

S yeah the old Fellows
L Dorsey Delmar

S now I don't know...
L Freddy Below...

S now what does Freddy play?
L they drummers

S I see
L you asked me about old-timers didn't you?

S yeah right...
L you got Jimmy Wells you got Geordie Goth

S Jimmy Wells is there?
L yes...

S I didn't know that...
JD Detroit Junior

S do you guys ever get together to perform together and reminisce about the old days
JD oh yeah we get a chance to talk...Big Moose Walker
L Moose John
JD Moose John, yeah...

S now do you plan to write any more songs Mr. Davis?
JD yes indeed I've got a bunch that I'm writing now going to have copy writing real soon

S do you have a publisher that you usually sing your songs to?
JD well I'm digging one now.

S I see...
JD I've got two or three that I'm contemplating on but I haven't now.

S those old recordings that you did in the old days do you get any royalties from them?
JD yeah...

S cause there for a while little Brother said you weren't getting anything until a lawyer got on it and now you're getting some money every now and then...not much, but enough
JD Yeah well that's me, about the same difference.

S now the Smithsonian thing that you did, you talked as well as played for that gig didn't you?
JD Yeah...

S Mr. Larry were you with him when he did that?
L no sir.
JD no, no Sunny land Slim was with me.

S Who was that again?
JD Sunny land Slim

S I see, is he there from Chicago or from Washington
JD yeah he's from Chicago.

S well when you go to a place and you want a rhythm section do you get together and you meet with someone?
JD oh yeah...

S what are some of the Blues Festivals you've performed in any on the west coast?
JD no. when I was on the west coast I was playing standards and everything

S I see.
JD I played Los Angeles, San Diego, Hollywood, and Redding California.

S so there's not too many places that you haven't been I noticed
JD Salt Lake City Utah, Nevada, Reno Nevada ________

S How about Kansas City?
JD I've never worked in Kansas City

S That's one of the big Blues places. Well we're about to close out this part of the tape Mr. Davis. And I'd like to ask you maybe just a couple of questions. Do you live alone?
JD No I have my own home I got my two dogs, they're like my sons.

S but what is a normal day when you're not working? What do you usually do on a 24hour period when you're not working?
JD Oh I walk around my yard I got great big yards, I walk around my yards and play with my animals

S Just relax huh? Now a few moments ago we were looking ...I gave you some phone numbers and you had a piece of board could you explain to the viewers what you were doing?
JD Well the thing that folds like a book it's called a slate, and the thing that I use looks like a small ice pick that called a stiles. that's the way I write letters in brail, and write my music in brail.

S oh I see...now where did you learn to do that?
JD in blind school

S when you were a boy, and you're pushing little numbers through or something?
JD Right...

S and when you get ready to read you feel those with your fingers.
JD Yes...

S So your fingers are just like my eyes right?
JD yeah...that's my eyes, my fingers is my eyes.

S I see, when your walking do you ever use a dog or a cane.
JD Yeah, I use a cane.

S oh I see
JD my kind of work would too strenuous for a dog 4-5 hours in all the smoke and everything.

S oh I see.
JD and people would try to play with it and that would keep me in trouble all the time.

S when you're traveling on the plane like going from here to Europe did you have...you said you did not have anyone with you
JD no...

S I see
JD they always make my reservation to where the washroom is, I'm very good with myself, and I don't have to worry, and if I have to go to the bathroom I just go on myself.

S you just go on yourself. I noticed today, you know is a Historic day I thank you for giving this generous opportunity to interview you, but its Historical for another reason too. In Washington they have that second March, and Stevie Wonder another blind musician is on of the big hit attractions there. I think it's incredible that there's a young man that's blind is libel to be one of the most popular performers in the world. Have you ever met him?
JD no I never had the opportunity .

S how about Ray Charles?
JD I never met him.

S He's going to be right here in Ann Arbor on the 20th of September I believe it is.
JD Yes I know.

S I want to try to talk with him. Ray Charles, is he from a...do you know where he's from?
JD I haven't the slightest idea.

S I'm going to have to check that out some.
L Ray Charles is from Florida.

S from Florida. Do either one of you know Bo Diddle?
JD yes I know Bo Diddle, I met Bo Diddle when he was working for chess.

S okay...well he was just here at Rick's American Café, and he says he was from Chicago but he is living down in Hawthorn Florida now. Let me ask you one more question. In school many of the kids take music, right? But they don't seem to know very much about blues, jazz, rock and your music, if you were a teacher in school what are some of the things that you would teach the children?
JD well I'd teach them the foundation, such as classics, and the fundamentals and they can take it from there themselves.

S do you think knowing the classics and learning the fundamentals would be enough do what you do?
JD Yes it would be enough for them to a...

S If they wanted to imitate you could they do that with that?
JD well according to how good they hear and they _____________

S I see.
JD What they say I have one of the fastest figurations.

S so if they don't have the talent there's not very much they can do huh?
JD well you'll hear a lot of lead musican as they call them if they got the sheet in front of them then you play what's on the paper.

S oh I see...
JD but they don't have no feeling or no soul of it. You take the paper or the book away from them they can't you know.

S I see, well one last question and we'll sign off. You probably have unmasked a lot of unique copies of things and memorably they call it, like albums, photographs and things of this sort. Is there any chance at all that you would like to sell this collection at this point if give it to a museum so that others can come, my children and my grandchildren, they can see Blind john Davis and so fourth do youhave anything like that?
JD well I'll be frank with you I've had a fire and all of that beautiful stuff of mine I'll never be able to replace was destroyed in the fire.

S oh my goodness...well I want you to know that one -we're going top have you come down to Michigan and perform
JD That would be good...

S and we hope that if you ever have any type of thing that you want to preserve that we have a very fine museum. We can put them in and keep them so that people can come from all over the world and see photographs. This tape for example would be available to any people that want to come in and look at it and hear Blind John Davis talk about "Blind John Davis"
JD That would be great.

S It's been wonderful talking to you Mr. Davis and I wish you all the luck in the world.
JD Thanks a lot.

S Thank you. Mr. Larry, thank you also and it's a pleasure to know that he has such a young man that's going to help take care of him. I think he is taking care of you though.
L Like I told you that's my Boss, so I got to hang on to the man.

S Terrific, okay good-bye.

END OF INTERVIEW