ABOUT JOHN DAVIS

Through his imaginative presentations of the life and music of the slave pianist/composer, Blind Tom, and an inventive and wide-ranging repertoire that has as its cornerstone piano works rooted in African-American music of the Deep South, pianist John Davis has emerged as one of today’s most respected and unique performing artists. Initially, Mr. Davis’ work with Blind Tom caught the public’s attention via runs of his one-man, multi-media theatrical concert, Will the Real Thomas Wiggins Please Stand Up! at the Culture Project in New York and at Brown University’s Rites & Reason Theater, and an appearance at The Martin Luther King Festival 2000 sponsored by National Public Radio, the Atlanta Symphony, the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and Morehouse-Spelman College. Soon thereafter, an extensive front page article in the “Arts and Leisure” section of The New York Times about the release of John Davis Plays Blind Tom on Newport Classic catapulted the CD into a top-ten classical seller at Tower Records and Amazon.com, and led to stories about Mr. Davis’ pursuit of Blind Tom on CNN, CNN-International, the BBC World News, and NPR’s Performance Today. Subsequent acknowledgments of Mr. Davis’ contributions were made in The New Yorker, The Independent (London), Time Out New York, Scientific American, and the magazine of African-American culture, American Legacy. Since then, Will the Real Thomas Wiggins Please Stand Up! inaugurated the 2003-2004 season at The Symphony Space in New York, another performance of the show (at the Springer Opera House, the State Theater of Georgia) was filmed for an extended story about Mr. Davis and Blind Tom on PBS’s Life 360, and a program-long interview of Mr. Davis was aired on ABC’s Nightline Up-Close, later featured in a special “Best of Up-Close” edition.

John Davis Plays Blind Tom has even resonated beyond the world of classical music. It was adopted by Lorna Simpson as the soundtrack to Corridor (2003), the esteemed artist’s film installation commissioned by the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMoca) and is featured in the mid-career retrospective of Simpson’s work traveling in 2006 and 2007 to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Miami Art Museum and the Whitney Museum in New York. Mr. Davis’ recording also inspired Terry Clarke, to write and record the song, “Blind Tom in Hoboken,” for the British Rockabilly artist’s just-released CD, Night Ride to Birmingham. And a cut from John Davis Plays Blind Tom (alongside those of Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Nat King Cole, Loretta Lynn, Al Green, Buddy Holly, Erykah Badu, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Ricky Skaggs, Zora Neale Hurston, Joe Tex, The Pilgrim Travelers, and Johnny Winter, among others) was the only classical performance selected for the accompanying CD to the “7th Annual Southern Music Issue” of the Oxford American, the magazine of Southern culture founded by writer John Grisham and long prized by “roots music” aficionados.

Mr. Davis has also added extensively to the literature on Blind Tom. In addition to Will the Real Thomas Wiggins Please Stand Up! and his own liner note to John Davis Plays Blind Tom, the supplementary essays in the CD booklet by the actor, sleight-of-hand artist, and scholar of eccentric performers, Ricky Jay, the neurologist and eminent writer, Oliver Sacks, and the poet, music critic and political activist, Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones), constitute significant contributions to Blind Tom scholarship by major literary figures. Mr. Davis has also written the entry on Blind Tom in the one-volume African American Lives, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham and published in 2004 by Oxford University Press in conjunction with the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, that will again appear with several other entries by Mr. Davis in the landmark, multi-volume African American National Biography, slated for publication in 2008. He has also co-authored a substantial chapter on Blind Tom for the book, Stress and Coping in Autism, published by Oxford University Press in July, 2006.

Prior to his work with Blind Tom, Mr. Davis had already earned the public’s attention via critically-acclaimed recital debuts at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, and his regular collaborations with many of the world’s most respected young chamber musicians. After solo recitals in San Francisco, Chicago, and St. Louis, he was invited by the U.S. State Department for several tours of Asia and Eastern Europe, during which he became the first American artist in over a half-century to perform in long-isolated Albania. More recently, Mr. Davis appeared with the Rousse Philharmonic in Bulgaria and the Bombay Chamber Orchestra as part of a nationwide tour of India, and was profiled, as well as in countless foreign and domestic print publications, on The Today Show on NBC, ABC’s Good Morning America, and King Biscuit Time, “Sunshine” Sonny Payne’s legendary blues program on KFFA-Radio in Helena, Arkansas, that launched the careers of Sonny Boy Williamson and Robert Jr. Lockwood. On the heels of his success with Will the Real Thomas Wiggins Please Stand Up!, Mr. Davis charted new territory in Rome and Los Angeles with The John Davis Caravan: Standing At the Crossroads, his Chitlin’ Circuit-inspired nightclub show of black music-influenced piano works.

A graduate of The Phillips Exeter Academy, Mr. Davis was a pupil of Beveridge Webster at The Juilliard School, where he earned a master’s degree, and Herbert Stessin. Previously, while completing a double-major in History and Russian Language and Literature at Brown University, he studied piano with Aube Tzerko, Gabriel Chodos, and Seth Carlin.

John Davis is a Steinway Artist.

JOHN DAVIS IN THE NEWS

THE LEGACY OF A PRODIGY LOST IN MYSTERY
"A recent, well-made CD of Blind Tom’s compositions by the New York pianist John Davis, including piano solos and dance pieces similar in character to the simpler works of Schumann, Gottschalk and Chopin, has led to a reexamination of Tom’s life and legacy…Mr. Davis’s performances show off the technical challenges Blind Tom’s compositions present in a sympathetic and appealing light. For example, tricky passages in ‘The Rainstorm’ that resemble Liszt’s thunderous left-hand sextuplets in the ‘Transcendental Etude’ No. 12 are tossed off with aplomb. Perhaps the greatest favor that Mr. Davis renders to Tom’s memory is the respect and restrained but expressive care he lavishes on these mostly modest pieces…The complexity of Tom’s life is underscored by the four excellent essays on the liner notes, written by Mr. Davis, the clinical psychologist Oliver Sacks, the author and activist Amiri Baraka, and the professional conjurer Ricky jay. A less likely ensemble of commentators could hardly be imagined. …It is high time to make restitution to Blind Tom Wiggins. John Davis has succeeded in advancing the process.”
Thomas L. Riis, The New York Times

ABOUT TIME DEPT.
BLIND TOM’S TOMBSTONE
"One of the more unusual deliveries made last week to the Evergreens Cemetery, in East New York, came in a truck from Steinway & Sons...Nearby, a small, festively dressed crowd gathered around a granite tombstone--also freshly delivered--commemorating the death, ninty-four years ago, of Thomas Greene Wiggins...The group that congregated around Wiggins’s new tombstone...consisted mostly of the great, great-great, and great-great-great grandchildren of his half sister, Matilda. Though several members of the family live in Brooklyn, none of them realized that Wiggins was buried there until two years ago, when they read about the work of a pianist, John Davis, who was researching Wiggins’s life, and who had recently recorded a CD of his music…At the gravesite, Davis, who also happens to live in Brooklyn, played Wiggins’s ‘Reve Charmant,’ a nocturne in D-flat major...When the service was over, some cemetery workers perched nearby on gravestones applauded.”
Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker Magazine

“In late 1999, [John Davis] released John Davis Plays Blind Tom (Newport Classics), a 14-track collection that has singlehandedly revived the lost legacy of Wiggins.”
Wendell Brock, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Pianist John Davis gives a charmingly simple performance of Tom’s Chopin-lite compositions.”
The Independent (London)

"What brightness!"
Marc Smirnoff, Oxford American

THE GHOST OF BLIND TOM
"Pianist John Davis plays Tom’s pieces spiritedly, and provides informative liner notes. He also includes some writing about Tom by Black Nationalist poet Amiri Baraka, magician Ricky Jay, and neurologist Oliver Sacks. Sacks comments that autistic people cannot be creative, but the music refutes this at every turn. Both musicologists and neurologists would benefit from investigating this miraculous contradiction further.”
Harvey Pekar, NPR

“Blind Tom and John Davis have become the Odd Couple of American classical music.”
American Legacy Magazine

“…today the prowess of Thomas Wiggins, better known as ‘Blind Tom’ Bethune, is barely a footnote in music history...Happily this neglect is at a partial end with the release of John Davis Plays Blind Tom (Newport Classic NPD8566)...Davis has a real regard for the music and delivers it not as a sideshow to music history, but as something to be regarded seriously in its own right.”
Glenn Giffin, The Denver Post

“I think John’s effort is really admirable. It’s not just because he’s trying to right a historical wrong done to an individual. He’s bringing to light a whole area of music that I don’t think we pay much attention to from a historical standpoint.”
Thomas L. Riis, Brown Alumni Magazine

EDITOR’S CHOICE: JOHN DAVIS PLAYS BLIND TOM
The unbelievable story behind Georgia slave and piano virtuoso Blind Tom sounds like it came straight from a movie. But as pianist John Davis reveals on his disc, this is serious music.”
Amazon.com

"This ad hoc trio [John Davis, piano; Alexander Simionescu; and Wilhelmina Smith, cello],...all experienced chamber musicians with enviable biographies,...played it [Shostokovich's Piano Trio in E Minor] with the freshness of a premier. Every little detail of dynamics reached out to grab the listener...Davis' brilliant technique bristled."
The Newark Star-Ledger

"Variously described as 'a rather elusive work' and a 'soft-spoken concerto', Beethoven's Fourth for Piano and Orchestra in G, Op. 58 is a very charming piece that requires deft handling. American John Davis was just the right artist for it. He adopted at once the grand or the majesterial, and the intimate manner, both of which, at times, the work demands: part poetry, part excitement. He surmounted the considerable difficulties of the first movement with breathtaking skill. There was clarity and good timing. The tone was firm and rounded. The slow movement had a remarkable inner concentration and played with deep intensity. The final Rondo was full of sparkle and spontaneity. Under the baton of Guest Conductor, Uwe Renz, the orchestral accompaniment [by the Bombay Chamber Orchestra] was highly imaginative and flawless. Davis's brilliance was adapted with marvelous sensitivity to the music's need for a supple style. On the whole, a dazzling and fluent performance."
Indian Express (Bombay)

“[Blind Tom's] music lives on with this strange and delightful disc of 14 original compositions, played by John Davis...Davis is a superb interpretive pianist, filling out the music with bravura and sensitivity. You’ll love this disc.”
David Stabler, The Oregonian

"Mr. Davis specializes in American music. His performances of works by William Albright (A Ragtime Lullaby and Pianoagogo) and James P. Johnson (Yamekraw) were well conceived... Everything else was nicely done, especially Copland's wonderful Piano Variations, in which Mr. Davis found the homespun lyricism beneath the severe Serialist gestures...The Bartok performance [of Out of Doors] was hardly less impressive than the Copland."
James R. Oestreich, The New York Times

CRITIC'S CHOICE:
"This week's other interesting visitors are both American, both at Wigmore Hall--on Monday, the pianist John Davis , with a calling-card program of Old World Beethoven and Bartok and New World Copland, Albright, and James P. Johnson ('the King of Harlem Stride Piano')."
The Independent (London)

"Debussy's beautiful textures were captured by Davis' clear and perfectly-pedaled playing... Davis' playing in this piece [William Albright's Pianoagogo] was at its finest, brilliantly and clearly evincing the contrast between staccato and sustain. Exceptionally paced, the transition from held notes to trills to fantastic outbursts provided the work with an appealing drive...Davis' rendering [of the solo version of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue] was an elegant one...Davis possesses plenty of technical skill and is capable of involving the audience in the music."
The Daily Californian

"His playing was nothing if not exciting. In a time which has too often seen the rise of 'cookie-cutter' pianists,...here is a pianist who takes risk after risk...thank heaven for the experience."
The Newark Star-Ledger

"They [Gershwin's Three Preludes for Piano] showed that this pianist was much concerned about nuance and feeling...Only a master pianist like John Davis could control [Brahms' Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, Op. 5]."
The Times of India (Bombay)

"The exquisite solo performance of John Davis [in Grieg's Piano Concerto]...Exhibiting polish and elegance, John Davis salvaged the whole enterprise. With explosive chords, seemingly-effortless figurations, and great tonal beauty, he weaved his spell and sustained it to the performance's end. His clear sensitive diction, seductive phrasing, and overall ravishing lyricism was mesmerizing."
The Brown Daily Herald

"The four Mazurkas of Chopin chosen were well contrasted and played with a romantic flavor, especially the concluding one in B-flat minor, Op. 24, No. 4, which was delightful."
The Statesman (Calcutta)

“New York pianist John Davis in his new CD, John Davis Plays Blind Tom recently released by Newport Classic, Ltd, has done an immense service to the memory of the great Columbus musical prodigy, Thomas Greene Wiggins. In this, the first recording of Blind Tom’s compositions, Davis has also made a gift of inestimable value to the people of this community, who, for the first time, can hear what the blind ex-slave’s music sounded like…I think every resident of this city with any interest in local culture will find Davis’ CD fascinating and, well, a bit spooky. Blind Tom has been a legend in these parts for so long that actually hearing his music is something of a shock, almost as if he had come to life again or the listener had been plunged back in time to antebellum Columbus.”
Billy Winn, Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

“Davis’ excellent performances on this recording [John Davis Plays Blind Tom] reveal that Blind Tom’s original music is filled with imagination and provide much evidence of the colossal facility Tom must have had as a performer. The music incorporates techniques that anticipate Cowell and Cage, with an overriding ambience that may remind you of Gottschalk and Joplin. Amazing music, and the liner notes are a priceless history lesson.”
Herman Trotter, The Buffalo News

“Only now are we beginning to discover the likes of Thomas Wiggins…Fourteen of Wiggins’ piano pieces can be heard on John Davis Plays Blind Tom (Newport Classics 85660)…Davis, a pianist who specializes in African-American music from the Deep South, developed the disc from his concert program Will the Real Thomas Wiggins Please Stand Up!. The recording reveals both the poetry and showmanship of this remarkable musical figure.”
Clarke Bustard, Richmond Times-Dispatch

“On this insightful disc [John Davis Plays Blind Tom], 14 of Tom’s original 100 or so sompositions live on in the hand of pianist John Davis. While Battle of Manassas is perhaps Tom’s most enduring piece, the entire disc is entertaining and playful…Davis has a true love for this music and the liner notes—including an essay by Amiri Baraka—are extensive, In short, it’s an enlightening discovery and a fun disc for all piano lovers.”
Jason Verlinde, Amazon.com

"The excellence of the pianist [in Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto] was fully matched by [The Bombay Chamber Orchestra]...Neither the pianist nor the conductor was a showman. Each did his job with precision and a fine feel for the music...The orchestral entry after the first cadenza, which was sparklingly delivered, was bewitching...And what was Davis doing all this while? He was intensely busy, with hardly any respite, weaving an extensive tapestry of the most delicate, exquisite and variegated patterns--sometimes 24 notes to the bar!...[an] outstanding performance."
The Times of India (Bombay)

RECORDINGS AND PUBLICATIONS

• John Davis Plays Blind Tom (Newport Classic Ltd., 1999).
• Entry for Blind Tom, African American Lives, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, editors (Oxford University Press, 2004, in conjunction with the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University).
• "Blind Tom: a Celebrated Slave Pianist Coping With Stress," (co-written with M. Grace Baron), Stress and Coping in Autism (Oxford University Press, 2006).
• Entries for Blind Tom, Blind Boone, and Louis Moreau Gottschalk, African American National Biography, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, editors (Oxford University Press, 2008, in conjunction with the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University).
• Liner Note, Big Joe Turner, with Knocky Parker and His Houserockers (Southland Records, 1985)

PROGRAM OFFERINGS

In addition to performing traditional recitals, concertos with orchestra, and chamber music, John Davis tours with two unique, theatrically-driven, programs, Will the Real Thomas Wiggins Please Stand Up! and The John Davis Caravan: Standing At the Crossroads, both outgrowths of my lifelong immersion in black culture of the Deep South.

WILL THE REAL THOMAS WIGGINS PLEASE STAND UP!

Conceived, written, and performed by John Davis, Will the Real Thomas Wiggins Please Stand Up! is a one-man, multi-media, theatrical concert featuring the charming and historically-evocative music of the Georgia slave pianist/composer, Thomas Wiggins, more popularly known as "Blind Tom." Blending live performances by Davis of Tom’s piano works with a host of theatrical elements, including projected video images, pre-recorded firsthand accounts by those who crossed paths with Blind Tom, stage lighting, and supplementary music, Will the Real Thomas Wiggins Please Stand Up! retraces Davis' personal quest to unlock the mysteries of Wiggins’ controversial life and career.



THE JOHN DAVIS CARAVAN: STANDING AT THE CROSSROADS
Another outgrowth of John Davis' career on the cusp between classical music and the blues has been The John Davis Caravan: Standing At the Crossroads, Mr. Davis' nightclub show of "roots" American piano works influenced by Southern black culture. In a nod to Ray Charles, James Brown, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Little Milton, Z.Z. Hill, Denise LaSalle, Marvin Sease, and Bobby Rush, just some of the legendary performers Mr. Davis have seen firsthand in predominantly-black night-clubs and theaters that still flourish in the Deep South, Standing At the Crossroads adopts many of the flamboyant, evocative performance rituals common to all Chitlin’ Circuit revues, including piped-in pre-show historic soul-blues recordings by many of the Chitlin’ Circuit’s major figures, a loud-mouthed, fast-talking emcee (akin to those employed by James Brown, Bobby “Blue” Bland, and Little Milton), and hilarious interchanges between Mr. Davis, the emcee, and the audience (a reference to the notoriously humorous shows of Marvin Sease, Denise Lasalle, and Bobby Rush), all elements intended to serve as a cultural backdrop to the blues-inflected piano music that is being performed. By set’s conclusion, Standing At the Crossroads has achieved a similar effect to that of any typical Chitlin’ Circuit show: a musical experience that, despite its artifice, is both evocative and entertaining, and, at its core, deeply moving.