If you're familiar with this boogie-woogie pianist, you've done yourself an accidental courtesy: familiarizing yourself with someone steeped in history and culture. You're listening to Off The Record with Stephen Phillip Harvey, where we sit down and talk to a variety of musicians on today's music scene.
Today we're sitting down with Daryl Davis. He's a well-known pianist specializing in blue stylings like Boogie-Woogie, rockabilly Zydeco, and more. In our conversation, he recounted his early interest in music.
But like I said, I always liked music. Somewhere along the way, I went and I saw Elvis Presley perform. I saw Chuck Berry. I said, you know what? That's what I want to do. 'cause I saw the reactions of the audience, you know, they were happy, happy people… and these people on stage, you know, singing this music, this rock and roll stuff, were were touching people that they didn't even know. Bringing them joy, you know? And I thought, you know, that's what I want to do. I wanna make people happy
In addition to music. He's also known for his work and race relations. When talking to him, you can hear how deep his respect for the crossroads of American culture runs, specifically when discussing its interactions in music.
But, but you know, blues is a form of jazz. ‘Cause,you know, we improvise the blues. We played from the heart, not from the chart. You understand what I'm saying? Yeah. I could say blues is a form of jazz. Boogie-Woogie is a form of jazz. You know, these are all early forms of jazz. Right? If, if you, if you, if I ask you, you know, name me a jazz trumpet player, you know, you might say “Wynton Marsalis”. Your, your dad might say, “Miles Davis.” Your grandfather might say “Louis Armstrong.” Yeah. And, and all three answers are correct. But, but all three jazz, uh, uh, trumpet players are different, you know? So, um, blues and Boogie Woogie, early forms of jazz.
Daryl brings this love of music and culture to the Eastern Shore where he performs at UMES on Saturday, February 28th, as part of the Winter Blues sponsored by the Somerset County Historical Society. It's a pleasure to watch him light up when he talks about the total crossroads of music and American culture.
This is the first form of American music, music that was born here in our country. It was a, a confluence of things brought from, from European music masters, things brought from slaves, et cetera, combined together here in this country, created the blues. Everything was born out of the blues, out of the Mississippi Delta. That music spread west to New Orleans where it evolved into jazz and all the subsets of jazz zydeco are what they would call Dixieland, hot jazz, cool jazz, et cetera. It went north to Memphis where it became soul. It went to Kansas City where it became swing. It went to Chicago, where it became the electric Blues with T-Bone Walker, and BB King and all these other people. It went to St. Louis where it became rock and roll with Chuck Berry.
This was Off the Record, hosted by me, Stephen Philip Harvey, a Delmarva Public Media Production. For more information on Daryl Davis and Winter Blues, visit somersetcountyhistoricalsociety.org. To hear more off the record interviews or to listen to other original segments like this, visit delmarvapublicmedia.org.
