John Davis (born October 22, 1957) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

classical pianist, concert performer, recording artist, and historian. Born in

Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Durham and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 61,960 in the 2020 census, making Chapel Hill the 17th-largest municipality in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state ca ...

and raised in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

, Davis now lives in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. He has specialized in reviving the forgotten music of several 19th Century

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

pianists, including

Blind Tom Wiggins Thomas "Blind Tom" Wiggins (May 25, 1849June 14, 1908) was an American pianist and composer. He had numerous original compositions published and had a lengthy and largely successful performing career throughout the United States. During the 19th ...

and

Blind Boone John William "Blind" Boone (May 17, 1864 – October 4, 1927) was an American pianist and composer of ragtime music. Early life Boone was born in a Federal militia camp near Miami, Missouri, May 17, 1864, to a contraband slave, Rachel, who used ...

. He has recorded albums of works by both composers for th
Newport Classic
label. Davis has performed solo piano recitals across the United States, toured Asia and Eastern Europe by invitation of the

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

, and created several theatrically driven programs entitled
The John Davis Caravan: Standing at the Crossroads
',
Will the Real Thomas Wiggins Please Stand Up!
', and
Halley's Comet: Around the Piano with Mark Twain & John Davis.
' ''Time Out New York'
wrote
that "Davis has made a mission of uncovering music by 19th-century black pianists, including

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

, whose work had a direct impact on

the blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African- ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, rock, and R&B artists that came in their wake." His research and performances have been featured on

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

and television broadcasts and in newspapers and magazines, including ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' and ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...

''. He has written articles on Blind Tom for several

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

books, includin
''African American Lives''
(2004),
Stress and Coping in Autism
' (2006), and
African American National Biography
' (2008). Several recordings by Davis of Blind Tom compositions were used in the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

Lorna Simpson Lorna Simpson (born August 13, 1960) is an American photographer and multimedia artist. She came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s with artworks such as ''Guarded Conditions'' and ''Square Deal''. Simpson is most well-known for her work in c ...

's 2003 film
Corridor
'. In 2010, in commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the birth (and 100th anniversary of the death) of

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

, Davis released ''

Halley's Comet Halley's Comet or Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 75–79 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the o ...

: Around the Piano with Mark Twain and John Davis'',Mark Twain and Halley's Comet
/ref> an album of repertoire based around Twain's fondness for the piano. Composers featured on the album include

Louis Moreau Gottschalk Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States. Life and car ...

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

, Blind Boone, Blind Tom, and

Ossip Gabrilowitsch Ossip Salomonovich Gabrilowitsch (Осип Сoломонович Габрилович, ''Osip Solomonovich Gabrilovich''; he used the German transliteration ''Gabrilowitsch'' in the West) (14 September 1936) was a Russian-born American pianist, ...

Education

Davis studied at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

and received his

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

from

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...

. His teachers included Seth Carlin, Gabriel Chodos, Herbert Stessin, Aube Tzerko, and

Beveridge Webster Beveridge Webster (May 13, 1908, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – June 30, 1999, in Hanover, New Hampshire) was an American pianist and educator. Beveridge Webster studied with his father, initially, and in 1921, at age 14, he began five years of ...

Discography

*''John Davis Plays Blind Tom: The Eighth Wonder'' (Newport Classic, 2000) *''Marshfield Tornado: John Davis Plays Blind Boone'' (Newport Classic, 2008) *''Halley's Comet: Around the Piano with Mark Twain & John Davis'' (Newport Classic, 2010)

References

External links

Official website
* , a short documentary film about John Davis researching Blind Tom and Blind Boone
History of Blind Tom's ''The Battle of Manassas''
recorded by John Davis

by Thomas L. Riis, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', March 5, 2000
"Blind Tom's Tombstone,"
by

Elizabeth Kolbert Elizabeth Kolbert (born 1961) is an American journalist, author, and visiting fellow at Williams College. She is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning book '' The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History'', and as an observer and commentator o ...

, ''

'', July 15, 2002
"Blind Boone Festival Kicks Off
" ''The Missourian'', June 1, 2008

''

Providence Journal ''The Providence Journal'', colloquially known as the ''ProJo'', is a daily newspaper serving the metropolitan area of Providence, Rhode Island, and is the largest newspaper in Rhode Island. The newspaper was first published in 1829. The newspape ...

'', April 21, 2010
"Celebrating Mark Twain With a Piano,"
by

Allan Kozinn Allan Kozinn (born July 28, 1954) is an American journalist, music critic, and teacher. Kozinn received bachelor's degrees in music and journalism from Syracuse University in 1976. He began freelancing as a critic and music feature writer for ''T ...

, ''

'', November 29, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, John 1957 births American classical pianists American male classical pianists Brown University alumni Juilliard School alumni Musicians from Rhode Island Living people People from Chapel Hill, North Carolina American music historians 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American pianists 21st-century classical pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American pianists 21st-century American male writers