Mel Davis was an American multi-instrumental musician and arranger, best known for his trumpet playing. He also played piano, violin, drums, tuba, bass, accordion and ocarina. He was also known as a vocalist. He was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in 1931 and died in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

on December 28, 2004. He was the owner of Mel’s place in Baldwin, New York, a jazz club on Long Island.

Early career

Davis began his musical apprenticeship under Seymour Rosenfeld, who was a long-time trumpet player with the

Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription ...

. He played in clubs from the age of twelve but completed high school before taking a job playing with the St. Louis Symphonette. While continuing to play club gigs, Davis furthered his musical knowledge by studying at

Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship. Hi ...

and

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

. He recorded many albums, including ''Trumpet with a Soul'', released on the Epic label in 1956. It featured

Milt Hinton Milton John Hinton (June 23, 1910 – December 19, 2000) was an American double bassist and photographer. Regarded as the Dean of American jazz bass players, his nicknames included "Sporty" from his years in Chicago, "Fump" from his time on the ...

on bass and

Osie Johnson James "Osie" Johnson (January 11, 1923, in Washington, D.C. – February 10, 1966, in New York City) was a jazz drummer, arranger and singer. Johnson studied at Armstrong Highschool where he was classmates with Leo Parker and Frank Wess. He fir ...

on drums. Later, he formed a band called "The Lease Breakers" with Buddy Morrow, Harvey Phillips, Tony Mottola and Sol Gubin. Then in the mid-1950s, he left Philadelphia for New York where he joined the Benny Goodman band as lead trumpet player, travelling with the band on their tour of the Far East in 1956.

Session work

Davis' reliability saw him taking up unsung positions as a session musician. He was the house trumpeter with

Command Records Origin and history Command Records was a record label founded by Enoch Light in 1959 and, in October that year, was acquired by ABC-Paramount Records. Light produced a majority of the releases in the label's catalog. The company focused on prod ...

and worked a stint as one of

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

's staff musicians, as well as being one of the original and long time ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

'' band-members, where he stayed for seventeen years. Davis also appeared on the "Tonight Show" with

Doc Severinsen Carl Hilding "Doc" Severinsen (born July 7, 1927) is an American retired jazz trumpeter who led the NBC Orchestra on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson''. Early life Severinsen was born in Arlington, Oregon, to Minnie Mae (1897–1998) a ...

, as well as the Perry Como Show. He appeared on many albums including

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop si ...

’s ''

Lady in Satin ''Lady in Satin'' is an album by the jazz singer Billie Holiday released in 1958 on Columbia Records, catalogue CL 1157 in mono and CS 8048 in stereo. It is the penultimate album completed by the singer and last released in her lifetime (her final ...

'' (1958), Neal Hefti's ''Pardon my Doo-Wah'' (1958),

George Benson George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, pla ...

's ''

The Other Side of Abbey Road ''The Other Side of Abbey Road'' is a 1970 studio album by American guitarist George Benson of songs from the Beatles' 1969 album ''Abbey Road''. It was his last album for A&M Records. The front cover is a photograph of Benson by Eric Meola in ...

'' (1969) and

Lynn Roberts Lynn Roberts (born Leonore Theresa Raisig; January 9, 1935 – January 21, 2017)Lynn T. Roberts
Sauls Funera ...

' tribute to

Harry James Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized ...

. Mel Davis also provided scores for at least two independent films, both directed by

Jon Moritsugu Jon Moritsugu (born February 15, 1965) is an American cult-underground filmmaker. His movies are satiric, protopunk deconstructions of popular genres and formats with scabrous and pointedly garish results. The ''New York Times'' describes them a ...

, ''Fame Whore'' (1997) and '' Scumrock'' (2002). Davis ran a club called "Rampart Street" in Port Washington and retired to Florida where he died in 2004, aged 73.

References

Musicians' Union website '802afm' provided a bio at the time of his death, from which much of this article is drawn: *https://web.archive.org/web/20100713033355/http://www.local802afm.org/publication_entry.cfm?xEntry=36439325 Album credits: http://vinyl4giants.blogspot.com/2009/01/george-benson-other-side-of-abbey-road.html http://www.jazzwax.com/2009/07/index.html Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2658026/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Mel 1931 births 2004 deaths American trumpeters American male trumpeters 20th-century American musicians 20th-century trumpeters 20th-century American male musicians