Jimmy Davis (songwriter)

For the country music songwriter and Governor of Louisiana, see Jimmie Davis.
Jimmy Davis
Birth name James Edward Davis
Also known as Jimmy "Loverman" Davis
Born 1915
Madison, Georgia, US
Died 1997 (age 82)
Paris, France
Genres
Occupation(s) Songwriter, singer, musician, actor
Instruments piano
Years active 1940s–1970s
Associated acts Jo Moutet, Wal-Berg

Jimmy Davis (born James Edward Davis, 1915–1997) was an American songwriter, singer, pianist and actor. He co-wrote the song "Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)".

Born in Madison, Georgia, he and his family moved first to Gary, Illinois and then to Englewood, New Jersey, where he completed his high school education and, being musically gifted, was accepted into the Juilliard School in New York to study piano and composition, his fees being paid by a benefactress.[1]

In the late 1930s or early 1940s he wrote the song "Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)" with Ram Ramirez, but couldn't initially place it, until he offered it to Billie Holiday in 1942. Due to the 1942–44 musicians' strike Holiday didn't record the song until October 1944,[2] and although at first only a minor hit[2] it soon achieved widespread success and went on to become a jazz standard, recorded by numerous artists.

During the early 1940s Davis struggled to make a living as a songwriter, and supplemented his meagre royalties by giving piano lessons. He was drafted in 1942, but Davis, a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), refused to be enlisted into a segregated regiment and demanded either exemption or to serve in the non-segregated Canadian army. After a series of unsuccessful representations to the authorities, which drew press coverage and the support of several public figures, he decided not to report for duty and was imprisoned. His morale and health suffered in prison however, as he revealed in letters to the writer and poet Langston Hughes (with whom he would maintain a 25 year correspondence until Hughes death in 1967), and he eventually relented and joined the army.[1]

In March 1945, Davis, then an officer attached to an army musical unit, was sent to France for six months, where he registered for a special course on French language and culture open to American soldiers at the University of Paris. He wrote to Langston Hughes that Paris "was exactly what the doctor ordered". On his return to the US at the end of 1945 he was demobbed and left for Hollywood, where he joined the Actors' Lab, taking a course on acting. He tried to pursue a career in acting but was offered only stereotypical racial roles, and at the end of 1947 decided to emigrate to France.[1]

Davis was warmly welcomed in Paris, partly due to the fame of the song "Lover Man", and was described by the influential French critic and writer Boris Vian in Jazz Hot as "the youngest and most sympathetic of the American composers". He began to style himself Jimmy "Lover Man" Davis and entered a highly creative period, writing a number of songs and managing to place them with major French performers such as Yves Montand ("J'ai de la veine"), Maurice Chevalier ("Trinque, trinque (À la tienne)"), and Joséphine Baker ("You're the Greatest Love"). His songwriting royalties were still insufficient to live on so he began singing his own songs in solo performances, touring throughout France and overseas in Italy, Holland, Spain and Switzerland among other countries.[1]

In 1957 he released an album Jimmy "Loverman" Davis Chante Jimmy "Loverman" Davis featuring songs all co-written by himself, backed by a quartet that included his friend and fellow ex-pat Aaron Bridgers on piano and the French saxophonist Michel de Villers.

Apart from his musical work, Davis appeared on stage in productions such as Pas de week-end pour un espion and Des souris et des hommes (Of Mice and Men),[1] and in film in La Putain respectueuse (1952, uncredited),[3] Mélodie en sous-sol (Any Number Can Win) (1962, as Sam),[4] and Je t'aime moi non plus (1976, as Moïse).[5]

Davis died in Paris in 1997. After a funeral service at the American Church in Paris, his ashes were enterred in a cemetery in Auvergne.[1]

Discography

"Loverman", "J'ai de la veine", "Blue Valley", "C'est beau", "Why a Good Girl Is Hard to Find", "Un dia sin ti", "Amour est venu sous mon toit", "Darling You Are So Delicious", "Un p'tit coup de chapeau", "Sugar, Sugar Lady"

Songs

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Grosjean, François (December 12, 2014). "A la recherche de Jimmy Davis: le musicien de jazz qui m'a sauvé la vie". Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  2. 1 2 Wilson, Jeremy. "Jazz Standards Songs and Instrumentals (Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?))". JazzStandards.com. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  3. ↑ Jimmy Davis at the Internet Movie Database
  4. ↑ Any Number Can Win at the Internet Movie Database
  5. ↑ Je t'aime moi non plus at the Internet Movie Database
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