John Davis
John on WNPR’s Morning Edition
Bamboula! Black Music Before the Blues
Exhibition of Early Printed Musical African Americana, Conceived and Curated by John in the Spring of 2017 at The John Hay Library, Brown University
Click here to read article in East Side Monthly about Bamboula! Black Music Before the Blues
The Village Voice: Behold the Fancy Piano at the Met That Connects Parlor Music and Pop
[John Davis] resurrected music that would otherwise be lost forever
Click here to read the preview article in “The Village Voice” to John’s solo recital at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
Lead Belly Fest: John at Carnegie Hall
John on NPR’s On Point, with Tom Ashbrook
The New York Times: Celebrating Mark Twain With a Piano
Mr. Davis played these pieces powerfully and with a rich palette.
Click here to read the review in “The New York Times” of John’s concert at Le Poisson Rouge
Keyboard Magazine: “An Unexpected Pleasure”
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Kalamazoo Gazette: ” The Audience Loved it All”
The Buffalo News: “Davis, An Authority in Roots Music, Plays With Engaging Simplicity”
“This creative disc gives us piano pieces with ties to Twain. There is the Mark Twain Mazurka, and a fascinating Nearer My God to Thee, transcribed from a QRS piano roll by Blind Boone, the first African American to make a piano roll. There are three impressive pieces by another African American great, Blind Tom, whose music Davis has recorded for blues audiences. Twain was fascinated by Blind Tom, with what appears to be very good reason. Davis, an authority in roots music, plays with engaging simplicity and, in between, pieces, reads relevant passages from Twain and his circle. His take on Beethoven’s ‘Pathetique’ Sonata is forthright and lovely. The sonata was a mainstay of the repertoire of both Blind Boone and Blind Tom—and Davis writes that Twain, too, probably played it at home…[Davis’] homespun playing makes you think of Twain and his friends, gathered around a piano in a parlor.”
Mary Kunz Goldman, The Buffalo News