Maxwell Davis: Biography

• Overview
• Discography
• Biography
• Related Artists

• Johnny Otis
• Ray Abrams

• Duke Ellington
• Count Basie

• Peppermint Harris

• Frank Fields
• Amos Milburn
• B.B. King
• Oscar Lee Bradley
• Ralph Hamilton
• Jesse Sailes
• Irving Ashby

Born:

Jan 14, 1916 in Independence, KS

Died:

Sep 18, 1970 in Los Angeles, CA

Genres:

Blues Music, Piano and Jump Blues Music

Decades Active:

1940's|1950's

Cultural Impact

Low

Ratings Guide

As a prolific all-purpose producer/songwriter/sideman, tenor saxman Maxwell Davis filled some of the same pivotal roles on the 1950s Los Angeles RB scene that Willie Dixon handled so skillfully in Chicago. Davis arranged and produced a myriad of West Coast sessions for Modern, Aladdin, and other postwar RB indies from the late '40s on, lending his husky sax to scads of waxings.

Davis left Kansas for L.A. in 1937, working in Fletcher Henderson's orchestra before being bitten by the RB bug. Modern/ Kent probably kept him employed the steadiest throughout the '50s and '60s; he worked with Pee Wee Crayton, Etta James, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Lowell Fulson, Z.Z. Hill, and plenty more on the Bihari Brothers' star-studded roster. Over at Aladdin, he worked closely with Amos Milburn and Peppermint Harris, among others. Davis didn't have much luck recording as a bandleader, although his instrumentals "Look Sharp -- Be Sharp" (an RB adaptation of the Gillette march) for Aladdin and "Tempo Rock"/"Cool Diggin'" on RPM packed a wallop.

- Bill Dahl, All Music Guide