Charlie Davis

Charlie Davis – A native of Indianapolis and son of trombonist Abijah Davis, Charlie Davis caught the dance band bug after arriving at Notre Dame in 1917. With classical piano training under his belt, Davis also learned to play the trumpet and eventually made his mark as a bandleader. The Charlie Davis Band (sometimes called The Joy Gang) formed in Indianapolis in 1923 as a combo and developed into a big band, which played throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s. Known for their “sweet style,” the Charlie Davis Band was a popular attraction at the Casino Gardens, a hot dance spot near the White River in Northern Indianapolis. Their success at the Casino Gardens led to a recording date at Gennett Records. While in Indiana, the band’s activities intersected those of Hoagy Carmichael and Bix Beiderbecke’s Wolverines, who shared gigs with the Davis Band at Butler College and Marion’s Luna Lite Theater in 1924. Also in 1924, the Wolverines made a Gennett recording of Davis’s own “Copenhagen,” which became a jazz standard along with “Jimtown Blues” (co-written by Davis with Fred Rose). Starting about five years later, the Davis Band got bookings in New York alongside such talents as Rudy Vallee, the Duke Ellington Band, Cab Calloway, Bojangles Robinson, and Ethel Merman. One of the highlights was sharing a Paramount Theatre marquee with the name “Duke Ellington.” International tours included widespread travel throughout Russia, Mexico, Spain, France, Holland, and South Africa. After the band dissolved in the 1930s, Davis worked in the furniture and linoleum business in Oswego, New York, while some of his former band members went on to successful music careers. For example, Arkansas-born Dick Powell was the band’s featured vocalist and became a well-known Hollywood actor and singer. Immediately after the band’s break-up, Earle Moss, who played clarinet and sometimes trumpet with the Joy Gang, became an arranger for CBS radio and Radio City Music Hall. After relocating to New York, trombonist Phil Davis went on to run the Phil Davis Musical Enterprises, which produced jingles for radio and television.