Little Sammy Davis
| Little Sammy Davis | |
|---|---|
Little Sammy Davis, 2008
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Sammy Davis |
| Also known as | Little Sam Davis, Harmonica Sammy Davis |
| Born |
November 28, 1928 Winona, Mississippi, United States |
| Genres | Blues, blues rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter. |
| Instruments | Vocals, harmonica, guitar |
| Years active | 1940s – present |
| Labels | Delmark Records, Trix Records, Rockin' Records, Fat Fritz Records, Mr. Fritz Records |
| Associated acts | Muddy Waters, Earl Hooker, Albert King, Levon Helm Band, Midnight Slim |
| Website | facebook.com/artist/littlesammydavis |
Little Sammy Davis (born November 28, 1928) is an American blues musician based in New York's Hudson Valley. Although his musical career began in the 1940s, he was not widely known until the mid-1990s when he began working in radio, singing, playing live on tour, and recording studio albums.
Born in Winona, Mississippi and raised in a one-room shack, Davis learned to play the harmonica at the age of eight. He eventually left home and settled in Florida, where he continued to play the blues in the Miami area while working in orange groves and saw mills to make ends meet.
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Davis traveled with medicine shows and played with blues musicians like Pinetop Perkins and Ike Turner. He spent a total of nine years on the road with Earl Hooker, including with the short-lived band of Hooker, Ike Turner, Pinetop Perkins and Albert King which ended when the two titans of blues guitar came to blows, thus breaking up the band. Sammy and Earl recorded four sides for Henry Stone's Rockin' label in 1952 and 1953 (as Little Sam Davis).
In the late 1950s, Davis lived in Chicago, Illinois, performing with Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed and occasionally fronting Little Walter's band, The Aces when Walter didn't show. At some point, word had let out that "some guy looks and plays just like Walter and people THINK he IS Little Walter". One night, as Sammy performed on stage accompanied by Hooker, he spotted a policeman at the back of the club. Walter and the officer waited for Sammy to get through with his set and when Sammy got off of the stage, he was arrested on the spot. To quote Sammy: "Walter was a good guy and told me that yes, you do indeed sound just like me but you can't be going around letting people think you ARE me". Sammy was locked up, spent a night in jail before Walter dropped the charges, leaving Davis and Walter friends for the rest of Walter's all-too short and tragic life.
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