Davis Rogan

In the entertainment business, there are precious few people who can go simply by one name. Cher. Kanye. Mick. Merle. There are others, but to this list you might want to add the name “Davis.” Currently he's an underground sensation, on the cusp of something, of this everyone is sure, but nobody can say what. However, it is certain that it's something good. If you take the enthusiasm and playfulness of early New Orleans rhythm and blues, add to that the cynical wit of Randy Newman, the rock meets jazz sensibilities of early Steely Dan, and the mocking humor that runs through the works of Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint, Frank Zappa, and Earl King, you begin to describe the music of”The Real Davis,” Davis Rogan.Davis Rogan grew up in New Orleans, and even though he can cook a mean gumbo, he doesn't sweat red beans and rice nor does he indulge in neon red drinks in glasses named for storms. He came up in the Carrollton neighborhood midway between Tulane University and the Maple Leaf Bar. Although New Orleans music has always been a part of his universe, he also had a great attraction to punk rock, hip-hop, and straight up rock 'n' roll. When the Texas noise psychos the Butthole Surfers used to come to town, they'd hang out with Davis. He can quote liberally from the work of both go-go genius Charles Brown and New Orleans bounce/rap pioneers Mystikal and UNLV. That music co-existed with piano lessons from New Orleans professors Ed Frank (piano player on many of the early New Orleans rhythm and blues hits), Professor Longhair disciple Jon Cleary, and master of traditional piano Tom McDermott. He caught one of Professor Longhair's last gigs and ventured out to hear the Meters on the Tulane quad.After that well-rounded musical education and an education in the finer academies of New Orleans and Portland, Oregon, Davis came back to New Orleans, d.j.'ed on both Tulane's station WTUL and the New Orleans community radio WWOZ, and hustled for gigs. This was the early 1990s, and everybody played with everybody. Davis got keyboard gigs with everyone from reggae warriors Crucial Roots to Kermit Ruffin's Jam Session to solo nights at the infamous uptown lounge Snake and Jake's. In his head, he had an idea to start a band with “a blend of hip-hop sensibility and New Orleans brass band with some classic New Orleans funk,” as he said in an Offbeat article in 2002. “That, and a big ass horn section.” That band became the first and foremost funk/rap/New Orleans band, All That. The band was an integral part of the vibrant and fun 1990s New Orleans music scene where killer bands like All That, the New Orleans Klezmer All Stars, the Neville Brothers, the Rebirth Brass Band, Kermit Ruffins, and many others were tearing it up and down the back of town and front of town streets, leaving danced-out fans and pulsating music clubs like Cafe Brasil, the Dragon's Den, and Tipitina's, all of whose foundations had to be reinforced after feeling the groove that these bands were laying down. All That was an 8 headed funk monster. Each gig had the potential for transcendence and mayhem. They were a dangerous bunch of cats, and Davis somehow rustled them all into some wild times and fantastic music.The band was signed to roots music powerhouse Rounder Records and put out two great albums, “Eponymous Debut” and “the Whop Boom Bam.” The albums were a little more controlled than the live sets, but that's like saying kerosene is less flammable than gasoline. They toured the country and played the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. And then, as those things go, the band went their separate ways. It was too good and too much to last any longer than it did. And Davis bided his time, writing and scheming in his “mansion in the hood.”When he emerged, it was with a bunch of songs that became his first solo record, “The Once and Future D.J.” The record was lost to the floodwaters of the Katrina levee failures, but another copy surfaced and it came out while Davis was having his “evacu-cation” in New York. Although funky, “The Once and Future D.J.” is not funk. It's great songs with witty yet meaningful lyrics that might be taken right out of a person's life. (If you're looking for gossip or dirt, this is not the place, honey.) It has great hooks and sing-a-long choruses. And in the first issue that New Orleans music magazine Offbeat put out after the flood, critic John Swenson gave it a deservedly great review, saying, “his fevered ghjrjhjhjtumind seems to be turning over clever ideas almost faster than he can process them, channeling Brian Wilson, Al Kooper, Steely Dan, NRBQ and the Bonzo Dog Band alongside Fats Domino and Eddie Bo.”Now here's the twist in this story. Producer David Simon, head honcho of the rightly revered HBO series “The Wire.” reads the review and hears the record as he is researching a new series about klpost-Katrina New Orleans that he is going to pitch to HBO. He loves the record enough to base a character on Davis Rogan. That's how we get to “The Real Davis,” in contrast to the “The Cable Davis” played by the great Steve Zahn on Treme.And now Davis has recorded his second solo record, “The Real Davis.” It's a straight up continuation and development from his first with catchy songs, fun arrangements, and great lyrics. Whether explaining the truth about his life after the myth of his character on Treme, lamenting the pitfalls of drinking bourbon, explaining the seductive powers of a good French soup, or covering a Big Star classic written by his late neighbor Alex Chilton, Davis has put together an excellent record that not only lodges in your head after one listen, but will grow on you ever more. And it combines the singer/songwriter idea with classic New Orleans rhythm and blues, a winning combination if there ever was one. Almost no one does New Orleans rhythm and blues these days, and those who do perform it like it's still 1958. Davis makes that New Orleans tradition true to today,yesterday, and at least two weeks from today. But even if you don't know that, you'll still dig the record. It's got that inimitable, indescribable thing that could be called heart. Or soul.

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