Jamie Davis

Official Biography (courtesy of Unity Music) 

Jamie Davis was born singing in 1949.  Raised in his father's Pentecostal Church, spiritual music filled his life and a rich baritone voice came belting out as Jamie grew into the choir's soloist.  By age 13, Jamie had formed his first band and experimented with spiritually tamed ballads and early rhythm and blues. 

Once he was introduced to jazz as a teen, and listened to the ‘soul' sounds and stylings of living artists like Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Al Green and Lou Rawls, Jamie never looked back. He embraced the ‘soul'-centered jazz being played live in NYC by Milt Jackson, Horace Silver and especially Jimmy Smith and sang swing ballads, rhythm and blues and soul music throughout his high school years in Mansfield, Ohio.

While attending Ohio State University Jamie's rich, full bass-baritone voice brought to life liturgical music in Latin, Rameau compositions in French, and songs in German by Bach, Schuman and Mahler.

In the 1960's, while in the U.S. Army, Jamie was a member of 'Government Issue,' an elite group of singers in Special Services, who toured military bases performing. There, he experimented with vastly different musical forms: singing standard hits, swing ballads, show tunes, as well as light jazz and blues. Davis' voice got a work out. Jamie stretched out his high baritone timbre and range, and learned to refine his phrasing.

The next stop was New York City to study under the renowned Harlem vocal coach, Edward Boatner. Davis also spent time at the famous Sigma Sounds Studio in Philadelphia, performing and recording with the MSFB Studio Orchestra.  The same orchestra the recorded hits with Teddy Pendergrass, The OJs, Lou Rawls and Billy Paul.

In 1975, Jamie arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area, formed new musical connections and performed with Milt Jackson, Eddie Henderson, Dave Lieberman, Melba Moore, Allen Smith, Vernon Alley, Pharoah Saunders and others.

Jamie's full deep baritone voice was tapped to narrate ‘A Time to Remember,' a docudrama which won the 1997 Black American Independent Filmmakers Award.

Davis broke into the international jazz kats scene in the late nineties. He worked in Rome, Madrid, Venice, Verona, Genoa, Munich, Stuttgart and Bern, and traveled with some of that region's finest musicians. While in Milan he recorded a CD as the featured singer of the group ‘Higher Standards.'

In recognition of his steady accomplishments in the San Francisco area jazz scene, Jamie Davis was invited to appear in the prestigious ‘Bay Area's Giants of Jazz' photograph, a 1999 event inspired by the acclaimed, historical ‘A Great Day in Harlem' photo of 1952.

In 2000, Jamie joined the Count Basie Orchestra. The next three years were spent traveling worldwide, performing with the likes of Nancy Wilson, Patty Austin, George Benson, Wallace Rodney, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Dianne Reeves, Buster Williams and Jimmy Cobbs.

His first solo CD, "It's All About Love," was released in late February 2002.  

In 2004, Jamie worked with Billy Cobham and Toots Tillman in Europe and Dubai (United Arab Emirates), and headlined at the Dubai International Jazz Festival.  

Jamie's second release, "It's A Good Thing", released June 13, 2006 on Unity-Music, is carried by Bayside Distribution, a division of Tower Records.