Hailing from Oklahoma, Davis began playing guitar in his teens, and was soon on the big stages with John Trudell, Jackson Browne, Taj Mahal, George Harrison, Leon Russell, Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, Leonard Cohen, Rod Stewart and Bob Dylan.
Davis’ significance as a musician, songwriter and Native American artist has been previously highlighted in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian’s exhibit “Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture” in 2010 and in the film “Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World” in 2017.
The career-spanning exhibit opens to the public at the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Okla., on Friday, Nov. 15, along with the book launch of “Washita Love Child: The Rise of Indigenous Rock Star Jesse Ed Davis” by Douglas Miller.
Miller wove together over 100 interviews with Davis’ bandmates, family members, friends and peers to reconstruct Davis’ life and career. His childhood in Oklahoma, first real gig backing rockabilly star Conway Twitty, through playing with George Harrison’s 1971 Concert for Bangladesh to his breakthrough work with John Trudell and the Graffiti Man band. Of particular interest is Davis’ ancestry that includes notable chiefs, artists, medicine people, athletes and war veterans.
Miller also produced “Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day: The Unissued Atco Recordings 1970-1971,” a double-LP collection of unreleased recordings taken from Jesse’s sessions for his two Atco solo records, that will be out on Record Store Day on Nov. 29.
“This project is so personal for me,“ Miller told ICT. “It's really about a life of music for me as much as the people that are interviewed about Jesse. It could not have been easy for him in that time period with his Indigeneity, though his family were extraordinary people. I hope it connects with people.”
"The fact that (Jesse) Ed came out of Oklahoma and went through all of these different amazing musicians, and proved himself over and over and over again, is a phenomenal story,"
– Robbie Robertson, late Mohawk musician with The Band
Watch the Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AKRhchtrvA"Like Jim Thorpe before him, Jesse helped move the dial when it came to how the outside world has viewed Native people. From his early life in Oklahoma to touring as a young guitar player, to playing sessions in LA to his own solo career – he started a movement in Indigenous art that continues today."
– Sterlin Harjo, filmmaker and creator of Reservation Dogs
Read More: https://ictnews.org/news/indigenous-a-e ... ork-shines