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CHARLES 'COW COW' DAVENPORT

Charles Edward Davenport was born in Aniston, Alabama on April 23, 1894. Davenport's father was a Pastor. His mother who played organ in his father’s church, taught Charles to play piano at age 12. It looked like he was going to follow in the father’s footsteps when he was sent from his parents to the Alabama Theological Seminary where he was expelled from in 1911 for playing Ragtime.

 

Aniston, Alabama around 1900

 

After he had been fired from the Theological School he worked on numerous vaudeville tours usually in the company of vocalist Dora Carr. 1925 and 1926 they recorded together but when Dora got married the act broke up. Davenport continued touring vaudeville. During the last years of the 1920’s he played house rent parties in Chicago and worked as a talent scout for Brunswick and Vocalion for whom he recorded his most famous tune Cow Cow Blues at that time. This song is one of the earliest recorded examples of boogie-woogie piano playing, done about a half year after Meade 'Lux' Lewis recorded his Honky Tonk Train Blues for the first time and about a half year before Clarence 'Pinetop' Smith did his Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie recording. Davenport is regarded as one of the most famous boogie-woogie pioneers. Until today he is a major influence for generations of boogie pianists and bands.

 

 

He moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1930 and toured the vaudeville circuit again. He recorded for a variety of labels and artists like Sammy Price or Tampa Red. In 1938 aged 44 he suffered a stroke that left his right hand paralyzed without coordination.
 

 

His piano playing was affected for the rest of his life. He fell on lean times and was washing dishes when he was found by the jazz pianist Art Hodes. Hodes assisted in his rehabilitation and helped him find new recording contracts. Davenport carried on performing as a vocalist and regained enough use in his right hand to enable him piano playing again.

In 1942 when Freddie Slack’s orchestra scored a breakthrough hit with Cow Cow Boogie a revival of interest in Davenport’s music started. He tried a comeback as pianist but his career was interrupted to often by sickness. The last years of his life he suffered in poor health. 'Cow Cow' Davenport died at a result of arteriosclerosis in Cleveland, Ohio on December 3, 1955. He is inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

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