INTERVIEW: NOLA musician Jeremy Davenport brings American songbook to Ritz-Carlton
Who else is better to play the Jeremy Davenport Lounge at the Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans than Jeremy Davenport himself. Few musicians make a living from their artistic love, fewer snag a high-profile residency in a city known for its residencies and fewer still have their name plastered above the marquee in permanence.
But then again, Davenport isn’t just anyone. He’s a singer and trumpeter originally from St. Louis whose career trajectory crossed with the paths of Wynton Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr. Like a musical sponge, he learned and took advice from his mentors, and now he’s showcasing that lifelong dedication four nights a week at the Ritz-Carlton. He can be found most Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., and Fridays and Saturdays from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.
After growing up in St. Louis, Davenport traveled to New York City to study at the Manhattan School of Music. He made the jump from Missouri to the Big Apple thanks to a connection with Wynton Marsalis, whom he met at the age of 12.
“So basically I started spending a lot of time with Wynton in New York City,” Davenport said recently in a phone interview. “And then he introduced me to Harry Connick Jr., and they both convinced me, you know, if I was interested in pursuing jazz as a career that I should consider spending some time in New Orleans. And so I basically packed up and headed to New Orleans, and literally as soon I got to New Orleans, then Harry hired me to be in his big band. So it’s kind of a weird set of circumstances, so then I went on the road with Harry shortly after that.”
That short time he was in New Orleans, between Manhattan and hitting the road with Connick, Davenport had the good fortune to study under the tutelage of Ellis Marsalis, a world-respected jazz interpreter who has shepherded many aspiring musicians. In fact, on frequent nights, when Davenport is offering tunes at the Davenport Lounge, Ellis Marsalis is across town on Frenchmen Street at Snug Harbor, still giving audience members a showcase of his excellence.
“I spent a semester as a student of Ellis Marsalis,” Davenport said. “So I did get a chance to spend a lot of time with him, and then I ended up actually playing with him some, too. He actually took me to Japan for a short tour, and then I ended up going out with Harry. So that’s an important part of it. I did get to spend some time studying with Ellis.”
Davenport called this triangle route from St. Louis to New Orleans “super organic.”
“I look back on it now, and there was a certain amount of … naiveté plus fearlessness,” he said. “I mean the way I got to meet Wynton was my dad played with the St. Louis Symphony, and Wynton was playing with the symphony. So I showed up at a rehearsal with my trumpet and just basically barged in Wynton’s dressing room and said, ‘You know, I want to play for you.’ So I look back at that now, and, you know, I was a 12-year-old kid. I was crazy. I mean I was hungry. … That’s the kind of attitude you kind of have to have in order to make things happen where you just have to work hard and try hard to put yourself in situations that might benefit you and teach you stuff. And so certainly when I showed up in New Orleans, I basically showed up at Ellis Marsalis, the dad’s doorstep, and I’m like, ‘Teach me everything you know. I want to learn everything you know.’ So that’s how it works.”
Davenport was predisposed to music as a child. His mother is a retired music teacher, and that symphonic father is a trombone player. At a young age, the future New Orleans singer-trumpeter would pick up the trombone and try his best. After that didn’t work out (“I was so small, my arms, I couldn’t use the slide”), Davenport was given a trumpet, the instrument he has stuck with for the rest of his life.
“The only thing I regret is my parents are both pianists, and they always encouraged me when I was young to study the piano,” he said. “And I always blew them off, and then by the time I got to around 18 years old, I realized that I should have studied piano and had to play catch-up from then on. But, yeah, trumpet was my first love.”
The singing appears to have come from his mother, although there was a push along the way from a future American Idol judge.
“My mom is a retired general music teacher, vocal teacher, and so there was always that in my house,” he said. “I mean my mom is a singer, and she always encouraged kids to sing. And it was a big part of my development, but really … I just wasn’t comfortable with that component of my skill set. And so I think literally the first time I sang publicly I was 18, and it’s funny because Harry Connick Jr. really encouraged me to sing. … I mean he’s a good mentor. He’s a good teacher.”
When Davenport was out on the road with Connick, who is gearing up for a final season of American Idol, the St. Louis native loved what he was accomplishing but wanted a gig that kept him in one zip code.
“I guess in the back of my mind I was constantly probing and searching for ways to get off the road and develop a way that I could kind of play music on my terms without being on a plane every day and a bus,” he said.
The Ritz-Carlton opportunity opened up, and now four nights a week, he’s living that life he wanted. Each night he chooses the set list, although it favors the American songbook and some New Orleans sounds as well.
“I’ve just kind of taken everything that I really love and kind of squeezed it through a funnel, and that’s what it’s become,” he said. “So it’s kind of a mixture. I always love the American popular songbook stuff — you know, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, you know, Mel Tormé, Frank Sinatra, just the real classic Dean Martin, the American songbook stuff that I think will never get old. And then at the same time, I was always totally obsessed with the jazz trumpet side of it, so Louis Armstrong, you know, Clark Terry, Miles Davis, the real hardcore improvisers. So basically I love both equally, so my show is kind of an equal representation of that. And then obviously adding a New Orleans twist to it because part of the reason I came to New Orleans is I wanted to kind of submerge myself in that musical culture.”
Here’s how Davenport summarized his playing for the audience at the Davenport Lounge, no matter whether the concertgoers are locals or out-of-towners: “I have a great respect for cooks, chefs, so it’s almost like I’m preparing a meal that I hope they enjoy. But I’m not going to cater to what I think they might like. … If I was a sushi chef, I’m not going to throw in a hamburger to kind of please somebody. So I basically do really what I really love, and I just hope that people enjoy it. And thankfully they have because I think any other way might make you crazy because it’s such a slippery slope to try to figure out what people might like on any given situation.”
Davenport plays live more than he enters the recording studio, although he’s hopeful that dynamic will soon be changing. He does have an album with Basin Street Records called We’ll Dance ‘Till Dawn. Songs include “Almost Never,” “When I Take My Sugar to Tea,” “Mr. New Orleans,” the classic “The Lady Is a Tramp” and “Come Rain or Come Shine.” Selections can be heard here.
“I have been lucky enough to kind of always have a recording contract, which obviously is an enviable position,” he said. “It’s one of my goals to force myself this year to get into the studio.”
As someone who has been mentored by the greats, Davenport now finds himself in the position where he can offer advice to up-and-comers. “I sound like a broken record, but I find that you just have to work your butt off,” he said. “I never thought about, you know, I want to make money, or I want to be on the cover of a magazine or I’d love to be in this movie. It was always, as corny as this might sound, I was always just like I want to be the best. I want to be able to really, really play the trumpet and sing well. I just wanted to do good work, and so my path was always like the harder I work, the more fruit the thing produced.”
He even added this, almost as evidence of his dedication: “I’m practicing the trumpet right now because it’s all that I know that I can do. It’s my job.”
The career that Davenport has carved for himself is obviously the product of hard work, and the rewards have been plenty.
“When I got a recording contract and subsequently started working at the Ritz, I wasn’t thinking, oh, I hope the Ritz names the club after me,” he said. “At some point the Ritz-Carlton came to me and said, ‘Hey, we want to call this place Davenport Lounge. Are you OK with that?’ And I go, ‘Wow, yeah, that’s pretty cool.’ And then I remember going out and watching them put up the big sign, and the awning and everything. And I go, ‘Wow, well, this is cool.'”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
