Davis, Jesse Ed
(21st September 1944-22nd June 1988)
He was a Kiowa Indian guitarist born in Norman,
Oklahoma.His father was an
artist and painted the Native American murals on the hallways of the State
Capital building.He began
playing the guitar while still young and he moved to Oklahoma City to attend
Oklahoma University and pursue his career in the late 1950s.He left University before graduating and in the early
1960s toured with Conway Twitty.He travelled around before settling in California and joining up
with Taj Mahal for three years.He was much in demand as a
session performer and worked with artists such as David Cassidy,
Albert King, Eric Clapton, Gene Clark, George
Harrison, Ringo
Starr, Leon
Russell, Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson, Gram Parsons, Jackson
Browne, the Steve
Miller Band, Leonard Cohen and John
Lennon
, and he was a member of the Graffiti Band which merged his music
with American Indian poetry of John Trudell.He
released several solo albums that include Ululu that features Eric Clapton, Dr. John,
Stan Szelest and Jim
Keltner
.Making concert performances he was a guest at the Concert
for Bangladesh at the request of George
Harrison in 1971. He was an alcoholic and had an
addiction to drugs and died in 1988 in a Venice laundry room from what is
thought to have been an overdose.A documentary has been made about his life by Native American
filmmakers.