Look Who it Was Random video

Roaring 20s: Meyer Davis' Swanee Syncopators - Caressing You, 1928

2,376 views · Published 2 February 2017 · 3:26 · Indexed 25 October 2026

Channel: 240252 · 2017 · Music

Watch on YouTube

Meyer Davis’ Swanee Syncopators – Caressing You, Fox Trot with Vocal Chorus  (Klages – Alpart – Fazioli), Brunswick 1928 (Recorded in USA; British pressing)

NOTE: Meyer DAVIS  – American violinist and bandleader, who was called the Toscanini of society of American band leaders. Having started out as a student of business who played the violin for pleasure in family quartet, he headed a musical empire that at times had as many as 80 bands with more than 1,000 musicians on its payroll. 
Born in 1893 in Ellicott City, Md., at the age of 8, Meyer Davis moved with his family to Washington D.C., where he started taking violin lessons. Having entered Business High School in 1908, he was refused a place on the school's orchestra—a disappointment that led him to start a band of his own: a 5  piece ensemble that played for $25 an evening. Of the fee, he paid $12 to the other players and kept the rest for himself. Ho also took a supplementary job as second violinist in a theater. He also studied bookkeeping and stenography before he enrolled as a law student at George Washington University, also working part-time as a reporter for The Washington Post and going on playing with the band he had formed in high school. It was a time when the local society was enjoyed with mostly the Sousa marches and Strauss waltzes, however also the new dance rhythms began to be heard. During his law school holidays, Meyer Davis headed out West to find out what the new syncopation was about. His band soon acquired reputation of the successful promoter of the new trends in dance music, and in 1914 he was hired by the renowned New Willard Hotel to play turkey trot and machicha. His band was doing so well that the employee offered him a 90$ per week permanent job and Davis decided to drop the law and become a fulltime band leader. During next few years, and using his business talents, Meyer Davis managed to create a corporation of 30 bands playing somewhere on any given evening, commanding a payroll in excess of $3 million a year. Each band would consist of hand‐picked musicians, led by a conductor trained by Mr. Davis and conversant with a repertory of some 500 arrangements approved by the “millionaire maestro” himself. His orchestras came to be heard at most prestigious society gatherings, such as the April in Paris Ball or the Junior Assembly in New York. Meyer Davis played for royalty, including King George V of Britain and his bands were heard on the luxury liners. Besides having his bands in the pit at more than 200 Broadway shows, he invested also in bowling alleys, restaurants, dance halls, an outdoor amusement park and a film company. Playing with a Davis band was an exacting work, and some of the performers who passed the test and went on to fame were Benny Goodman or Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. Tall and slender, Meyer Davis was known for his good manners and tact. He was a fervent poker player who also used to relax by performing chamber music with his brother‐in‐law. However, lucky in business and music, Meyer Davis was not a very happy father. He lost one of his sons in World War II. Another became a somewhat crazy pacifist and, declaring himself “World Citizen No. I”, issued himself a passport that since then has landed him in jail about 20 times as he sought to enter various countries with it to spread his message. Mayer Davis and his wife were devoted collectors of the Byroniana, among them Lord Byron's last will, his writing desk and autographed first editions of his works. Meyer Davis died in New York in 1976.

More from this channel