"Cow Cow" Davenport born 23 April 1895

Charles Edward "Cow Cow" Davenport (April 23, 1894 – December 3, 1955) was an American boogie-woogie and piano blues player as well as a vaudeville entertainer. He also played the organ and sang. He is remembered most for his famous song "Cow Cow Blues" which is one of the earliest recorded examples of the Boogie-Woogie or Barrelhouse, as it's sometimes called. 

He was born in Anniston, Alabama, one of eight children. He learned to play piano and organ in his father's church from his mother who was the organist and it looked like he was going to follow in the family footsteps until he was expelled from the Alabama Theological Seminary in 1911 for playing Ragtime at a church function.  

Davenport's early career revolved around carnivals and vaudeville including Banhoof's Travelling Carnival which was a medicine show.  He toured Theatre Owners Booking Association with an act called Davenport and Company with Blues singer Dora Carr and they recorded together in 1925 and 1926. The act broke up when Carr got married. Davenport briefly teamed up with Blues singer Ivy Smith as the “Chicago Steppers”in 1928 and worked as a talent scout for Brunswick and Vocalion records in the late 1920s and played rent parties in Chicago. He also performed with Tampa Red. 

 

 

                               

 

Davenport recorded for many record labels. He also made recordings under the pseudonyms of Bat The Humming Bird, George Hamilton and The Georgia Grinder.  His best-known tune was "Cow Cow Blues". The "Cow Cow" in the title referred to a train's cowcatcher. The popularity of the song gave Davenport the nickname "Cow Cow." In 1953, "Cow Cow Blues" was an influence on the Ahmet Ertegün-written "Mess Around" by Ray Charles, which was Charles's first step away from his Nat "King" Cole-esque style, and into the style he would employ throughout the 1950s for Atlantic Records. 

"Cow-Cow Boogie (Cuma-Ti-Yi-Yi-Ay)" (1943) was probably named for him, but he did not write it. It was penned by Benny Carter, Gene de Paul and Don Raye. It combined the then popular "Western song" craze (exemplified by Johnny Mercer's "I'm an Old Cowhand") with the big-band boogie-woogie fad. The track was written for the Abbott and Costello film Ride 'Em Cowboy. 

Davenport claimed to have been the composer of "Mama Don't Allow It". He also said he had written the Louis Armstrong hit "I'll be Glad When You're Dead (You Rascal You)", but sold the rights and credit to others. 

He moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1930 and toured the TOBA vaudeville circuit and recorded with Sam Price. In 1938 he suffered a stroke that left his right hand somewhat paralyzed and affected his piano playing for the rest of his life, but he remained active as a vocalist until he regained enough strength in his hand to play again.  

In the early 1940s Cow Cow briefly left the music business and 

Davenport with Art Hodes

worked as a washroom attendant at the Onyx Club on 52nd Street in New York where he was found by the jazz pianist Art Hodes. Hodes assisted in his rehabilitation and helped him find new recording contracts as he was able to do some limited piano playing 

In 1942 Freddie Slack's Orchestra scored a huge hit with "Cow Cow Boogie" with vocals by seventeen year old Ella Mae Morse which sparked the Boogie-Woogie craze of the early 1940s; this led to a revival of interest in Davenport's music.   

He tried to make a "comeback" in the forties and fifties but his career was often interrupted by sickness. He died in 1955 of heart problems in Cleveland. He is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Bedford Heights, Ohio. He is a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Cripple Clarence Lofton called him a major influence. 

(Compiled and edited from various sources mainly Wikipedia & Red Hot Jazz)