“They call me a blues singer,” veteran soul man Tyrone Davis declares with the resigned air of one who’s had to explain this distinction too many times before. “I’m not a blues singer–I’m a rhythm and blues singer.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
The 56-year-old Davis has been a local mainstay for so long that some forget how important he’s been in the development of contemporary R & B. Born in Mississippi and raised in Michigan, he moved to Chicago in 1957 and did, in fact, start on the west side blues scene, trying to sound like Bobby “Blue” Bland. He toured with blues singer Freddie King as a driver and valet, and a few years later he was discovered singing in a local club by R & B artist Harold Burrage. Burrage brought Davis to the Four Brothers label, which operated out of Barney’s Records on Roosevelt Road. There, under the name Tyrone the Wonder Boy, Davis had several local hits before the label folded in 1967.
Tonight, though, Davis has more pressing concerns than genre debates. Despite a nagging cold and a temperamental PA system, he’s just elevated a packed house to shouting, hand-waving ecstasy at his new club, the Tyrone Davis Entertainment Center, in a former blues venue known as the Zodiac Lounge. It’s been a long time since the west side has been able to boast this kind of nightclub, promising to attract top-name artists on a regular basis. There’s a definite feeling of triumph in the air, but the pragmatic and somewhat wary Davis isn’t smug. “Somewhere down the line I can make a few dollars,” he says flatly. “I do what I do: I sing. I’ve been taking what I’ve got coming. Soul music might be coming back strong. They keep telling me that. I hope so, because that’s what I do.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Photo/Nathan Mandell.
