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Roy Davis Jr. | |
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 Roy Davis Jr. by Sean Delahay | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Roy Davis Earl Jr. |
| Born | Van Nuys, California, U.S. |
| Genres | House, garage |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, DJ, remixer |
| Years active | 1986–present |
| Labels | XL Recordings, Defected Records, Strictly Rhythm, Undaground Therapy Muzik, Peacefrog |
| Website | https://www.facebook.com/roydavisjrofficial |
Roy Davis Jr. is an American electronic musician from Chicago, Illinois, specialising in house music.
Davis was born in California and grew up in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and became interested in house music at an early age by the likes of Lil' Louis, DJ Pierre, Farley Keith (Farley Jackmaster Funk) and Marshall Jefferson. Davis began his own production company named Phuture in the late 1980s and went on to become an A&R scout for record label Strictly Rhythm in NYC whilst also running his Chicago founded record label Undaground Therapy Muzik. A few years later, Davis and singer-songwriter Peven Everett wrote and produced the single "Gabriel" which was released on Large Records in 1996 and later licensed and released on XL Recordings in 1997. The track garnered international airplay, and was played in nightclubs around the world. It peaked at No. 22 on the UK Singles Chart in November 1997. [1] The single sold over 200,000 copies and has appeared on numerous of compilation albums including Desert Island Mix from Gilles Peterson. In 2004, Davis' track "About Love" reached No. 70 in the UK, [2] adding to the list of previous chart success with records such as "Who Dares to Believe in Me" under alias The Believers which was released on New York label Strictly Rhythm and "All I Do" released on Omar-S' artist-run label FXHE.
Roy Davis Jr. has also been known for his work for Thomas Bangalter's label Roulé which operated out of Paris in the early '90s and his production work for artists such as Eric Benet, Faith Evans, Mary J. Blige, Seal, Patti LaBelle, Christina Milian and Morcheeba.
In 2011, he produced a record with J. Noize and Kaye Fox called "Enjoy the Ride".
In April 2016, Davis announced that he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and was to cancel some planned shows but planned to return to performing live and producing music as his health would allow him. [3]
House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's Black gay underground club culture and evolved slowly in the early/mid 1980s as DJs began altering disco songs to give them a more mechanical beat. By early 1988, House became mainstream and supplanted the typical 80s music beat.
Chicago house refers to house music produced during the mid to late 1980s within Chicago. The term is generally used to refer to the original house music DJs and producers from the area, such as Ron Hardy and Phuture.
Chicago soul is a style of soul music that arose during the 1960s in Chicago. Along with Detroit, the home of Motown, and Memphis, with its hard-edged, gritty performers, Chicago and the Chicago soul style helped spur the album-oriented soul revolution of the early 1970s.
Joe Melson is an American singer and a BMI Award-winning songwriter best known for his collaborations with Roy Orbison, including "Only the Lonely" and "Crying", which are both in the Grammy Hall of Fame and have both been included in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Melson was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.
Armand van Helden is an American DJ, record producer, remixer and songwriter from Boston, Massachusetts. He is considered one of house music's most revered figures, with a career spanning three decades.
Gene Chandler is an American singer, songwriter, music producer, and record-label executive. Chandler is nicknamed "the Duke of Earl" or, simply, "the Duke." He is best known for his most successful songs, "Duke of Earl" and "Groovy Situation", and his association with the Dukays, the Impressions, and Curtis Mayfield.
Manley Augustus Buchanan, better known as Big Youth, is a Jamaican deejay, mostly known for his work during the 1970s.
Barbara Jean Acklin was an American soul singer and songwriter, who was most successful in the 1960s and 1970s. Her biggest hit as a singer was "Love Makes a Woman" (1968). As a songwriter, she is best known for co-writing the multi-million-selling "Have You Seen Her" (1971) with Eugene Record, lead singer of the Chi-Lites.
Farley "Jackmaster" Funk is an American musician, DJ and record producer of Chicago house and acid house music. He is notable for writing and producing a number of highly influential tracks in the mid and late 1980s.
Steve W. "Silk" Hurley, also known as J. M. Silk, is an American club DJ, house music producer, and songwriter.
Lonnie Brooks was an American blues singer and guitarist. The musicologist Robert Palmer, writing in Rolling Stone, stated, "His music is witty, soulful and ferociously energetic, brimming with novel harmonic turnarounds, committed vocals and simply astonishing guitar work." Jon Pareles, a music critic for the New York Times, wrote, "He sings in a rowdy baritone, sliding and rasping in songs that celebrate lust, fulfilled and unfulfilled; his guitar solos are pointed and unhurried, with a tone that slices cleanly across the beat. Wearing a cowboy hat, he looks like the embodiment of a good-time bluesman." Howard Reich, a music critic for the Chicago Tribune, wrote, "...the music that thundered from Brooks' instrument and voice...shook the room. His sound was so huge and delivery so ferocious as to make everything alongside him seem a little smaller."
Betty Jean Everett was an American soul singer and pianist, best known for her biggest hit single, the million-selling "Shoop Shoop Song ", and her duet "Let It Be Me" with Jerry Butler.
Rhythm King Records Ltd was a British independent record label, founded in the mid-1980s by Martin Heath, Adele Nozedar, DJ Jay Strongman and James Horrocks. It was based in Chiswick, London.
Nathaniel Pierre Jones, better known by his stage name DJ Pierre, is an American DJ and performer of house music based in Chicago.
Oliver Sain Jr. was an American saxophonist, songwriter, bandleader, drummer and record producer, who was an important figure in the development of rhythm and blues music, notably in St Louis, Missouri.
Leonard Caston Jr. is an American rhythm and blues songwriter, record producer, pianist and singer. He recorded for both the Chess and Motown labels in the 1960s and 1970s, and co-wrote or co-produced several major hit records, including Mitty Collier's "I Had A Talk With My Man" (1964), The Supremes' "Nathan Jones" (1971), Eddie Kendricks' "Keep On Truckin'" (1973) and "Boogie Down" (1974).
Willie Clayton is an American Chicago blues and soul-blues singer and songwriter. He has recorded over 25 albums since the 1980s. He has been performing since the late 1960s. His chart successes span the decades from the 1980s onward.
Marlon Hart, known professionally as M-Beat, is a jungle musician and producer. The nephew of Sly Dunbar, Hart scored three top 20 hit singles on the UK Singles Chart: "Incredible" at No. 8, "Sweet Love" at No. 18, and "Do U Know Where You're Coming From" at No. 12 in 1996. He has also produced remixes for re-releases of Soul II Soul's "Keep On Movin'" (1996) and Roy Davis Jr.'s "Gabriel" (1997), which respectively peaked at numbers 31 and 22 on the chart. In 2023, Willow Kayne cited Hart as an inspiration.
UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house and jungle production methods, but also incorporates elements from dance-pop and R&B. It is defined by percussive, shuffled rhythms with syncopated hi-hats, cymbals, and snares, and may include either 4/4 house kick patterns or more irregular "2-step" rhythms. Garage tracks also commonly feature 'chopped up' and time-stretched or pitch-shifted vocal samples complementing the underlying rhythmic structure at a tempo usually around 130 BPM.
"Gabriel" is a song by Roy Davis Jr. and Peven Everett.
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