Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass

Born as George Nowlan on 29 April 1925 in Randolph, Massachusetts, Davis later adopted the professional name Danny Davis and often described himself as a ‘Yankee Irishman’. He purchased his first trumpet using wages from a paper route and performed in school ensembles before joining the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra at age 14. Starting at 17, he sat in with leading swing orchestras such as those led by Gene Krupa and Bob Crosby, and he cut the track ‘Trumpet Cha Cha’.

By 1958 Davis had moved into production, overseeing several hit singles for Connie Francis as well as successful releases by Herman’s Hermits and Johnny Tillotson. In 1965 he joined Chet Atkins at RCA Records, where he assembled the Nashville Brass—an ensemble that layered brass over a pop-country rhythm section, evoking the sensation of Herb Alpert recording country music. Although traditional country listeners initially hesitated, the group’s albums achieved solid sales and yielded US country chart entries such as ‘Wabash Cannonball’ and ‘Columbus Stockade Blues’.

Danny Davis And The Nashville Brass received the Country Music Association’s Instrumental Band Of The Year award for six straight years and earned a 1969 Grammy for the album More Nashville Sounds. In 1980 Davis released an unusual project that grafted the Nashville Brass onto preexisting Willie Nelson recordings; the resulting versions of ‘Night Life’ and ‘Funny How Time Slips Away’ both reached the US country charts.