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Madeleine Davis - From Candy Striper to Music Star!
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If we told you that Madeleine Davis has lived a life full of adventure
some might easily argue that is an understatement. She grew up the
daughter of a Gospel singing mother, and a pharmacist father in
Columbus, Georgia, near the Chattahoochee River, with one sibling, a
brother at home and a sister eighteen years older, who had pretty much
left home by the time Madeleine appeared on the scene.
Madeleine Davis had a lengthy career with Boney M (By the Rivers of
Babylon, Rasputin) and a small sample of her work in the studio and / or
live performances includes artists such as Precious Wilson, Hoyt Axton,
Peggy March, Terence Trent D'Arby, Rick Astley, Klaus Doldinger, La
Bionda and Amanda Lear. She was in demand by producers such as, Ralph
Siegel, Tony Monn, Michael Kunze, Sylvester Levay, Giorgio Moroder and
Frank Farian.
“My father was a lot older than my mother. He was fifty-nine when I was
born and he was seventy-five when I was eighteen.
I grew up with a father who was in World War I. He had so much
information for me when I went to school. When he was a paperboy the
Titanic sank, so he knew the information from the newspapers of that
time. He told me information about the Titanic and I went to school with
this information. In my day we only had encyclopedias and my teachers
said to me, this information is not in encyclopedias where did you get
this? I said my father was a paperboy at the time and this is the
information that he gave me that was in the newspapers. The kids thought
this was a hoot. These days you would call my father Wikipedia (she
laughs heartily).”
As for her childhood she says, “My mom was a Gospel singer who would do
concerts in churches. She was well-dressed and she had a wonderful
accompanist. I saw from the beginning how to (present) concerts even
though she was not a professional.
When I was little, I sang a lot with my mom, because I had a natural
alto voice to her soprano. I said to various people that I did not want
to be in show business and my father said that is what you are for. I
told him I wanted to be a doctor and I thought that would stop him from
talking about show business, (because he was a pharmacist), but it
didn’t. (She laughs and says) he said, no you are not cut out to be a
doctor.
I was adamant about being a doctor and I joined the Red Cross as a candy
stripe nurse at the age of twelve. I went to Martin Army Community
Hospital not far from my hometown in Fort Benning.
My father was friends with colleagues all over and he happened to call
someone at the army and (convinced them) to play a mean trick on me, but
it made me think I am definitely not for the medical profession. My
father and one of his nurse friends cooked up a little scheme. I
wondered why this nurse wanted me to help her draw blood. That is not
what candy stripers did. We were mostly comforting patients, giving them
water and magazines.”
Let’s just say twelve-year-old Madeleine Davis passed out and fell on
the floor at the sight of blood.
“From that day on I thought maybe dad is right, I am not for that. I
found out later that they had cooked up this scheme,” she says.
Now let’s get to that motorcycle escapade that took place in the
Children’s Theater at the Springer Opera House, when she was fourteen.
The Springer Opera House was an entertainment staple in my hometown. It
had been abandoned for about a decade and I don’t know why, but on the
outside, it was still the same as it had been in the 1800s. There were a
lot of famous names on the plaque outside. They raised funds to reopen
it and it became the State Theater of Georgia. It is not a regional
theater. It is actually a community theater.
I was cast as Mad Mouse a (takeoff) from Aesop’s Fables and the show was
called Aesop’s Fallibles. I was the hippie mouse. In the fable he had
the city mouse and the country mouse, so I played more the city hippie
mouse to my cousin the country bumpkin mouse.
The script called for a motorcycle to be driven on and off the stage. My
parents went and got the bike that was going to be donated to the show
and it was just a small motorbike, but it made a lot of noise. When I
was practicing in our neighborhood, my mother could hear it all over. I
finally got the riding down pat, but it was so loud on the stage that
you couldn’t hear our lines or the songs, so I had to cut it off when I
entered. One of the funniest things was I couldn’t start it up, so we
had to push it off. One time I started it up so fast that they had to
open up the backstage door so I could go out into the street. Then I
could stop the bike (envisioning this happening we both laugh). I had
seen all of the side stage doors close and then when they saw me coming,
they opened them all again, because I couldn’t stop for some reason. It
was outrageous and the director said we just are not going to use the
bike. We will just use a regular bike and you can do what you regularly
do. We just used a regular bicycle and they used noise effects from
offstage.”
That was not Madeleine Davis’ first introduction to the Springer Opera
House however, “I saw an audition in the newspaper and I had already
done a high school production for The Sound of Music. Everyone had told
me how good I was, so I decided to audition for the part of Mother
Superior (in a play) at The Springer Opera House at fourteen years old.
I had no idea that most of the performers there were adults and the only
part I could get was in the nuns’ chorus. That was the main stage
production, but for the children’s theater the director came to me and
said you are just fourteen? I said yes, I am and she said I need you for
the children’s theater at The Springer. She said we are doing some great
plays and I would like you to come in and audition. After that I became
a staunch member of the Springer Children’s Theater,” she recalls.
There are so many different creative directions that Madeleine Davis’
life has taken, it is almost like finding yourself in an enchanted
forest and wondering which pathway to take next. We opt for the one
about The Sound of Music, but once again she surprises us by telling us
this was not her first acting performance before an audience.
“I performed in front of a TV audience when I was four years old. It was
in my hometown and on a local cowboy show. It was Cowboy Bob who I found
out later in life was Mr. Robert Woodruff. He owned the station and many
other things. He called himself Cowboy Bob. I sang on that television
show at four years old. I kept this up by singing with my mother in
church until I auditioned for The Sound of Music. I didn’t think
anything about it, but I sang “Climb Every Mountain.” I hit a high C at
the end and the director said you just have to do this. I said I don’t
know how to act and he said I’ll teach you how to do that. He said right
now we don’t have anybody who can sing that song. He said we have got to
have you do it. I said okay I will do it. I was the first black nun that
The Sound of Music ever had, even before Audra McDonald and she is a
great singer. When I told her that I snuck in before her she said, high
school? I said yes. She said you must have really had a voice back
then.”
As for how she felt when the audience applauded, “I thought oh my god. I
couldn’t believe it and I thought maybe my father was right. I should
train myself to do this more. It was encouraging and exhilarating. I was
a little insecure, so when people said they really liked it, I said do
you really mean that and you aren’t just saying that? They said we love
you. That encouraged me to get training and to go further with it.”
Madeleine Davis’ mother found a voice teacher to classically train her
daughter when she was seventeen.
“She taught me a lot of European art songs. She suggested that I go to
college and that I study music. In high school I received a scholarship
to go to summer school at Florida State University. At that time Florida
State was the number one school of music in the entire United States.
I was also accepted at my parents’ alma mater at a historically black
college, Morris Brown. They had a dynamite choir and a wonderful music
department. After I did the summer at Florida State, I headed back to
Atlanta to attend Morris Brown College. After Morris Brown I went to
Bowling Green State University College of Musical Arts in Ohio, for
further training. It was the first time I ever saw snow and I loved it.
I then decided I liked theater and I was going to try and stick with
that rather than Opera, even though I love and adore Opera. I just felt
better doing musical theater. Once I got to Bowling Green where all
voice majors were required to perform in an Opera, I was the first to
initiate a musical theater credit for voice majors. I told my professor
that I love Opera, but I didn’t think I should be forced to do an entire
recital of Opera. I wanted the freedom of musical theater. They finally
decided that voice majors could decide what they wanted, legitimate
theater or Opera. I did musical theater and what they called Third World
Theater at that time, which was basically black theater.
While I was at Morris Brown College, I also did work with the Atlanta
Symphony Orchestra. I was good friends with Robert Shaw the
distinguished director who was in a residency at that time. They asked
for a couple of Morris Brown students to come for college credit. I
thought I am going to audition and I decided to go. I had great
sight-singing skills, so I performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
chorus when they had concerts. For my entire senior year, I was a
student teacher at a popular performing arts school in Atlanta and also
was a soloist with the orchestra. I was so active and when I think about
it (she begins to laugh) I don’t have that energy now. My goodness
classes all day and then after classes, Morris Brown choir rehearsals
and then seven o’clock at night going down to symphony hall for that
choir rehearsal. Then I got up in the morning to student teach. Boy I
had a lot of energy (more laughter). That all happened while I was at
university. I was an alto soloist with the symphony. That was really
incredible for an eighteen-year-old kid. It was the highlight of my
college life to do all of that,” she says.
So, we had to ask, Madeleine why did you decide to move to Munich,
Germany in 1978? That is a long way from home.
“While at Bowling Green I got to talk to Stanley Cowell, an excellent
Jazz pianist and I loved Jazz. He started training me in Jazz. I thought
this is a great thing to do and he said you should come to New York. He
was teaching at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He said start looking
for work in New York.
I didn’t finish at Bowling Green, because I thought I needed to go to
New York. I got into musical theater in Harlem. It was a great
experience. Stanley told me to try Jazz. I started singing Jazz and I
thought it was the greatest thing for me. I met an agent who said he was
looking for three ladies to go to Munich Germany to sing with a big
band. I thought it was right on for me and it was something I always
wanted to do. I was being absolutely mindless and blind about it. I just
wanted to go right away. I had no idea that when I got there the band
was not a Jazz band. It was a Polka band! I was so shocked. I thought I
can’t sing this. The director said, well we do a Pop segment and that is
what he needed me for.
I got to sing with this band and I wanted to do really good stuff. They
couldn’t do the big band Jazz stuff. They couldn’t get with it. It was
all Polka. I thought I will just do the Pop stuff and that is it.
I wanted to come home, but I met an American soldier who was stationed
there. He said why go home. Munich is great. This is where Donna Summer
(got her start). I thought, I have all of these Donna Summer albums and
he is absolutely right. I read every liner note and name for her albums.
I thought my goodness those people are here in Munich. He said just look
around for those people and see what you can get into.
I (decided) to go around to the studios and introduce myself and the
first people who picked up on me were the Germans. (She laughs again) I
though oh my goodness I am going to be stuck in this Polka stuff for the
rest of my life! At that time, I couldn’t speak German, but I could
pronounce it well, because of my Opera training. The beer is the best in
the world, so I had a good time.
The first studio that asked me to come in and do backup for their
artists was a German language recording company. I thought I was going
to be speaking and singing in German for the rest of my life. They said
they could cover up my little bit of an accent when they did the mixing.
He was the top producer in Germany for many years. His name was Ralph
Siegel. He won the Eurovision contest (Editor’s note: for his song in
1982 translated in English as A Little Peace, performed by Nicole
Seibert).
I started working with Ralph on the recordings for a lot of his German
artists, including an American icon named Peggy March (“I Will Follow
Him”). She was singing in English and in German, but it was for her
German recordings that I started working with her and later on her
English language productions.
I became one of the go to people for ideas, for arrangements, for
translating German songs into English. I thought this was happening in a
way I had not imagined, but I just rolled with it,” she says.
Madeleine Davis, Patricia Shockley and Kathy Bartney, three Americans
living in Munich met through recording background vocals in studios and
producer Frank Farian told them he liked their harmonies, vocal ranges
and quality of their voices. Farian requested a meeting with them. Frank
Farian worked as a producer with Boney M, No Mercy, Far Corporation, and
Meat Loaf, to name a few.
“Once Frank Farian got us, (the three ladies now known as LaMama) he
didn’t want that sound on anybody else’s records. The other producers
didn’t like it, but he was wielding the big bucks back then. We thought
we would give it a try.
That lead directly to my becoming involved with Boney M. At that time
Boney M were already superstars. When Frank Farian called us in, he had
us work directly with his groups. I met Boney M and Terrence Trent
D’arby who was also recording for him at that time. Once Liz Mitchell
decided to leave Boney M the first person, they called was me. I had
already done studio sessions for them.
It was great touring with Boney M and I enjoyed being with them. It was
one of the highlights of my life,” says Madeleine Davis.
She considers touring and recording with Precious Wilson to be one of
the highlights of her career, “She is an excellent singer and the songs
that we did gave us a chance to show ourselves as a singing group. We
also toured with Precious. That allowed us some freedom as backup
vocalists. It wasn’t like ohhh baby ah, we actually had to sing. On
Precious Wilson’s version of “Killing Me Softly,” I think that was the
greatest feeling to sing that with her. It was a Disco version of
“Killing Me Softly.”
During the pandemic, while waiting for things to open up again Madeleine
Davis recorded and wrote some new songs.
She is also gearing up for the Ma Rainey Blues Festival, an event she
founded, to honor the legacy of the Blues singer for whom the festival
is named.
“Ma Rainey is often called the mother of the Blues. She didn’t really
start it, but she heard it down in the Mississippi Delta and she started
doing it herself. At that time there weren’t any women (Blues) singers.
She was also a songwriter and from what I (understand) she couldn’t read
or write. How she explained to the musicians what she wanted was by
using pictures and she (communicated) her lyrics by pictures. When she
said she was going to shoot that man, there were pictures of an eye, a
gun and a man. They knew how to phrase that just from the pictures. She
was from my hometown.
Ma Rainey is the one who really encouraged women to perform (the Blues).
She was the first one to have her own tour bus and musicians, so I
thought why doesn’t this town do a festival? I know my hometown
(Columbus, Georgia) is in the deep south with heavy racial karma, heavy
misogynistic thoughts and totally against gay people. Ma Rainey was all
of that. She was black, a woman and bisexual. She often wrote and
recorded about her escapades with women. She deserved to have a festival
named after her. We know things about Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis
and there were some things that weren’t pretty about them either.
I petitioned a few corporations in my hometown to sponsor the festival
and they didn’t do it. They led me around the bush. I had to get my own
money and I had it on a much lower scale and what I could afford. I want
the festival to be about the old Rock and Roll, the old Roots, the old
Blues and the old Folk music. I also want Gospel music. Ma Rainey’s
keyboard player became a minister and he left the Blues, but he wrote
and recorded the song “Precious Lord Take My Hand.” The reason I want to
include Gospel, is because in some of those songs you hear the Blues
format.
We are going to try and get back in business again. When things are
better. I am going to have a fundraiser and get things going again. We
want to put women upfront in the Blues.
Now you know a little bit more about Madeleine Davis and all that she
has accomplished and one gets the feeling she still has a lot more
dreams, goals and things she intends to accomplish.
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She
sang in church as a young child, acted on stage as a teenager (there is
a motorcycle story we will get to in a minute) and she was a soloist
with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra while still in university.
