Sunday Session, John Davis Interview

May 5, 2006 1:14 PM
by [email]

Body & Soul, the legendary Sunday afternoon dance party founded by John Davis and Francois Kevorkian, ended four years ago. Punters flocked to it like Sunday church services to hear the Claussell-Krivit-Kevorkian trinity beatifying the beats. After it ended, everyone went their own way and Davis, disillusioned with the scene and the politics took a long sabbatical, bought a home in New Jersey for him and his son and to settle in. His new Sunday Sessions party launches in May. Ali Naderzad sat with him for some face-to-face time

CJ: Was the Sunday scene big in England when you came from there?

John Davis: Oh yes, there was a huge Sunday scene: the Arches, the Gaslight club, there was a old yacht club moored on the banks of the River Thames. So when I came to the States, those were the models for what later became Body & Soul. When I arrived in New York, however, I got a big disappointment; the clubbing was nothing like I’d expected. So the idea for a Sunday dance party took off.

And here we are today. What have you been up to?

We’ve gone through a lot of changes. After Body & Soul closed in 2002 we all went our own way and did one-offs until about 2004. I moved to New Jersey since after the World Trade Center attacks I lost my apartment. By then I’d gotten burnt, I was tired of the scene, I went into promoter retirement and got a job working in a bank doing mortages—until now.

What made you quit the business?

I walked away from the club scene because of a couple reasons: my son, his going through our move, the separation from my wife, I wanted to give him a chance to settle down, get his routine back. I think also that everything has its place and its time. People make the mistakes of constantly trying to revive old concepts. I thought maybe now is the time to come back, but I had to come back refreshed.

What should we expect with the new party?

I’m doing things slightly differently with the Sessions party. I’m using very few local guys. I’ve been involved in club and dance-music for twenty years, and over the years I’ve gotten to know which DJs deliver. I’m trying to go for a certain type of vibe and I’m not going to pick DJs who are necessarily big names--I’m going for a mixed bag of DJs.

What made the Body & Soul brand so successful?

The club scene goes through different music stages; at the time of Body & Soul we had three very different DJs who had different styles and somehow we married these styles together and you got this melting-pot of music that catered to so many different people.

I was the promoter, I was the co-founder of the concept of the Sunday aternoon party and so I can take a step back and not look at it just from the musical perspective, and see what it was that brought all these people together: it wasn’t just the music, although that was a huge part of it.

It was a mixture of the time, the place, the people, and the atmosphere; people asked me what kind of crowd was Body & Soul and I couldn’t answer. I can’t tell you that it was any kind of crowd.

You mentioned earlier about a disappointing first encounter with New York.

So disappointing. When I first came in 1996, I’d heard so much about the legends: Louie Vega, Tony Humphrey, Todd Terry, David Morales, though at the time very few of them were actually playing here.

Because they were all playing UK!

Yeah. The reality was nothing like I had expected. What I would say is that America has a club scene, but England has a club culture and that can mean the difference. Here it’s hip-hop, which is definitely not as big as in the UK.

Is Sessions going to be more about showcasing the more underground jocks, then?

Kind of. It will be the kind of DJ who you might expect to hear at Body And Soul but who never got to play because we had three residents in place. I’m trying to musically keep it in a specific direction.

Can you name names?

The first Sunday of every month the Sessions’ resident DJ will be Julius the Madthinker. I met him about three years ago at Winter Music Conference [Miami]. At that time someone kept saying you have to hear this guy you have this hear this guy, if you close your eyes you’ll think you’re hearing Joe [Claussell] playing. We kept in touch and we did a party in Miami recently together. Other DJs will be announced as things get underway.

At Body & Soul there were memorable live sets by great house artists; I can still remember some of them, such as when India performed “Sweet Love.” Anything of the sort with The Sessions?

Yes, it’s called Sesssions Live. We’re going to do live musical performances but we’re not necessarily going for house club-type acts only: we might have a jazz band, an R&B band, etc.

Do you think that that might throw off the core Body & Soul crowd who’s come to rely on a certain format?

I think 80% of the time they would get what I think they’re expecting to get. But yea, we’re going to throw a few little unexpected surprises.

How’s the response been to the Sessions advertisements?

People started getting in touch with me who I haven’t heard from in over four years, and they said, finally, we’re so happy Body and Soul is starting back again, and I laughed saying I’m not trying to revive body and soul—this is the next thing.

You’ve been DJing as well. Are we going to see DJ John Davis at Sessions now?

I’d been around DJs for so long but never touched a turntable until recently. Eventually, however, I got a little more involved and started doing one-offs here and there. Next thing I know I was getting gigs and then I got a residency for Toshi’s party [New York City]. Now, everytime he has a big function I’m his resident. We’ve done parties with 3000+ people. I played briefly at Crobar in the lounge and I played a tour in Japan last year. But for now I want to get this party running, though every once in a while I might pop up in the DJ booth.

Big-name prog house DJs like Sasha and Digweed have their own customized versions of Ableton Live. What do you think of DJs using computer programs?

I hadn't realized how much it had gone the other way from vinyl until I started getting contracts back from DJs for this party and you get the technical rider on the contract, and it’s like “I must have 3 CDJs, I must have computer inputs,etc” and, you know, not one of them is asking for turntables! When we play Body & Soul in Japan, Joe would show up with crate after crate of records, and Francois shows up with his Mac. He plugs it all in, opens up the screen, and he’s all ready!

Even though you had officially retired you’ve been taking Body & Soul on the road, haven’t you?

That’s right, we’ve done that consistently over the last few years, and have played dates in Japan, Brazil, etc. We actually go to Japan every year to perform during golden week [a special holiday week in Japan]. We do two nights and get 3 to 5,000 people every night.

Is your son getting a musical education out of all this? Do you think of him as going into a music career?

Well, he’s definitely grown up around music. He’s gone to the outdoors festivals, he’s always there. We have this room at home where I have my turntables set up and all my records, and it’s funny because I’d go in every week and play my music, very loud—one of the advantages of living in Jersey—and he recently started asking me, “can you play such and such tune,” and he wouldn’t know the name of the record, but he would go ‘tadidada.’ My son will definitely be music-savvy.

Sessions will be at Home, 532 West 27th Street in New York City. Line-up includes Julius the MadThinker on May 7th, JoJo Flores (May 14th), King Britt (May 21st), Jay-J (May 28th).