Nathaniel Cleophas Davis

Nathaniel Cleophas “N.C.” Davis (1888-1972) was an African American musician, composer, educator, bandleader, and owner/publisher of N.C. Davis Music Company of Nashville, Tennessee. Early life Born in Tennessee on August 14, 1888, Nathaniel Davis was living and working as a trombonist in Nashville by 1908. With his brothers Otis B. Davis and Clarence M. Davis, he started N. C. Davis Music Publishing at 510 1/2 Cedar Street, Nashville. He taught music for a time at Fisk University and the Tennessee School for the Blind, and founded his own music teaching business about 1913, referred to a different times as the Traveling Conservatory of Music and the Davis Band and Orchestra School. Among his pupils at Fisk University was trumpeter Adolphus Anthony “Doc” Cheatham. When Davis registered for the draft shortly after the United States entered World War I, he described himself as self-employed and a “band organizer and school teacher.” From March 29, 1918 to March 7, 1919, Davis served with the U.S. Army’s 368th Regiment (92nd Infantry Division) as a musician. The Regiment, whose enlisted men and junior officers were African Americans but its senior officers all white, was stationed in