Freeman Davis, better known as
Brother Bones, was a whistler and player of the
bones.
As his story goes, he started in Montgomery, Alabama, hearing his mother whistle. He made his way to Long Beach, California, where he was a shoe-shining entertainer called Whistling Sam. Somewhere along the way, he gained popularity with the bones as Brother Bones, leading a group called Brother Bones and His Shadows, as heard here in
Rosetta and
Listen To The Mockingbird. Their
1948 instrumental version of
the 1920s jazz standard Sweet Georgia Brown was chosen as the theme song for the
Harlem Globetrotters. Brother Bones was also
featured in the
blackface minstrel show movie,
Yes Sir, Mr. Bones. Freeman Davis died in 1970, and in 2002 he was paid tribute at the
Rhythm Bones Society's
Bones Fest 6, honoring the 100th anniversary of his birth.
An anecdote from
the Brother Bones brief biography with limited discography include that Davis served as a consultant to Bing Crosby in
Riding High, where Crosby
played knives like the bones.
Additional notes:
according to this history of minstrel shows, Brother Bones is also an archetype, though Brother Bones is a portly, comedic character, instead of the musician that was the Brother Bones persona of Freeman Davis.
Whistling Records had a discography and more samples of Brother Bones music, but the site has been under construction for some years. From this
previous MetaFilter post on whistling, Brother Bones had a profile there.
According to one Amazon reviewer (who provides more information on Brother Bones), those songs were illegally made into a CD compilation.
Anyway, if you dig the bones, check out Carl's YouTube channel, which has many clips featuring Kyle Pretzl on bones.
posted by usonian at 1:31 PM on December 8, 2010 [4 favorites]