Known for his energetic style of boogie-woogie piano,[1] Davis has played with such musicians as Chuck Berry,[1][2] Jerry Lee Lewis, B.

[5][6] Born in Chicago, Illinois, Davis was the son of a Department of State Foreign Service officer and moved around the world with his parents during most of his early childhood.

At the age of ten, he returned to the United States and joined what had previously been an all-white Cub Scout pack in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Davis "was mentored by legendary pianists Pinetop Perkins and Johnnie Johnson, who both claimed him as their godson and praised his ability to master a piano style that was popular long before he was born", according to his Kennedy Center profile.

[13] "Davis' piano work impresses with his winning combination of technique and abandon, and his vocals are strong and assured", wrote a reviewer in Living Blues Magazine.

Davis has worked to improve race relations by seeking out, engaging in dialogue with, and befriending members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Davis explained to the man that "Jerry Lee learned to play from black blues and boogie-woogie piano players and he's a friend of mine".

[15][16][17] A few years later, Davis decided that he wanted to interview Klan members and write a book on the subject, to answer a "question in my head from the age of 10: 'Why do you hate me when you know nothing about me?'

[18] In meeting with the Imperial Wizard of the KKK in Maryland, Roger Kelly, Davis concealed his race before the interview.

[8] Davis eventually went on to befriend over twenty members of the KKK,[16] and claims to have been directly responsible for between forty and sixty, and indirectly over two hundred people leaving the Klan.

[19] Over the course of his activities, Davis found that Klansmen have many misconceptions about black people, stemming mostly from intense brainwashing in their youth.

[21] Davis claims to be responsible for helping to dismantle the KKK in Maryland because things "fell apart" after he began making inroads with its members there.

[16][22] However, since then, the KKK was rebuilt in Maryland[23] under Richard Preston, leader of the Confederate White Knights, who was arrested for firing his gun at counterprotesters at the 2017 Unite the Right rally.

[28][29] He uses the platform to educate people on how to conduct civil discourse to find common ground and build tolerance.

[32][28] In addition to workshops, meetups, and other live events, the initiative offers educational resources and ideas for promoting tolerance.

He appeared on stage in William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life with Marcia Gay Harden, Brigid Cleary, and Richard Bauer, and in Elvis Mania at an off-Broadway theater in New York City.