When it comes to Florida natives who are still performing in the Sunshine State 50-plus years after starting their careers here, the list is very short.
Unlike West Palm Beach-born jazz/fusion guitarist Scott Henderson — who wowed area crowds with the bands Pure Hell and Paradise before moving to Los Angeles; touring and recording with Chick Corea, Jean-Luc Ponty, and Joe Zawinul, then forming his band Tribal Tech and never looking back — pianist Copeland Davis (www.copelanddavis.com) is in the fourth year of a house gig with his trio at Café Centro in West Palm Beach.
“I’m originally from Orlando,” Davis says, “but lived and performed in Las Vegas at rooms like the Stardust and Holiday International from 1978 to 1982 before moving to Massachusetts. I’d studied music in Palm Beach County, and love it here, so I moved back in 2003, first to Royal Palm Beach and now Greenacres for the past three years.”
Davis had first moved to South Florida to attend Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton (where Henderson also studied music) in 1970. The pianist has since written arrangements for ’70s vocal pop icons The Fifth Dimension and released three albums under his own name: Smoldering Secrets (on the Regalia label, and recently reissued by the Japanese label P-Vine), Totally Outrageous (with the Miami Sound Machine horn section on Gold Coast), and Endangered Species (New Vision).
A member of the Las Vegas Entertainers Hall of Fame, Davis will return to the glitzy Nevada metropolis in October to perform at the Dream Awards, which honor the city’s historic entertainers in the showroom of the Orleans Hotel & Casino.
“The Fifth Dimension had a road show back then,” Davis says, “and they were on a Frank Sinatra Jr. TV special with me. I performed my arrangement of Jimmy Webb’s composition ‘MacArthur Park,’ and that got their attention. So their manager approached me about writing arrangements for an orchestra for their road show. Which was even more work back then, because this was before computer technology.”
A longtime favorite with the Sunshine Pops Orchestra in Boca Raton, Davis still excels in symphonic pops orchestral settings as well as small groups. Regardless of the size of his accompanying ensemble, he blends the gospel training of having played for 13 years in church with his classical studies and popular music expertise.
At Café Centro, that blend happens every Thursday through Saturday. House grand pianos sit in both the piano bar to the right as you enter (where Davis’ trio performs on Thursdays), and the Legends Room to the left, where they hold court on Fridays and Saturdays and often improvise on whatever theme Davis conjures up.
Having played for so long in the region that most of the venues on his career scroll are long gone, the dazzling, genre-bending pianist is happy that this house gig location isn’t one of them.
“Way back in the day, I established that my name would only be associated with one place at a time,” Davis says. “And I’ve managed to do that for all of my career.”
Davis’s trio also features bassist Val Shaffer and longtime drummer Bill Alexander, who’s played with the bandleader since the 1980s. With mirrors on either side of the piano in the restaurant’s appropriately titled Legends Room along Dixie Highway, diners are able to see his hands, and thus perhaps believe what they’re hearing. The pianist’s list of influential musicians, composers and musical arrangers — from jazz to cabaret; Broadway to film soundtracks — hints at the varied performances diners can expect.
Those icons include Ramsey Lewis, Ahmad Jamal and Quincy Jones from jazz, Beethoven, Bach and Rachmaninoff from classical music, and Liberace, Henry Mancini, Peter Nero and Burt Bacharach, who encompass Las Vegas, Hollywood and pop music.
“The mirrors near the piano were Joyce Kutsal’s idea,” Davis says, referring to the co-owner (with husband Sal Kutsal) of Café Centro since 2007. “I got the gig there just as the COVID-19 pandemic was ending. I went there for lunch and Sal kept walking by the table and looking at me. Finally, he said, ‘Are you him? Do you play piano?’ I told him I did, and he said he needed a piano player.”
Bassist Shaffer (or occasional substitutes David Einhorn or Doug Lindsay) provides Davis with a harmonic link to the animated drumming of Alexander as the trio spontaneously segues between classical flourishes, jazz standards, show tunes, and pop chestnuts from Michael Jackson to The Carpenters. You’ve never witnessed a patron favorite like Webb’s “MacArthur Park,” even if you’ve heard both the Richard Harris and Donna Summer versions, quite the way this telepathic trio approaches it.
“There are songs that we play regularly,” says Davis, “but those guys know I won’t ever play them the same way twice. I improvise because I react to what I hear, and what I hear is different every time. My ‘Smoldering Secrets’ album has been reissued, so I’m keeping an eye on that because I have a couple songs I’m preparing for streaming. It’s not unlike the late 1960s, when you released a song at a time, plus a B-side, as a 45 rpm record. We’re back to one or two songs at a time, but now they’re streaming on the internet.”
Even without new music, Davis remains a draw because of his previous catalog and performances. He has a loyal following, and he returns the favor.
“Besides all of the concerts that he does, this is one of the only places where Copeland plays,” says Joyce Kutsal. “He’s part of the Centro family.”
It’s an extended family. In-between sets, Davis talks to friends, fans and former classmates every night, and unlike in most restaurants that feature live music, patrons don’t complain about the music interfering with their conversation because they’re primarily there to see and hear Davis.
And for the food, naturally. Café Centro offers gourmet pastas, entrees, pizzas, salads and soups, plus a full liquor bar of beers, wines and spirits. Situated at the intersection of Northwood Road, amid its vacant storefronts, and Dixie Highway, the upscale restaurant also stands out by featuring live music six nights a week with no cover charge.
Rob Russell, Ray Chang and Troy McCray present everything from cabaret and jazz to Motown and open mikes weekly in the piano bar, and the Susan Merritt Trio has presented live jazz in that room for the past seven years.
“Café Centro is one of the only places I can think of that’s presenting this much live entertainment,” Merritt, the bandleading bassist, says. “Especially jazz, which is wonderful for both the musicians and people who love this kind of music.”
If You Go
See the Copeland Davis Trio at Café Centro, 2409 N. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach.
When: 6:30-9:30 p.m. Thursdays, 6-8:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Info: 561-514-4070, cafecentrowpb.com.