Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis - Eddie Davis ... Uptown

Side One:
01. Mean To Me
02. All God's Chillun Got Rhythm
03. This Can't Be Love
04. All Of You
05. If I Were A Bell

Side Two:
01. Night And Day
02. Together
03. Smooth-Ride
04. Yesterdays
05. There's A Small Hotel
06. The Happy Whistler

Eddie Davis ... Uptown

Originally released as King LP 606 in November 1958.

The return of Be Bop Wino after a much longer than anticipated absence! My apologies for such a long hiatus in posting - I guess I've managed to miss out the whole summer. When I last posted the summer solstice was upon us, the days were long and I was looking forward to a trip to Hamburg. Mission accomplished and a big shout out to two local bars - The Holsten Schwemme in St. Pauli and the Bergkate Gaststätte in Altona. Real pubs, friendly barflies, and not a tourist in sight (apart from my good self and my mates). Scots and Germans definitely make for a good drinking combination, especially if it involves Glaswegians and Hamburgers.

Now autumn is upon us and as we say in Glasgow "the nights are fair drawin' in," so what better way to spend some of the long dark nights than spreading the word on the bop to all and sundry. And let us also note in passing that this post marks the TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF BE BOP WINO.

So enough gabbin' and let's get down to business with this 1980s Swingtime reissue of another Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis album from King, "Uptown" from 1958. It's a seamless continuation of my previous post "Modern Jazz Expressions" which was originally issued in 1956, as "Uptown" contains tracks from the same 1955 sessions as well as from a later 1958 session on which Shirley Scott was the featured organist.

All tracks on Side A were recorded in June 1958 by The Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Quartet (Eddie Davis on tenor sax, Shirley Scott on organ, Bill Pemberton on bass, Arthur Edgehill on drums) and these tracks were first issued on King LP 606.

The tracks on Side B were recorded by The Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Trio in 1955 and 1956. Original issue of tracks recorded by first lineup of Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Trio (Eddie Davis on tenor sax, Doc Bagby on organ and Charlie Rice on drums) in April and August 1955:

"Smooth-Ride," Yesterdays," "There's A Small Hotel," "Night And Day" were first issued on King LP 606. "Together" was issued on King 4863 b/w "Foggy Day" in December 1955.

"The Happy Whistler" which was recorded in July 1956 with Shirley Scott replacing Doc Bagby was issued on King 4966 b/w "Teach Me Tonight" in September 1956.

The arrival of Shirley Scott as featured organist in the Eddie Davis group was the beginning of a successful partnership which lasted until 1960. The group expanded to a quintet for further King sessions in January and February 1957. In the autumn of 1957 Eddie rejoined the Count Basie Orchestra and played on what has been described as "the last great Count Basie album" - "The Atomic Mr. Basie" on Roulette. Two contrasting performances by Eddie on the Atomic album are well worth catching on YouTube - the uptempo "Whirly-Bird" and the slow, moody "After Supper."

In December 1957 Eddie reunited with Shirley Scott for the Roulette LP "Count Basie Presents Eddie Davis Trio + Joe Newman." In early 1958 the Eddie Davis group recorded more sides for Roulette and Roost. On June 14th 1958 they were back at King for the sides featured on Side One of "Downtown" and shortly afterwards (June 20th) the group started their fruitful spell at Prestige with the classic soul jazz LP "The Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis Cookbook" which was subsequently reissued as the "The Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis Cookbook Vol. 1" when 2 additional volumes appeared.

The Davis / Scott group's last recordings for Prestige were held on April 12th 1960. Eddie then formed a quintet with fellow "tough tenor" Johnny Griffin which had LPs on Prestige, Milestone and Jazzland.

And so with "Lockjaw" an established soul jazz legend, and bearing in mind that on this blog the 1960s haven't happened yet, Be Bop Wino leaves its readers to investigate for themselves the rest of his career which included another spell with Basie and a long recording career both as leader and sideman which lasted until 1985. Eddie Davis passed away in 1986.

Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis - Modern Jazz Expressions

Side 1:
01. Dizzy Atmosphere
02. It's The Talk Of The Town
03. Leaping On Lenox
04. This Is Always
05. Bean-O
06. I'll Remember April

Side 2:
01. Moonlight In Vermont
02. Johnny Come Lately
03. You Go To My Head
04. Foggy Day
05. Tenderly
06. The Way You Look Tonight

Download from here:

Modern Jazz Expressions (Mega)

This LP was originally released as King LP 395-506 in 1956:

The LP was re-released in 1960 as "Modern Jazz by Eddie Davis" with a new front cover similar to that used on this 1988 Sing issue.

Original issue on singles of the tracks  from "Modern Jazz Expressions":

Bean-O / This Is Always (King 4801) - Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Trio - May 1955

Punch / It's The Talk Of The Town (King 4813) - Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Trio - July 1955

Together / Foggy Day (King 4863) - Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Trio - December 1955

Scatter / The Way You Look Tonight (King 4904) - Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Trio - March 1956

Tenderly / Dizzy Atmosphere (King 4928) - Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis Trio - June 1956

"Leaping On Lenox," "I'll Remember April," "Moonlight In Vermont," "You Go To My Head" and "Johnny Come Lately" first issued on "Modern Jazz Expressions."

Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (the nickname came from the way he blew his sax) was born in New York City in 1921. His sax style was what was known as "mainstream", i.e. rooted in the big band swing era yet he played in varied settings, starting with big bands in the early to mid 1940s, especially with Cootie Williams and also in brief stints with Lucky Millinder and Andy Kirk. His first recordings with his own small group were made in May 1946 for Haven. In December 1946 his group recorded with bopper Fats Navarro for Savoy.

Further Eddie Davis small group recordings were made for Apollo in April 1947 and Lenox sometime in 1947 / 48. Somewhat surrealistically some of Eddie's Lenox sides turned up years later under the pseudonym Hen Gates on "rock and roll" compilations issued by the budget Plymouth label.

In 1948 (possibly during the AFM recording ban) Eddie cut four sides for Bob Shad's "Sittin' In With" label. In 1949 Eddie was involved in several R&B leaning sessions: with blues shouter Carl "King Karl" Davis for National; with Jesse Stone ("Cole Slaw") for Victor; with Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson for King; and under his own name ("Mountain Oysters") with Bill Doggett also for King.

Eddie's next few recording sessions in 1950-51 were more on the jazz side with live sessions at Birdland being recorded with Gene Parrish, Miles Davis and Slim Gaillard. In October 1951 he was on a session with trombonist Benny Green for Prestige and both artists featured shortly afterwards on a live recording by a group led by Sonny Criss at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

In 1952 Eddie joined the reformed Count Basie big band. A 78 rpm single release of "Paradise Squat" (Mercury 89104) featuring hot soloing by Eddie became a big hit for the Count whose use of the organ rather than the piano pointed the way for future Lockjaw releases.

Eddie's stay with Basie lasted into early 1953 (he would return in 1957) but even before splitting from the Basie outfit Lockjaw started recording with small groups which featured the organ - with Bill Doggett and then with Billy Taylor, both for Roost. Further sessions for Roost in 1953 and 1954 featured Eddie Bonnemere on piano and Charlie Rice on drums with some very tasty sax by Eddie.

In 1954 the Eddie Davis Trio lineup of Eddie on sax, Doc Bagby on organ and Charlie Rice on drums came together, recording "Just Too Marvelous" / "Heartaches" for Roost and sometime in the spring of 1954 the trio plus Sonny Stitt were recorded live at Birdland. Sessions for King commenced on April 11th 1955, with further sessions on April 19th and April 20th. Further King sessions were held in August 1955 and February 1956.

As can be seen from the release details above, these sessions resulted in a string of singles as well as this LP. The singles were reviewed in the R&B section of Billboard, so despite the album title "Modern Jazz Expressions" it is obvious that these sides were aimed at the jukebox crowd who liked to hear some good hot blowing (with the occasional ballad) on mostly easily recognizable standards.

When the next King session was held in July 1956 there was a change in personnel with Shirley Scott replacing Doc Bagby on organ. This was the start of a fruitful collaboration which would last until 1960, but that is a tale for our next post on Be Bop Wino.