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.