Listening to Prestige 331: Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Shirley Scott

Ray Barretto makes a welcome return to the Van Gelder studio, this time bringing with him a fellow conguero, Luis Perez. Barretto moves over to bongos for the session.

The bongo drums were a kind of fad instrument in 1959, associated with the media stereotype of the Beat Generation. Comic beatnik Maynard G. Krebs of the Dobie Gillis TV show, a character who embodied every beatnik cliché, played the bongos. So did real-life Hollywood rebels James Dean and Marlon Brando. Brando was actually quite good, and not only that, he patented an electronic device for tuning the head of a bongo or conga drum. Bet you didn't

know that. Contemporary star Matthew McConaughey has gained some notoriety for playing the bongo drums naked, but that's getting too irrelevant.

Ray Barretto needed no electronic devices. He was as much a master of the bongos as he was of the conga, and adding a second Latino percussion instrument to the traditional small jazz group (by this time the organ-tenor sax combo was fast becoming traditional) made a huge difference.

The hand-played percussion instruments are not restricted to Latino music, not that that's a restriction. But Barretto, in particular, grew up playing both swing and Latin rhythms, and he was hugely influential in bringing swing rhythms to the traditionally Latin percussion instruments, as can be heard here. But there's always a special excitement that a great percussionist brings to any recording, and that goes double here.

It's interesting that Shirley Scott lays out much more than she does on other recordings. The intros to the tunes are mostly Barretto and Perez, and she generally stays outta the way when Davis is soloing. This has the effect of giving a powerful prominence to Barretto and Perez, not only when they're taking the lead, but when they're playing behind Davis.

This gives Scott a whole new role in the combo. When she solos, she's not stepping into the limelight, continuing and extending moods and ideas she's begun while comping for the tenor sax. Instead, she's making an entrance. It's dramatic, it's different. Of course, as new as the organ still was to jazz prominence, and as inventive as Scott was, everything she did in these recordings was different.

The session includes a nice complement of standards--"Sometimes I'm Happy" "That Old Black Magic," "Come Rain or Come Shine," "When Your Lover Has Gone." The Latin-tinged "Dansero" was originally a hit for its composer, Richard Hayman, in one of the decade's more unusual arrangements--harmonica and full symphony orchestra.

They turned to James Moody for two tunes. "Last Train From Overbrook" had been recorded by Moody as an instrumental for Argo in 1958, and also with Eddie Jefferson singing his own vocalese lyrics."Dobbin' with Redd Foxx" may have been something Davis heard Moody play on a package tour, because Moody himself had only just recorded it a couple of months earlier, again for Argo, and it surely had not been released yet. And if you're wondering what "dobbin'" is, don't ask Moody. When he recorded it. the title was the even more enigmatic "Darben the Redd Foxx." In any case, it's nice to see a 1959 tribute to Redd Foxx, when he was at his guttermouthed raunchy peak. Later on, with Sanford and Son, he was still a comic genius, but considerably reined in.

Davis is the composer of "Fast Spiral," and I am quite sure there was never a temptation to call it "Slow Spiral." This is an uptempo rampage.

The album was produced by Esmond Edwards. It was released on Prestige as Bacalao,

Order Listening to Prestige Vol 2

 

Listening to Prestige Vol. 2, 1954-1956 is here! You can order your signed copy or copies through the link above.

Tad Richards will strike a nerve with all of us who were privileged to have
lived thru the beginnings of bebop, and with those who have since
fallen under the spell of this American phenomenon…a one-of-a-kind
reference book, that will surely take its place in the history of this
music.

                                                                                                                                   --Dave Grusin

An important reference book of all the Prestige recordings during the time
period. Furthermore, Each song chosen is a brilliant representation of
the artist which leaves the listener free to explore further. The
stories behind the making of each track are incredibly informative and
give a glimpse deeper into the artists at work.

                                                                                                                --Murali Coryell