Mose Davis is alive and well and living in Atlanta, GA

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Who?

 

Moses Davis was the organist and leader of the funk band The (Fabulous) Counts in the late sixties to mid seventies. The band made 4 albums.

 

Jan Jan (the title track written by Mose, not Miles) – Cotillion – 1969

 

 

 

 

 

What’s upfront that Counts – Westbound – 1971

 

 

 

 

 

The band had moved to Atlanta by the time its next album was recorded.

 

Love sign – Aware – 1973

 

 

 

 

 

Funk Pump – Aware – 1974 (of course, you all know the sleeve for this one)

 

 

 

 

 

After that, the Counts broke up and Mose, still in Atlanta, made a solo album.

 

 

 

The coming of Moses – Pure Silk – 1978

 

 

 

 

I never heard of this but found a rip on a blog earlier this year. So I looked on Discogs and found the address of Mose’s website. I wrote and asked if he was the same guy who’d made all those albums and also a 45 for Tollie in 1963.

 

Yes, he was, but some other Moses Davis made the Tollie 45 (with a tenor player who sounds like Ray Abrams).

 

 

 

Mose advertises two more recent albums, self produced and marketed, on his site, so I went to Amazon and bought them. They are:

 

 

 

Sunshine – 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let the music take you – 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are both excellent albums, which you can get from Amazon and are also on Spotify.

Mose has a very good band, which doesn’t quite sound like anyone else and works as well on ballads as (very) funky stuff. Unfortunately, when you buy downloads from Amazon, you get no sleeve notes so I’m attaching the two sleeve notes Mose kindly sent me. The guitarist on some tracks, Leroy Emmanuel, was with Mose in the Counts, way back in the day. He’s from Atlanta. Mose is from Birmingham, Ala, via Detroit.

 

 

 Enjoy folks.

MG

Edited January 1, 2021 by The Magnificent Goldberg

[erhodes]

In the early 1970's, before the word "disco" became associated with TSOP, the hustle and leisure suits, there was a dance club scene in New York that heavily featured records from bands like Mandrill, War, Mother Night, Cymande, BT Express...and the Counts.  "What's Up Front That Counts" got a fair amount play in those clubs.  You would hear "Rhythm Changes" in the mix but the title cut was the kind of thing that got played later in the night for the hard core crowd when things got heated up.

Props to Mose.  Glad he's still around.  If you communicate with him again, tell him that some of his constituents from back in the day are still alive and kickin', too.