Griffin / Davis, PISCES

[Joe]

From the Fantasy website...

JOHNNY GRIFFIN / EDDIE "LOCKJAW" DAVIS

Pisces

OJCCD-1104-2 ~ $11.98  

AVAILABLE 10/26

When it came to tough tenors, Griff and Lock were two of the toughest. Johnny Griffin and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis gathered a huge coterie of fans drawn to their tandem tenor saxophone recordings and to exciting engagements by their quintet at clubs across the country, from Minton's in Harlem to Leo's Casino in Cleveland to the Crescendo in Los Angeles. Visceral excitement was their stock in trade, and their tenor "battles" are among the memorable jazz encounters of the early 1960s. But these two mighty saxophone warriors had another side-- tenderness. In this previously unreleased session, except for Griffin's medium-tempo title tune, they apply their expressiveness to a collection of ballads. Departing from their customary togetherness, they alternate solo tracks, accompanied by an empathetic rhythm section of pianist Horace Parlan, drummer Art Taylor, and the superb but relatively little known bassist Buddy Catlett. Hidden away for decades, this collection of superior songs is a fine and unexpected addition to the Griffin-Davis discography.

Pisces, The Midnight Sun Will Never Set, Willow Weep for Me; Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered; What Is There to Say?, She's Funny That Way, Yesterdays, Sophisticated Lady, Willow Weep for Me (alternate), She's Funny That Way (alternate), Sophisticated Lady (alternate), What Is There to Say? (alternate)

with Horace Parlan, Buddy Catlett, Arthur Taylor

All selections are previously unissued.

Edited October 21, 2004 by Joe

[JSngry]

WHOA!!!!

[Jim R]

I'd already heard about this, but hadn't seen the details until now. Thanks Joe. I'm anxious to hear this.

[alankin]

[mikeweil]

What label was that recorded for? Riverside, Jazzland, Prestige?

[Bill Fenohr]

There is nothing on this session in the Prestige book, but i did notice that the same group minus Griff cut the Goin To Meeting album in May of 1962.

The last date that they did as a group was for Jazzland in Feb. of 62, but Ben Riley was still the drummer. So i would guess this material must be from the May period. Who it was recorded for, i don't have a clue.

[JohnS]

Yeah! Great news. I love this band.

[Joe]

Picked this up a few weeks ago, and only now have had a chance to spin it. Anyone else?

Nothing really ground-breaking here, but PISCES isn't exactly conventional either. For one thing, Parlan is on celeste for the Davis tunes. Not only does this lend those performances weird, twinkly, raindrops-on-the-windowpane, early early morning ambiance, it allows for rather large open spaces in the music, spaces which Jaws fills more than capably with that sound of his. Some arrangements, such as "Yesterdays", are almost like tenor-bass duets in this respect. The best pieces are the really slow ones, such as a majestically brooding reading of "Midnight Sun". Anyway, the tune seems made for Jaws' phrasing: right on top of the beat, the sudden eruptions of wide vibrato, his love of snapping notes off.

Griffin is Griffin, of course, mixing equal parts tenderness and outré propositions in his solos. Listen to how he handles the theme to "Willow Weep For Me" here: halting here, a tongued flurry there... these are subtle liberties, but liberties all the way. I also like the way they use Parlan's pseudo-modal intro as a tag or further bridge out of the bridge and into the last A section here.

Performances average about 4 minutes in length, but the band makes the most of the time allotted.

Ballad-fu. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy-fu. Contractual obligation (maybe)-fu. Joe Bob says check it out.

Edited November 29, 2004 by Joe

[sheldonm]

For one ting, Parlan is on celeste for the Davis tunes.

...do you mean that Parlan is playing a celesta?

[Stefan Wood]

That too.

[Joe]

Yes, Parlan moves from piano to celeste / celesta for the tunes with Lockjaw.

Not quite Monk on the original "Panonica", but not bad, either.

Edited November 29, 2004 by Joe

[sheldonm]

That too.

I thought Celeste may have been his wife or girlfriend !

[Joe]

That too.

I thought Celeste may have been his wife or girlfriend !

In which case, we'd be talking about a very intimate session indeed.

Edited November 29, 2004 by Joe

[JSngry]

Very good, but not great, album.

However, if you're into these guys (and aw shucks, you KNOW I am), it's nevertheless essential still all the same anyway.

Y'all.

[JSngry]

And thanks for the John Bloom-fu!

[Joe]

And thanks for the John Bloom-fu!

We are the weird, after all.

[JSngry]

RACIST!!!!!

(Sorry, this is a "Dallas-fu thing" )

[Shawn]

Holy jumpin' shit....hadn't seen this one!!!! Going to order it RIGHT NOW!!!!

[pryan]

Looks like a keeper. Thanks for the review, Joe.

[Brad]

Good review by Joe. It's a nice mood album, with excellent playing. I wondered about the celeste at first but it seemed like Horace warmed up to it at after a bit and seemed to add a lot to the session. I don't if this was mentioned but these songs have never been mentioned before and Lock and Griff don't play together.