Home » Jazz Articles » My Blue Note Obsession » Walter Davis Jr.: Walter Davis Jr.: Davis Cup - 1959

13

Walter Davis Jr.: Walter Davis Jr.: Davis Cup - 1959

By

View read count
Davis is one of those 1950s stories of the creative guy with chops who was simply lost amid a sea of similar musicians. It's a pity.
Every now and then, I hear a musician in a band and I think, "Damn, can we get rid of the other guys and just hear this one by himself?" That was my immediate thought after listening to Davis Cup, a hard bop cooker from 1959.

Walter Davis Jr. is a pianist with a slim discography. He recorded exactly one Blue Note CD as a leader—this one, his debut—and appeared mostly as a sideman on other people's records. The mystery is why he didn't achieve more with his considerable talents.

On Davis Cup, he sounds an awful lot like Thelonious Monk. No surprise there, since Monk was making some remarkable, groundbreaking stuff in the late 1950s. Lots of pianists wanted to be Monk in 1959, and it's no slam on Davis that he clearly shows the influences.

Here we have Davis on piano surrounded by a pretty routine Blue Note bunch: trumpeter Donald Byrd, saxman Jackie McLean, bassist Sam Jones and drummer Art Taylor. It's a typical Blue Note affair, with five bluesy bop romps and a sweet ballad that sounds hauntingly like Monk's "Reflections" or "Pannonica." While I love 1950s Blue Note hard bop, this one comes off as rather ordinary and predictable. What is not predictable is Davis himself. He wrote all six songs, and that by itself is intriguing. More tantalizing are his brief solos. I wish there were more. The horns are nice, and Byrd seems particularly inspired here, but it's the piano that makes me yearn for more.

My personal favorite is "Rhumba Nhumba," partly because of its punny title, but mainly because of its catchy tune. Honorable mention: "Minor Mind," a toe-tapper with nice piano work and soulful playing from the horns.

Davis played for a short time with the Jazz Messengers, in two separate stints, and recorded a few albums for obscure European labels. Based on this debut, I'd like to hear them. Unfortunately, Davis seems to be one of those 1950s stories of the creative guy with chops who was simply lost amid a sea of similar musicians. A pity.

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Availability: Easy to get

Cost: Weirdly expensive new on Amazon —$21—but $7 used and just $5.34 for the MP3 files

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.