LOCKJAW

[Chuck Nessa]

Been on a Jaws binge and remembering live stuff.

[Harold_Z]

I dig Jaws. He always keeps me interested.

[Chuck Nessa]

For me, his image is different than his product.

I really admire him.

[JSngry]

For me, his image is different than his product.

Elaborate, please? I think I know what you mean but am not sure.

For me, hell yeah, Jaws IS a god. There's no other explanation for how he made the tenor do some of the things he made it do.

[Dan Gould]

Oh HELL yeah!

[Larry Kart]

Either it was Dexter Gordon in conversation or Booker Ervin in a Blindfold Test who said, "Damn -- that Jaws plays backwards!" If it was Dexter who said it -- and he if didn't, he certainly said something like that -- it was said with a tone of great, bemused respect.

[Jim Alfredson]

I love Jaws. The records with Shirley Scott rule my roost. I should get those out right now.

[Harold_Z]

Agreed, but the Lock and Griff stuff is pretty thrilling too. Now THERE'S a battle of the titans !

[JSngry]

Jaws did some weird shit to his horn physically. Corked up some keys so they were inoperable.

Damn if I know how that worked, but it's true.

[jlhoots]

Once I got started I couldn't stop until I had all of the Griff / Jaws, all of the Jaws & Shirley.

Addictive stuff.

[Michael Weiss]

Griff told me their group added about seven new tunes to their repertoire each week. First Griff and Jaws would get the arrangements together by themselves then they'd rehearse with the rhythm section. Griff often had difficulty learning his notes from Jaws because they weren't notes - just sounds!

Edited December 11, 2007 by Michael Weiss

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

they weren't notes - just sounds!

Sound! That's the key for Jaws I think - not so much the actual melodic improvisation but the way he made it sound. Something he shared in common with Gator Tail, Illinois, Fathead, Jug, Stanley Turrentine, Hank Crawford etc.

For me personally, that's one of the crucial things that most of my favourite musicians have, that REALLY gets through to me.

I've been on a bit of a Jaws binge for about three years now - bought about 13 of his albums. I think I've got almost all his work (except the King material) with Shirley and all but a couple with Griff, as well as others with Wild Bill Davis and Don Patterson. Still got more to get. "Afro-Jaws" on order from the Concord sale.

MG

[Harold_Z]

Jaws did some weird shit to his horn physically. Corked up some keys so they were inoperable.

Damn if I know how that worked, but it's true.

Only thing I can think of he would have to get those notes with some other fingering (plus chop english?) and hence another sound ?

[Alexander Hawkins]

Flight of the Foo Birds

[Stereojack]

It's hard to go wrong with Jaws - always plays his ass off.

One of my favorite live albums is the Pablo Live at Montreux 1977. Also available on video.

All of the albums with Griffin, espercially the live ones from Minton's on Prestige.

Night Hawk w/ Coleman Hawkins.

Heavy Hitter on Muse.

The way he comes roaring out of the Basie band on "Atomic Basie", and on the sleeper album "Basie Plays Bond". This has got to be the greasiest version of "Goldfinger".

[Kevin Bresnahan]

A few years back, Jim Sangry highly recommended a live Lockjaw date on the Jasmine label called "Oh Gee: Live in Manchester 1967". I picked it up at Stereo Jacks, put it on my stereo and immediately zipped off a PM to Jim to thank him for recommending it. It's smokin' stuff. Absolutely insane blowing by Lockjaw in a couple of places. Well worth picking up if you're a fan.

[Dan Gould]

A few years back, Jim Sangry highly recommended a live Lockjaw date on the Jasmine label called "Oh Gee: Live in Manchester 1967". I picked it up at Stereo Jacks, put it on my stereo and immediately zipped off a PM to Jim to thank him for recommending it. It's smokin' stuff. Absolutely insane blowing by Lockjaw in a couple of places. Well worth picking up if you're a fan.

:tup

[DukeCity]

Jaws did some weird shit to his horn physically. Corked up some keys so they were inoperable.

Damn if I know how that worked, but it's true.

I've been wracking my brain, trying to imagine what he could have been doing. I know some guys cork up the wierd trill keys on their old Conns, but all the photos of Jaws show him playing Selmer horns. A quick Google of "Lockjaw and cork" just turned up some concerts he played in Ireland.

Any ideas where to find out more about this?

[Larry Kart]

Among my favorite moments from the often brilliant, sometimes cranky/obtuse to the point of lunacy Max Harrison, writing here (in "The Essential Jazz Recordings. Vol. 2") of Jaws' 1947 recordings with Fats Navarro:

"The dates with 'Lockjaw' Davis, an arch vulgarian who subsequently found his true metier as a cog in Basie's ponderous latter-day machine, resulted in performances which juxtapose some of the best and worst qualities that jazz has to offer. Sounding as if impaled on his own indignation, Davis naively deploys his armoury of honks and whinnyings as Navarro soars with majestic freedom. The exchange of four-bar phrases in 'Hollerin' and Screamin' ... demonstrates all too vividly the divergent ideals of this pair, with the trumpet's dancing melodic fragments answering the tenor's incoherent belches."

Two or three things at the least: 1) Early Jaws can be quite raw and may be an acquired taste 2) but Max clearly not only loathes latter-day Jaws as well ("...found his true metier as a cog in Basie's ponderous latter-day machine") but refuses to make any distinction between the Jaws of '47 and the Jaws of 20 or so years further on, which is absurd to the point of insisting on something that's virtually false when you know you can be found out (an odd, creepy trait of Max's), and 3) Max takes no account of the likely fact that, as two of the titles on those Davis-Navarro dates ("Hollerin' and Screamin'" and "Stealin' Trash") virtually proclaim, Davis was quite deliberately going in a neo-R&B direction there, probably at the request of the producer, who might have thought that that approach might give Savoy an "Open the Door, Richard" type of hit. Certainly there are other recorded solos by Davis from that period where he doesn't sound that way.

[BillF]

My favourite Jaws is Trane Whistle - Eddie Lockjaw Davis Big Band, arrangements by Oliver Nelson and Ernie Wilkins (Prestige)

Edited December 11, 2007 by BillF

[JSngry]

Jaws did some weird shit to his horn physically. Corked up some keys so they were inoperable.

Damn if I know how that worked, but it's true.

I've been wracking my brain, trying to imagine what he could have been doing. I know some guys cork up the wierd trill keys on their old Conns, but all the photos of Jaws show him playing Selmer horns. A quick Google of "Lockjaw and cork" just turned up some concerts he played in Ireland.

Any ideas where to find out more about this?

You're not the only one to be wracking their brain trying to figure out what he could do to a Selmer and still have it playable. It defies any & all logics that I can come up with. A right hand side key is the least intrusive thing I can come up with, and even then, that's pretty damn intrusive...

And yet, from a Johnny Griffin interivew by Mel Martin: http://www.melmartin.com/html_pages/Interviews/griffin.html

I could never understand how Jaws was playing. For years I was around him-he was like my big brother after a while. I could never understand how he'd do things. He put corks under some of the keys! I said, "Jaws, what're you putting corks-?" He said, "I don't need them, I don't need them."

He didn't use the keys, didn't need them! I'm always looking for a way to put more keys on it, but he didn't need 'em. He played more for sound than for notes. And strong. And that style he had, why no one could play that style. Sometimes we'd call him "Little Ben," referring to Ben Webster, but he was really his own man.

Also, Shelley Carroll has mentioned seeing Jaws live and noticing something weird about the horn, but he couldn't get up close enough to get the details.

Griff's one of the few left alive who might have the real deal specifics. The Tenor World needs to get this information!

[Larry Kart]

Checking up a bit on "Open the Door, Richard," I like my guess. The hit Jack McVea recording (the first of many commercially successful versions and one of the first pop records that drilled itself into my brain) debuted in Oct. 1946. The Davis-Navarro dates are from Dec. 18 and 20, 1946.

[JSngry]

Among my favorite moments from the often brilliant, sometimes cranky/obtuse to the point of lunacy Max Harrison, writing here (in "The Essential Jazz Recordings. Vol. 2") of Jaws' 1947 recordings with Fats Navarro:

"The dates with 'Lockjaw' Davis, an arch vulgarian who subsequently found his true metier as a cog in Basie's ponderous latter-day machine, resulted in performances which juxtapose some of the best and worst qualities that jazz has to offer. Sounding as if impaled on his own indignation, Davis naively deploys his armoury of honks and whinnyings as Navarro soars with majestic freedom. The exchange of four-bar phrases in 'Hollerin' and Screamin' ... demonstrates all too vividly the divergent ideals of this pair, with the trumpet's dancing melodic fragments answering the tenor's incoherent belches."

Two or three things at the least: 1) Early Jaws can be quite raw and may be an acquired taste 2) but Max clearly not only loathes latter-day Jaws as well ("...found his true metier as a cog in Basie's ponderous latter-day machine") but refuses to make any distinction between the Jaws of '47 and the Jaws of 20 or so years further on, which is absurd to the point of insisting on something that's virtually false when you know you can be found out (an odd, creepy trait of Max's), and 3) Max takes no account of the likely fact that, as two of the titles on those Davis-Navarro dates ("Hollerin' and Screamin'" and "Stealin' Trash") virtually proclaim, Davis was quite deliberately going in a neo-R&B direction there, probably at the request of the producer, who might have thought that that approach might give Savoy an "Open the Door, Richard" type of hit. Certainly there are other recorded solos by Davis from that period where he doesn't sound that way.

Well hell dude, the Miles airshot w/Jaws & Bick Nick both on the stand ought to settle all claims there.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Checking up a bit on "Open the Door, Richard," I like my guess. The hit Jack McVea recording (the first of many commercially successful versions and one of the first pop records that drilled itself into my brain) debuted in Oct. 1946. The Davis-Navarro dates are from Dec. 18 and 20, 1946.

Huh? Where does that McVea date come from Larry?

According to the Billboard books of Whitburn, the record debuted on the Billboard pop charts on 25 January 1947 and on the R&B charts on 8 February 1947. None of the other hit versions of the song debuted on either Billboard chart before 1947. It's supposed to have been recorded in c September 1946 - I guess it could have issued in October.

MG

[Larry Kart]

Checking up a bit on "Open the Door, Richard," I like my guess. The hit Jack McVea recording (the first of many commercially successful versions and one of the first pop records that drilled itself into my brain) debuted in Oct. 1946. The Davis-Navarro dates are from Dec. 18 and 20, 1946.

Huh? Where does that McVea date come from Larry?

According to the Billboard books of Whitburn, the record debuted on the Billboard pop charts on 25 January 1947 and on the R&B charts on 8 February 1947. None of the other hit versions of the song debuted on either Billboard chart before 1947. It's supposed to have been recorded in c September 1946 - I guess it could have issued in October.

MG

From Wikipedia: "The recording by Jack McVea, recorded in October 1946, was released by Black & White Records as catalog number 792. It first reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on February 14, 1947 and lasted 2 weeks on the chart, peaking at #7. As stated above, this was the original recording."

So while McVea's original recording didn't chart until Feb. 1947, it was supposedly recorded in Oct. 1946 (don't know when it was released). I'm guessing that if it it hadn't been released by the time those Davis-Navarro dates were recorded in Dec. '46, word that that specific record was likely (or things of that sort were likely) to be very popular was no secret at indie outfits like Savoy and Black and White (the label that made the McVea recording). After all, "Open the Door, Richard" sprang from an already well-known, in black entertainment circles, comedy-with-music routine, and what that record and a host of others to come was in part about was a significantly more overt permeation of American culture by black styles of entertainment (and acknowledgment of same) -- all this in the wake of World War II, which shook up and shunted about so many things. In particular, I believe there was on the home front a significant influx of Black Americans into areas like Detroit, Los Angeles et al., where war industries were going full bore; thus, far more white Americans than before the war were literally around good numbers of Black Americans, and of course vice versa. I'm painting with a broad brush here, but I dimly recall that even at age five, when "Richard" became a hit, it was fairly clear to me that the appeal of the record had something to do the the idea that it was in itself fun/exciting/cool/you name it to be in contact with something that came from the people from whom "Richard" came -- that plus the fact that arguably the people from whom it came previously had found it amusing themselves. Would it be going too far to say that a kind of casual, mutual sharing of experience was involved? I recall a young Black woman who baby sat for me a few times back then -- a latter-day Savoy Ballroom jitterbug-type person. I thought she was so cool, and trying one evening to draw picture of her with crayons to give her as a present, I was stumped as to how to capture her skin tone. Don't know if I asked her for help or she just observed my dilemma, but she volunteered that I should lay down a light base of yellow and add brown on top until it looked right -- all of this conveyed with much relaxed good humor; IIRC she might even have laughed. Boy, she had a lot of bounce, and discovering/acknowledging the presence and value of "bounce" might be one way to sum up what I think was going on in much of the society at that time.