Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis with Paul Gonsalves - Love Calls

Think of 'Lockjaw' Davis and ten to one you think of Count Basie. Think of Paul Gonsalves and – same thing, you think of Duke Ellington. The top tenors, in other words, of the top big bands; musicians from the top league where the competition is toughest. Yet there is no battle here, no contest, no vying to outdo the other in terms of velocity. If you know these two men only by hearsay, you may have reservations about them as balladeers. They both have reputations for derring-do of a different kind. Davis has never hesitated to do battle with the most frenetic performers, with those who would stick at nothing to win, and lost – to him. And Gonsalves was the hero of one of the great nights in jazz history, when he blew twenty-seven romping, stomping choruses on Duke Ellington’s "Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue" at Newport 1956. It is easy for jazzmen to become typed, so that the public demands the repeated display of just one particular facet of his talent. This has happened to the two men showcased in this album, where the other side of their musical personalities is brought into focus. Although they have both developed highly individual styles, their original sources of inspiration were masters of the ballad – Ben Webster in Davis’ case, Coleman Hawkins in that of Gonsalves. Their different approaches to the ballad make this recording consistently interesting and surprising.

Format / 180 gram LP
Label / Pure Pleasure 
Cat No / LSP3882
Genre / Jazz
Release date / 2014