I Bet You’ve Never Heard This … #5

    Audio: Listen to this article.

Welcome to the fifth installment of I Bet You’ve Never Heard This, where I recommend albums you actually may have heard, but you get the gist of what I’m saying. These “Never Heard” albums should be in all of our libraries, but for one reason or another we missed them upon original or rerelease. These are albums that I absolutely love and I hope members of the Audiophile Style community come to love them as well.

On with the show.

Transport yourself back to June 1958, in Hackensack, New Jersey. Rudy Van Gelder is at the controls in his eponymous recording studio, while musicians Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis (saxophone, tenor), Shirley Scott (organ, Hammond B3), Jerome Richardson (woodwinds), George Duvivier (bass), and Arthur Edgehill (drums) are creating what one reviewer called, “meat and potatoes all the way, but it's made using the choicest ingredients.” To be honest, that’s probably why I love this album so much. I love straight forward meat and potatoes jazz, that enables me to lean back in my listening chair rather than lean forward to the edge of my seat trying to figure out where the musicians are taking me.

The stars of this show are Eddie Davis and Shirley Scott. By 1958 they’d been playing together for three years. These two got together with the aforementioned musicians for three recording sessions, in which four albums were created. “Cookbook, Vol. 1,” “Cookbook, Vol. 2,” “Cookbook, Vol. 3,” and “Smokin’”, subsequently released as individual albums starting later in 1958. In 2023 Bernie Grundman remastered the songs from all four albums for a single multi-disc release called “Cookin’ with Jaws and the Queen.” The remastered compilation is the subject of this article.

Artist: Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis & Shirley Scott

Album: Cookin’ with Jaws and the Queen

Some of the previous albums covered in this “I Bet…” series have been difficult to obtain. Fortunately “Cookin’…” is available everywhere via streaming, purchase/download, and physical media. The specific version I listen to is the 24/192 download from Craft Recordings. I’m unsure what quality is delivered from the Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis Bandcamp page.

The track that originally got me started with Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis is called The Rev, track number seven of this release. Right from the start it’s all Saxophone and Hammond B3, with what I can only imagine is the backing musicians watching in awe as they kept the beat. The interplay between Davis and Scott, on saxophone and organ respectively, never gets old. I could listen to this track every day for the rest of my life and enjoy it each time. The great sound quality is an added bonus.

On the track Skillet, roles start out a bit reversed, with Shirley Scott taking charge on the Hammond B3. Davis takes a breather while George Duvivier (bass), and Arthur Edgehill (drums) lay the foundation from which she lets loose. It’s truly magical organ playing in any sense of the word. It’s oozes feel and emotion over technical wizardry, although I have no doubt Shirley Scott is a master craftswoman on her instrument.

Around 3:30 into the track Davis eases in with a soft saxophone sound that almost demands a smoking jack, cigar, and a fire in the fireplace. It’s smooth and raw at the same time, and 100% lush.

The rest of the album is full of absolute gems, some bop oriented, while others are more relaxed. One thing is for sure, the musicianship and sound quality are first rate. As Miles Davis said in his autobiography, “If you were going to play again with Lockjaw, then you’d better not be bullshitting because he would embarrass you.”

This is one of those albums, four albums put into one, that can be queued up and let play all the way through. Not only once, but several times, back to back. If one is feeling it, like the musicians, it’ll be hard to shut the stereo off for the evening.

Masterful musicians, a legendary recording engineer, and a new remaster by one of the best in the business, with dynamic range for days. This album should’ve already been on everyone’s “best of…” list, but at least now you’ve heard about it.

Purchase the album here - Craft Recordings | Bandcamp 

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