Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis - Goin' To The Meetin (2001)

This Fantasy 2001 two-fer reissue features saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis in session with a quintet that includes the Shirley Scott trio (Scott, organ; George Duvivier, bass; Arthur Edgehill, drums) and conga player Ray Barretto. It was released as Eddie Lockjaw Davis Meets Shirley Horn as Moodsville 30 in 1960. With the exception of a quartet recording released on Stompin' (Prestige 7456), the rest was another quintet with pianist Horace Parlan, drummer Art Taylor, Buddy Catlett on bass, and Willie Bobo on conga, issued as Goin' to the Meetin' in 1962 as Prestige 7242. As one would expect from Davis, these tunes, all 15 of them, are deeply rooted in the R&B tradition and swing like mad. Apologies are made, seemingly, on the jacket and in the booklet for Davis' willingness to keep it simple and basic, but it was also his greatest strength. Few could get to the heart of the groove in a tune as fast as he could: check out his opening solo on "It's a Pity to Say Goodnight," which challenges the entire reason for Moodsville's existence. It's an up-tempo slammer with a punchy organ break and that gut-bucket soul/funk of Davis in his soloing. He rides the G major scale to the bank and back honking the accents and allowing Barretto and Scott to lend the flourishes. But it's in the solo that the tune itself happens, unwinding itself into a full-blown swinging odyssey with a tremendous climax. And while the Davis/Scott love fest is apparent on nearly every track, mutual respect of groove-ocity being at its highest point on tracks such as "Speak Low," "Just Friends," and "From This Moment On," it's the latter half of the album, which has been out of print for over 15 years, that's the real interest point. Goin' to the Meetin' showcases Horace Parlan in a way even his Blue Note records didn't. While Davis appears to be the leader because of his beat generation bluesed-out swing in the solos and brief melodic statements, it's Parlan, on the title track, "Pass the Hat," and "Night and Day," who carries the tunes and turns them into a very sophisticated and subtle kind of jazz that allows for both the simplicity of a raw-toned, grooved-out blues statement and simultaneously created the space for a harmonic improvisation that employed counterpoint and intervallic architecture for the rhythm section. Parlan's own soling is nothing less than soulful, but it's a hell of a lot more than soul he's playing. He's laying down the sophistication evidenced in the post-bop and modal playing of both Bill Evans and Horace Silver. With all of the changes and moving around of harmonics and grooves on Goin' to the Meetin' with Bobo highlighting ever nuance to make sure its heard, there is no doubt which of these two albums is superior, but given they are paired together, it offers two very different sides of Davis in unusual quintet settings. -- Thom Jurek