CiTR

Virtuoso bassist Richard Davis leads an adventurous band recorded at the short lived New York club called "Jazz City" on September 7,1972 on but two long tunes. The record's title explains what the tunes are. Davis, who had a long career in Jazz and classical music, he was only the second African-American to be employed in a symphony orchestra in the mid 1960's. He played in the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein and was singled out for praise by none other than Igor Stravinsky. Davis, who recorded very little under his own name leads an all-star band here with the great tenor saxophonist, Clifford Jordan playing some of his most adventurous work. Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson is on trumpet, a strong declarative player who could shout and whisper on the horn. He wasn't nicknamed "Hannibal" for nothing. Joe Bonner on piano plays everything from Powell through to Cecil Taylor and Freddie Waites on drums can be abstract and swinging at the same time. Freddie also plays some percussion and wind instruments like the wooden flute and other devices. The two tunes are given very very broad interpretations far beyond what their composers imagined. Monk's "Epistrophy" is given a very abstract interpretation and Charlie Parker's "Now's The Time" is a bit more grounded as it's the blues. Richard Davis said this about the music: "the idea here was to just play sounds and music"........that's exactly what they did to a full and enthusiastic house that night.