Pretty Wild/With Strings Attached

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Charlie Parker, Ben Webster, Dizzy Gillespie, and cornetist Wild Bill Davison were some the precious few jazz soloists who really triumphed in the "with strings" milieu. Davison, whose extraordinary career stretched across jazz for 60 years, was a true maverick. He had a rugged and explosive style, and yet he was at his best when he applied it to gentle and romantic ballads of the sort found here. His technique was limited in comparison with that of, say, Ruby Braff, Clark Terry, and Billy Butterfield. But he used it brilliantly, painting in swift strokes, like an artist. These two strings-backed albums were recorded for Columbia in the 1950s and here combine to represent his finest hour. Pretty Wild has him as the only soloist with Percy Faith and the CBS house orchestra. The ballads, none hackneyed, are well chosen and finely tailored to the Wild One's available resources. Duke Ellington's little known "Black Butterfly" is the diadem. The second album is arranged by Deane Kincaide and has the charts opened out to let in clarinetist Bob Wilber and trombonist Cutty Cutshall to share the solos. --Steve Voce

Pretty Wild/With Strings Attached,Wild Bill Davison,Arbors Records,Dixieland,Jazz,Jazz Music,Pop

Jazz Music: