Customer Reviews

Afro-Jaws

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Try to "bite" this cd and let me know what you think about it! Jaws is universally considered a very good tenor from the sixties in the mainstream category. But I think he is really underrated. Very good is not enough. He was huge! This cd is a geat album and if you'll buy it you'll thank me. This is a "latin", "afro-cuban" project, you can easily understand it reading the line up. Ray Barretto is involved with his full percussion section. There's a lot of drive. The opener is a wild minor blues in c where "Afro-jazz" the closing number is another wild blues but major this time. "Guanco lament", "Jazz-a-samba" and "Alma alegre" are originals by Gil Lopez, then we have two standards "Star eyes" which begins slow and gain speed after the first chorus and "Tin tin deo" from Dizzie Gillespie's songbook. Even if nothing in the Jaws's background link him with this kind of "cuban" material he plays here with great attitude. He's simply always interesting. "Afro jaws" is an extremely good album. Buy it and go deep in it with your teeth.

When I was younger, this was one of my favorite lp's and as I was surfing the Amazon website, I was wondering if it were on cd. I was surprised to see that there were many vendors that had the cd used as well as new. Over the years, this format of Afro-Cuban jazz mixed with American jazz was a bit unique, but Eddie Davis and company did such a supberb job of pulling it off. I do not think the lp was ever a "best seller" but in the early 60's the only station to play this kind of music was WCFL -AM, Chicago. The disc jockey's name was Sid McCoy who had a jazz format from 12 A.M. to 5 A.M. He also played lots of Nancy Wilson, Oscar Peterson, and Frank Sinatra. Over all, this cd is extremely dynamic and for people who are not familiar with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, this is a great way to get him introduced to you.