Bassist Richard Davis: "Now's The Time"

Bassist Richard Davis has always been one of the leading exponents of that noble instrument. Davis has had long experience in many styles of music from symphony work with the New York Philharmonic to recordings and gigs with some of Jazz music's most adventuresome spirits like Eric Dolphy, Booker Little, Andrew Hill, Booker Ervin, Miles Davis and many others. He was a charter member of the famous Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. Davis for all his ubiquity made few recordings under his own name and this is one of them. It concludes our exploration of rare recordings by well known or lesser known artists. Tonight's Jazz Feature was recorded live at a club in New York called Jazz City in September of 1972. The band includes one of the day's leading tenor saxophonists, Clifford Jordan and powerhouse trumpeter Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson, cutting edge pianist Joe Bonner and drummer Freddie Waits and of course Richard Davis. The music is very edgy and adventurous and the band explored only two tunes but both are lengthy. Thelonious Monk's "Epistrophy" goes where even Mr. Monk wouldn't venture and Charlie Parker's blues "Now's The Time" gets a long workout into every nook and cranny of style. The music goes from straight-ahead to the outer reaches and back again. The adventurous spirit of Richard Davis is in tonight's spotlight and thanks to Muse Records we can experience "Now's The Time".