**** Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis/Johnny Griffin Quintet

THE TENOR SCENE

(Prestige)

In a day and age of tenor giants (like John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins), Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Johnny Griffin tended to get lost in the shuffle, even though both of them had paid their dues: Lockjaw in the last waning days of the big bands, just as their reign was ebbing into bebop; Griffin as a mainstay of the hard-bop era, playing with Thelonious Monk among others. When they combined forces, as on this recording, they rated in the upper echelon of players.

Recorded at the legendary hangout Minton's in New York in 1961, The Tenor Scene is classic hard bop in all its glory: long, elliptical solos ("I'll Remember April"), gentle, mid-tempo riffing (as on the aptly-named "Light and Lovely"), and a rhythm section (provided by Junior Mance on piano, Larry Gales on bass, and Ben Riley on drums) that lurks somewhere between bop and bossa nova. Griffin's solos tend to be closer to the high-register mark of Sonny Rollins; Lockjaw's are more like the deep-throated wail of Coleman Hawkins. Together, on "Straight, No Chaser," they weave in and out of each other with amazing finesse.

-- Joe Harrington