Dave Gelly 

Johnny Griffin and Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis Quintet: At Onkel Pö’s Carnegie Hall review – full-on, sweaty stuff

(Jazzline)
  
  

arnet cobb with eddie davis and johnny griffin on stage in amsterdam in 1984
Eddie ‘Lockjaw’ Davis (centre) and Johnny Griffin (right) on stage with Arnett Cobb in Amsterdam, 1984. Photograph: Frans Schellekens/Redferns

Johnny “Little Giant” Griffin and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis: a pair of alpha-male tenor saxophonists intent on blowing each other off the stage. That was the act, anyway. When this double CD was recorded in 1975 they’d been doing it, on and off, for 15 years and were the best of friends. Their styles are easily distinguishable: Griffin fast, sharp and witty, Davis gustily rhetorical. It’s full-on, sweaty stuff – intense, swinging and spiced with outrageous quotes. Such robust self-assurance is rare in jazz today, which makes this newly released souvenir of a night at Onkel Pö’s interestingly named Hamburg jazz club something to savour.

 

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