Wild Bill Davison
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‘Wild’ Bill Davison (January 5, 1906, Defiance, Ohio – November 14, 1989, Santa Barbara, California) was a fiery jazz cornet player who emerged in the 1920s, but did not achieve recognition until the 1940s. He is best remembered for his association with the bandleader Eddie Condon, with whom he worked and recorded from the mid-1940s through to the 1960s.
Born in Defiance, Ohio in 1906, Wild Bill had a powerful, if somewhat limited, style on the cornet. The poet Philip Larkin, a fan, described his playing thus:
“…a player of notable energy, he uses a wide range of conscious tonal distortions, heavy vibrato, and an urgent, bustling attack. At slow tempos he is melting, almost articulate. Humphrey Lyttelton has compared him with the kind of reveller who throws his arm round your neck one moment and tries to knock you down the next.”
“All the same, his stylistic mannerisms-the deep hoarse blurrings, the athletic in-front-of-the-beat timing, the flaring shakes-are highly conscious (the ‘Wild’ is more a personal than a musical sobriquet), and, imposed as they are on a conventional Armstrong basis, make Davison one of the most exciting of white small-band trumpeters. His sessions with Sidney Bechet for Blue Note are collisions of two furious jazz talents which at the same time were oddly sympathetic, and prove his ability to play in any kind of milieu; his numerous sides in the Condon tradition show him uniting with (Pee Wee) Russell in the same way.
Born in Defiance, Ohio in 1906, Wild Bill had a powerful, if somewhat limited, style on the cornet. The poet Philip Larkin, a fan, described his playing thus:
“…a player of notable energy, he uses a wide range of conscious tonal distortions, heavy vibrato, and an urgent, bustling attack. At slow tempos he is melting, almost articulate. Humphrey Lyttelton has compared him with the kind of reveller who throws his arm round your neck one moment and tries to knock you down the next.”
“All the same, his stylistic mannerisms-the deep hoarse blurrings, the athletic in-front-of-the-beat timing, the flaring shakes-are highly conscious (the ‘Wild’ is more a personal than a musical sobriquet), and, imposed as they are on a conventional Armstrong basis, make Davison one of the most exciting of white small-band trumpeters. His sessions with Sidney Bechet for Blue Note are collisions of two furious jazz talents which at the same time were oddly sympathetic, and prove his ability to play in any kind of milieu; his numerous sides in the Condon tradition show him uniting with (Pee Wee) Russell in the same way.
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zrsullivan
A maniac cornetist. Gives Louis a run for his money at times. Wish I had more of his records. Oh, & grossly underappreciated.
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