One of the popular jazz organists of the 50's was Jackie Davis. For those not familiar with him:
" Jackie Davis was the first musician to popularize jazz on the Hammond organ, years before Jimmy Smith’s name became synonymous with organ jazz. Davis was Capitol’s leading performer on the organ at a time when relatively few mainstream labels were willing to put a black musician on the cover of an album.
Davis once said that music came to him genetically. His mother played the washtub, a cheap substitute for the bass, and he first learned to play by spending hours poking at his grandmother’s piano. By the age of eight, he was playing with a local dance band. The rest of the band had ten years or more on him, and he later remarked that he had “eighteen godfathers who kept their pedal extremities in sensitive areas of my anatomy.” He later described the experience as his best education in music and in life. By the age of eleven, he’d earned enough from playing to buy his own piano, and music enabled him to pay his way through Florida A&M College, where he graduated with a bachelors degree in music in 1943.
After serving time in the Army, he worked as a pianist, usually as an accompanist for singers such as Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, and Billy Daniels. Although he was attracted to the organ, he was intimidated at the prospect of playing jazz on it, particularly when his idol at the time was the lightning-fast Art Tatum. But when the Hammond Organ Company began selling electric organs in the late 1940s, he felt the biggest technical hurdle had been overcome, and in 1951, he bought his first organ. Soon after, he was hired to appear at the Club Harlem in Philadelphia, and the novelty of Davis’ playing on the Hammond was so remarkable that the club extended his two-week gig by almost five months."
Read the rest at : http://www.last.fm/music/Jackie+Davis/+wiki?ver=1
Listen to this album and you'll be impressed with his musicianship. Personnel includes: Kenny Burrell or Mundel Lower, guitar; Burtell Knox, drums; Eddie Costa, vibes. Recordings were made in LA in April 1958.
1. Standing on the Corner (from Most Happy Fella)
http://www.mediafire.com/?ujdfjdr157sg5tg
2. Surprise (from Oh Captain)
http://www.mediafire.com/?gi4chd593vsa3o1
3. Long Before I Knew You (from Bells are Ringing)
http://www.mediafire.com/?sp68iyiu0gxb8fa
4. Push de Button (from Jamaica)
http://www.mediafire.com/?qq8vxjvw1cv2s08
5. It's the Second Time You Meet that Matters (from Say Darling)
http://www.mediafire.com/?n31a6oiwokcowm7
6. All of You (from Silk Stockings)
http://www.mediafire.com/?lnk4ya5decuxyab
7. Just My Luck (from the Body Beautiful)
http://www.mediafire.com/?z2yzwybxym37dlq
8. Wish (from Rumple)
http://www.mediafire.com/?i2hiu8hetobhusl
9. Til There Was You (from Music Man)
http://www.mediafire.com/?iayqjfw4et74b13
10. Say Darling (from Say Darling)
http://www.mediafire.com/?c2p53wj9zc1ruqh
11. I Feel Pretty (from West Side Story)
http://www.mediafire.com/?dif1migd132uc4k
12. Jubiliation T. Cornpone (from Lil Abner)
http://www.mediafire.com/?kz4cwsp4o0duozo
Anyone have more Jackie Davis? It would be great to share.
Thanks for Jackie. It was in the early sixties that Jackie was in The Netherlands. Here in The Hague a big piano and organ store opened his doors and for promotion Jackie was invited for a concert. I sat on the front row. Is was great.
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