Walter Davis

Recognised as one of the main interpreters of the legacy of Bud Powell, he continued to develop as an artist, absorbing the main harmonic and rhythmic innovations of the late 1950s and 1960s before studying music in India in 1969. After he appeared on alto saxophonist Jackie McLean’s Blue Note release New Soil, recorded in May 1959, McLean recalled, “He’s a good piano player, but he writes very well, too. Three of his tunes are on the record. One of them, Greasy, is a cross between rhythm and blues and modern jazz. He came over to the house and played it, and I laughed, and said, ‘Let’s put that on the record,’ just like that! That tune’s a lot like Walter. A very pleasant, very humorous guy.”
The key thing about Walter Davis Jr.’s career was that he knew the people who mattered, and that was all that mattered. It meant that he accumulated a solid body of recorded work, both as a leader in his own right and with some of the top names in jazz. For example, he appeared on six albums for the Blue Note label between 1959 and 1962, including Davis Cup under his own name, and at least three of those albums are recognised today as Blue Note Classics — Jackie McLean’s Let Freedom Ring and New Soil and Donald Byrd’s Byrd in Hand. His first record date with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers was on November 10, 1959, Africaine (although it was not released until 1979, and on CD in 1998), marking the beginning of a long relationship with Blakey, who loved Walter’s playing and recorded many of his compositions, including Uranus, Backgammon, Jodi, and Gypsy Folk Tales. During his long association with Blakey, there was always a place in the Messengers when he wanted, and similarly, if Blakey had a problem with a pianist, he always called Walter because he had total confidence in his ability to fit in with the Messengers style.

Stuart Nicholson