Steve Davis Meets Hank Jones, Volume 1

by Steve Davis

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Limited Edition (500) 150-gram LP. Mastered for vinyl by Christopher Allen and pressed at Noiseland. Features liner notes by Ted Panken and original cover artwork by Andres Chaparro.

Includes unlimited streaming of Steve Davis Meets Hank Jones, Volume 1 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Full Digital Discography

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Steve Davis Meets Hank Jones, Volume 1, Bluesthetic, Correlations, Think Ahead, and Say When. , and , .

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1.	Interface 05:28	info	buy track
2.	Isn't It Romantic? 04:19	info	buy track
3.	Polka Dots and Moonbeams 06:00	info	buy track
4.	Cry Me a River 05:32	info	buy track
5.	But Beautiful 04:46	info	buy track
6.	We'll Be Together Again 05:12	info	buy track

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96kHz - 48-bit HD Audio with digital booklet including original artwork by Andres Chaparro and liner notes by Ted Panken.

STEVE DAVIS MEETS HANK JONES, VOLUME 1 features the legendary pianist in one of his final recordings on a poetic and interactive session with leader/trombonist Steve Davis and bassist Peter Washington

***

"All exquisite standard fare played with precision, class, and joy."
- Jim Hynes, Glide Magazine

"Jones’ playing, steeped in the blues, provides a sturdy framework for Davis’ ultra-melodic lead work..."
- Michael Toland, The Big Takeover

In June 2008, pianist Hank Jones, trombonist Steve Davis, and bassist Peter Washington recorded this poetic, interactive, impeccably executed, never-before-released recital, titled STEVE DAVIS MEETS HANK JONES shortly after Jones had undergone quadruple bypass heart surgery at the end of 2006 and a month before he turned 90. Not only is it one of Jones’ final sessions, but it is one of the finest of his extraordinary career.

“It was one of the greatest musical experiences of my life,” says Davis of his sixth Smoke Sessions leader release. “Wherever I wanted to go, Hank was there – not in your way, but ready to support you, to take you somewhere. It was the essence of jazz – that thing that happens between us when we play and create and speak the language in real-time. My idea was that it would be like Hank and Peter playing duo at Bradley’s (the iconic Greenwich Village piano saloon where Jones played regularly until the early 1990s), with me sitting in, trying not to mess it up.”

The result has Davis improvising melodic variations with an enveloping, vocalized tone, phrasing long, logical lines with fluid propulsion, propelled by Washington’s elegant, unerringly kinetic flow. The music represents Jones’ genius perhaps more successfully than any other album he made during the final decade of his life. “Hank embodied the history of jazz,” Davis says. “It encompasses this decades-long span of jazz music, and somehow is distilled into this absolute direct concept. When you hear him play stride piano, the blues, the American Songbook, swing, bebop. You hear the French Impressionists, Chopin. You hear modern jazz, or perhaps what influenced pianists like Herbie Hancock or Bill Evans or McCoy Tyner, all the pianists we regard as the ones who’ve led us into the future. Hank is all of it.”

credits

released November 24, 2023

Steve Davis - trombone
Hank Jones - piano
Peter Washington - bass

Recorded on June 17, 2008
at JLP Studio, South Orange, New Jersey

Produced by Paul Stache & Damon Smith
Engineered by John Lee
Mixed and Mastered by Chris Allen
Cover Artwork by Andres Chaparro
Group photo by John Lee

Executive Producers: Paul Stache & Molly Johnson

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about

Steve Davis Stamford, Connecticut

Steve Davis, one of preeminent jazz trombone artists, is known for a full, robust sound and a lyrical, hard-swinging style. Davis was a protégé of Jackie McLean who recommended him to Art Blakey. He was the last Jazz Messenger and worked in the groups of Jackie McLean, Chick Corea, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, Christian McBride, in addition to leading his own groups and co-leading One for All. ... more