After Hours

Eddie "Lockjaw" David & the Basie Band. Cherokee

This tune starts out pretty shaky. Just give it some time. Everything works just fine, although I smell Frank Foster all over this arrangement. Whenever I hear a tenor player I don't like, it's either Frank Foster or Wayne Shorter. Foster also did a lot of arranging for the band. I like his work in that arena better than his playing, but his stuff tends to be bland a la Sammy Nestico. But none of this has anything to do with Lockjaw. His story is a curious one. As you can hear, he was a high-power player in the fifties and sixties. Suddenly, in the mid-sixties, he quit music to become a booking agent. It didn't last that long. He came back to jazz and died in 1987. Believe it or not, some of his finest work was during the seventies, the decade that killed jazz. Check out Heavy Hitter and you'll hear what I mean.