Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis - Gentle Jaws (1960/2022)

The Moodsville label was a subsidiary of Prestige in the late '50s/early '60s that sought to document jazz artists exclusively playing ballads so as to win over the mood music audience of the time. This 75-minute reissue CD combines together two sessions featuring the warm tenor of Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. On the first half he "sits in" with the Red Garland Trio (that date was originally issued under Garland's name) while on the latter half he is backed by the Shirley Scott Trio with organist Scott switching to piano. The standard-dominated program is tasteful but uneventful and the similarity of the tempoes succeed in making the results more successful as background music than as creative jazz.