Land of Dreams

During a long career that has included work as a sideman with Sun Ra, Ben Webster, Billie Holiday, Kenny Dorham and Clark Terry, tenor saxophonist Charles Davis has had relatively few opportunities to record as a leader, but he has made the most of them, especially with these top-drawer studio sessions for Smalls. Accompanied by several in-demand musicians on the New York City club scene, including pianist Tardo Hammer, bassist Lee Hudson and drummer Jimmy Wormworth, Davis opens with his turbulent "JC" (an obvious tribute to John Coltrane and seemingly inspired by Coltrane's "Impressions." The late Herbie Nichols' "Some Wandering Bushmen" is a neglected gem, never recorded by its composer (though included on one CD by the Herbie Nichols Project decades after his death), with an offbeat theme that features Davis on a dancing soprano sax solo and a fine effort by Hammer as well. Davis remains on the smaller instrument for an inspired arrangement of Thelonious Monk's "We See." Although these are studio recordings, they have the energy of a nightclub date, something often hard to achieve without an audience. Highly recommended!