Jesse Davis!

Following his stint as Taj Mahal’s guitar player, Jesse Ed Davis embarked upon his first solo album, which plays more like the soundtrack to a 1971 party as Davis booked a few days’ worth of studio time, stocked the place with alcohol and “party favors” and invited some friends over to jam while the tape rolled. Cameos by Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Gram Parsons, Merry Clayton, and Gloria Jones flesh out the sound even if the performances are a little boozy compared to 1973’s Keep Me Comin’, but just as there’s a relaxed surrender to Neil Young’s Tonight’s The Night, Jesse Davis is a great lazy day/Sunday morning record starting with the slow burning swagger of the blues-rocking “Reno Street Incident.” Davis lays the boogie down thick in a hip-shaking jam on Pamela Polland’s “Tulsa County” but his incredible guitar work doesn’t surface until the explosive solo in “Washita Love Child.” Easily the grooviest jam here, “Every Night Is Saturday Night” leans hard on classic soul replete with a wailing horn section and catchy, barbed, chorus hooks.