Fred Davis
★★★
Cleveland Blues
COLEMINE. CD/DL/LP
Rare jazz blues from Cleveland, Ohio’s thenghetto, Hough.
Fred ‘Dave’ Davis lived the blues story. A promising singer, guitarist, pianist from Kansas City, his talent was derailed by violence and time spent in jail. At 49 he ended up shot and killed in a liquor store car park while running a hustle. He’d be forgotten if he hadn’t worked alongside blues fan Howard Husock in Cleveland’s Harco factory in the late ’60s. Husock recorded him and some of his friends in his living room in August ’69 so Davis could use the tape to get gigs; he subsequently formed Dave And The Blues Express and performed at the local joints. That tape, issued here as Cleveland Blues, comprises 11 tracks, nine self-written, that reveal a fantastic player, understated but swinging on Tell Me Pretty Baby, intense and dramatic on Midnight Is Falling, with a high-pitched, piercing voice that’s hugely affecting throughout. Lois Wilson