Maxwell Davis

Like a prolific all-purpose maker/songwriter/sideman, tenor saxman Maxwell Davis filled a number of the same pivotal functions within the 1950s LA R&B picture that Willie Dixon handled thus skillfully in Chicago. Davis organized and produced an array of Western world Coast periods for Contemporary, Aladdin, as well as other postwar R&B indies in the past due ’40s on, financing his husky sax to scads of waxings. Davis still left Kansas for L.A. in 1937, employed in Fletcher Henderson’s orchestra before getting bitten with the R&B insect. Contemporary/ Kent most likely kept him utilized the steadiest through the entire ’50s and ’60s; he caused Pee Wee Crayton, Etta Adam, Johnny “Electric guitar” Watson, Lowell Fulson, Z.Z. Hill, and a lot more over the Bihari Brothers’ star-studded roster. At Aladdin, he worked well carefully with Amos Milburn and Peppermint Harris, amongst others. Davis didn’t possess much luck documenting like a bandleader, although his instrumentals “Appear Sharp — Become Clear” (an R&B version from the Gillette march) for Aladdin and “Tempo Rock and roll”/”Great Diggin'” on RPM loaded a wallop.