Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Wild Bill Davison was born William Edward Davison on January 5, 1906 in Defiance, Ohio. Displaying a love for music, as well as a natural ability to master musical instruments at an early age, he first learned to play the mandolin, guitar and banjo. He joined the Boy Scouts to learn the bugle and at age 12 he graduated from the bugle to the cornet.

Though his ability to read music was limited, his ear for music was so keen that after hearing a song only once he could reproduce its melody perfectly and elaborate on it with perfect chord progressions and harmonic improvisation.

Davison emerged as a fiery jazz cornetist in the 1920s, but did not achieve recognition until the 1940s. His tonal distortions, heavy vibrato and urgency gave him the ability to play in any kind of setting as witnessed during the Sidney Bechet sessions. He would go on to join Eddie Condon and the association would produce some of his best playing, working and recording from the mid-1940s through to the 1960s.

On the bandstand he played the horn from the side of his mouth, seated in a chair with legs crossed. His nickname Wild Bill did not come from his hot and powerful but also delicately melodic cornet style but from his heavy drinking and womanizing. Wild Bill Davison passed away on November 14, 1989 in Santa Barbara, California.

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