WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.600 You know, if you walk into the kitchen of a really 00:00:02.600 --> 00:00:06.710 like a high end world renowned restaurant. There's 00:00:06.710 --> 00:00:09.929 this unspoken expectation of just absolute, almost 00:00:09.929 --> 00:00:12.449 surgical cleanliness. Right, yeah, like a laboratory. 00:00:12.689 --> 00:00:14.949 Exactly. You assume there will be these gleaming 00:00:14.949 --> 00:00:18.030 stainless steel surfaces, right? And, you know, 00:00:18.129 --> 00:00:21.530 a brigade of chefs moving in total synchronized 00:00:21.530 --> 00:00:24.510 silence, like someone in the corner with a tiny 00:00:24.510 --> 00:00:27.390 pair of tweezers meticulously placing, I don't 00:00:27.390 --> 00:00:30.149 know, micro -herbs on a plate. It's a highly 00:00:30.149 --> 00:00:33.090 controlled, incredibly precise environment. Well, 00:00:33.090 --> 00:00:35.329 yeah, and that visual makes perfect sense, you 00:00:35.329 --> 00:00:38.179 know? because the outcome, like a flawless $50 00:00:38.179 --> 00:00:40.899 plate of food that demands a process that is 00:00:40.899 --> 00:00:43.079 equally flawless in discipline. Right, but imagine 00:00:43.079 --> 00:00:45.159 you push through those swinging kitchen doors 00:00:45.159 --> 00:00:47.020 and instead of quiet precision, you're just hit 00:00:47.020 --> 00:00:49.479 with absolute mayhem. Oh, wow. I mean, there 00:00:49.479 --> 00:00:51.460 are pots clanging everywhere, right? There's 00:00:51.460 --> 00:00:54.000 a chef with flour in their hair and sauce splashed 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:56.399 all over their apron, just laughing loudly, and 00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:58.740 they are seemingly just tossing ingredients into 00:00:58.740 --> 00:01:01.840 a flaming pan with like total wild abandon. I 00:01:01.840 --> 00:01:04.730 mean, if you saw that... your immediate reaction 00:01:04.730 --> 00:01:06.590 would be to just brace yourself for a culinary 00:01:06.590 --> 00:01:09.069 disaster. Totally. Because the assumption is 00:01:09.069 --> 00:01:12.629 that a chaotic process can only produce a chaotic 00:01:12.629 --> 00:01:14.950 result. Yeah. You'd think the meal you were about 00:01:14.950 --> 00:01:18.150 to be served would be a sloppy, unpalatable mess. 00:01:18.370 --> 00:01:21.079 And yet the waiter... brings the plate out to 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:23.599 your table, right? You take a tentative bite, 00:01:23.959 --> 00:01:27.200 and it is the most exquisite, perfectly balanced, 00:01:27.579 --> 00:01:30.079 meticulously crafted dish you have ever tasted 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:33.319 in your life. Every single flavor profile is 00:01:33.319 --> 00:01:35.439 exactly where it's supposed to be. Yeah, the 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:38.459 visual of the sheer chaos completely contradicts 00:01:38.459 --> 00:01:41.560 the reality of the precision. It creates this 00:01:41.560 --> 00:01:44.719 massive cognitive dissonance. That disconnect, 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:47.980 that fascinating contradiction between a person's 00:01:47.980 --> 00:01:51.019 chaotic, larger -than -life public persona and 00:01:51.019 --> 00:01:53.920 their actual meticulous craft, that is the exact 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:55.680 mission of our deep dive today. It's a great 00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:57.939 topic. Yeah, we are pulling from an incredibly 00:01:57.939 --> 00:02:00.500 rich Wikipedia article detailing the life, the 00:02:00.500 --> 00:02:03.159 reception, and really the absolute paradox of 00:02:03.159 --> 00:02:05.459 American jazz cornetist William Edward Davison. 00:02:05.739 --> 00:02:08.900 better known to the history of jazz and, well, 00:02:09.080 --> 00:02:11.819 to anyone who ever crossed his path as Wild Bill 00:02:11.819 --> 00:02:15.259 Davison. Wild Bill, I want you, the listener, 00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:18.120 to think about your own life for a second. Have 00:02:18.120 --> 00:02:20.960 you ever met someone who's chaotic, entirely 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:24.080 over -the -top personality, completely masked 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:27.699 a brilliant, disciplined intellect? Because that 00:02:27.699 --> 00:02:29.900 is exactly the kind of figure we are looking 00:02:29.900 --> 00:02:32.060 at today. He's the textbook definition of it. 00:02:32.139 --> 00:02:34.080 Okay, let's unpack this. Where does a nickname 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:37.039 like Wild Bill actually come from? Because in 00:02:37.039 --> 00:02:39.599 jazz, nicknames are usually a shorthand for the 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:42.060 music, right? Like Charlie Parker being Bird 00:02:42.060 --> 00:02:44.939 or, I mean, in rock, Eric Clapton being Slowhand. 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:46.939 Yeah, you'd assume it's a musical descriptor. 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:49.259 But in Davidson's case, the nickname was actually 00:02:49.259 --> 00:02:51.699 earned well before he was recognized as a master 00:02:51.699 --> 00:02:53.879 of his instrument. Wait, really? Yeah. He was 00:02:53.879 --> 00:02:57.330 born in 19... and he lived a very long life, 00:02:57.629 --> 00:03:00.409 actually, passing away in 1989. But in his younger 00:03:00.409 --> 00:03:02.849 years, the nickname was a direct reflection of 00:03:02.849 --> 00:03:05.270 his personal reputation. Okay, so a lifestyle 00:03:05.270 --> 00:03:07.930 thing. Completely. He was notorious for heavy 00:03:07.930 --> 00:03:11.129 drinking, for womanizing, and for generally just 00:03:11.129 --> 00:03:13.599 living incredibly hard. Which, I mean, looking 00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:16.300 at the source material, he was born in Ohio, 00:03:16.699 --> 00:03:19.219 in a town that feels almost like a screenwriter 00:03:19.219 --> 00:03:22.159 made it up for a jazz rebel. He was quite literally 00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:25.319 a guy from Defiance. Defiance, Ohio. I mean, 00:03:25.419 --> 00:03:27.900 you really cannot write a better origin story 00:03:27.900 --> 00:03:30.080 for a guy named Wild Bill. Right. The geography 00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:32.259 certainly matches the mythology there. But, you 00:03:32.259 --> 00:03:35.000 know, I struggle to reconcile this because the 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:37.740 lifestyle you just described sounds like the 00:03:37.740 --> 00:03:40.979 classic modern rock star cliche. Oh, for sure. 00:03:41.099 --> 00:03:44.419 The guy who is out all night, trashing hotel 00:03:44.419 --> 00:03:47.419 rooms, living dangerously, treating his own life 00:03:47.419 --> 00:03:50.479 with reckless abandon. And usually, if a musician 00:03:50.479 --> 00:03:53.300 is living this chaotic, undisciplined life off 00:03:53.300 --> 00:03:56.180 stage, that bleeds directly into the work. Right. 00:03:56.180 --> 00:03:59.020 You assume a messy life creates messy art. Exactly. 00:03:59.159 --> 00:04:01.639 So wouldn't his playing just be a sloppy disaster? 00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:03.639 Well, what's fascinating here is that the wild 00:04:03.639 --> 00:04:05.939 moniker actually became a personal sobriquet 00:04:05.939 --> 00:04:08.199 that colored how people expected him to play. 00:04:08.300 --> 00:04:10.719 Oh, I see. Yeah. When the marquee says, Bill 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:14.180 Davison, the audience expects noise. They expect 00:04:14.180 --> 00:04:17.420 spectacle. And Davison leaned into that expectation 00:04:17.420 --> 00:04:20.100 heavily. He weaponized his own reputation to 00:04:20.100 --> 00:04:23.379 set up this massive theatrical contrast with 00:04:23.379 --> 00:04:26.000 how he actually operated on stage. So if the 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:28.220 audience is buying a ticket to see a wild man, 00:04:28.660 --> 00:04:30.879 what actually happens when the curtain goes up? 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:33.220 Because looking at the eyewitness accounts in 00:04:33.220 --> 00:04:37.339 the text, his stage presence completely subverts 00:04:37.339 --> 00:04:40.100 the nickname. Oh, entirely. We have this brilliant 00:04:40.100 --> 00:04:42.420 piece of historical evidence from a writer and 00:04:42.420 --> 00:04:44.980 musician named Richard M. Sudhalter. Right. And 00:04:44.980 --> 00:04:46.779 he wrote an eyewitness account of seeing Wild 00:04:46.779 --> 00:04:49.180 Bill perform at Eddie Condon's club in New York 00:04:49.180 --> 00:04:53.079 City back in the 1950s. Said Holter points out 00:04:53.079 --> 00:04:54.959 that Davidson looked like anything but the standard 00:04:54.959 --> 00:04:58.100 image of a jazz trumpet or Cornet legend. How 00:04:58.100 --> 00:04:59.839 so? Like paint the picture of what the other 00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:02.000 legends look like. Said Holter provides a great 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:04.000 contrast. Take Louis Armstrong, for example. 00:05:04.379 --> 00:05:06.819 When Armstrong played, he treated the horn almost 00:05:06.819 --> 00:05:09.319 like a sacred vessel. He tilted it all the way 00:05:09.319 --> 00:05:11.600 up to the ceiling, his eyes rolled back, and 00:05:11.600 --> 00:05:13.779 his entire body looked like it was taking flight. 00:05:13.959 --> 00:05:16.980 Right, very iconic posture. Exactly. And then 00:05:16.980 --> 00:05:18.740 you had someone like Maxie Kaminsky, who was 00:05:18.740 --> 00:05:22.240 a very small man. So when he held his horn, he 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:24.980 looked overwhelmed by it, almost wrestling with 00:05:24.980 --> 00:05:27.779 his gigantic brass beast. Like it was a physical 00:05:27.779 --> 00:05:31.399 struggle. Yeah. or consider Bix Beiderbecke, 00:05:31.579 --> 00:05:34.100 who famously played with his dented cornet pointed 00:05:34.100 --> 00:05:36.920 resolutely down to the floor, just steeped in 00:05:36.920 --> 00:05:40.180 deep concentration. They all had these very distinct, 00:05:40.819 --> 00:05:44.399 very serious, almost tortured physical postures. 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:46.740 So you have flight? You have a wrestling match, 00:05:46.779 --> 00:05:49.439 and you have deep introspection. Where does the 00:05:49.439 --> 00:05:52.079 guy from Defiance fit into this lineup? Well, 00:05:52.100 --> 00:05:55.199 Sudhalter describes Davidson as seated. Seated. 00:05:55.379 --> 00:05:57.439 Seated. He has one leg crossed casually over 00:05:57.439 --> 00:05:59.500 the other. He has a drink resting right in front 00:05:59.500 --> 00:06:01.959 of him on an upended barrel. And his physical 00:06:01.959 --> 00:06:03.720 relationship with the instrument is incredibly 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:06.600 dismissive. Dismissive how? He doesn't hold it 00:06:06.600 --> 00:06:09.319 like a sacred object at all. He just sweeps the 00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:11.800 cornet into the side of his mouth, blows a phrase, 00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:14.699 and then jerks it away as if the metal itself 00:06:14.699 --> 00:06:17.449 is to keep against his lips. I have to stop you 00:06:17.449 --> 00:06:19.689 there, because there is one detail in Sid Halter's 00:06:19.689 --> 00:06:21.629 account that completely shatters the illusion 00:06:21.629 --> 00:06:25.310 of the serious artist for me. The gum. Yes. While 00:06:25.310 --> 00:06:27.610 he is sweeping this horn to the side of his mouth 00:06:27.610 --> 00:06:31.889 and jerking it away, he is chewing gum mid -performance. 00:06:32.370 --> 00:06:35.189 It's wild. I need you to explain the physical 00:06:35.189 --> 00:06:37.910 mechanics of this, because playing a brass instrument 00:06:37.910 --> 00:06:40.790 is not like hitting a piano key. What is actually 00:06:40.790 --> 00:06:42.910 happening in a trumpet player's mouth? You're 00:06:42.910 --> 00:06:45.180 talking about the embouchure. Yeah. When you 00:06:45.180 --> 00:06:48.319 play the cornet, your lips have to vibrate against 00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:51.980 a tiny metal cup. Okay. So to change notes, to 00:06:51.980 --> 00:06:54.779 jump octaves, or to alter the tone, a player 00:06:54.779 --> 00:06:57.300 has to make these microscopic adjustments to 00:06:57.300 --> 00:06:59.360 the muscles around their mouth, their jaw, and 00:06:59.360 --> 00:07:02.220 their tongue. That sounds intense. It is. And 00:07:02.220 --> 00:07:04.699 the air pressure required to blast a high note 00:07:04.699 --> 00:07:07.680 through coiled brass. is just immense. And he 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:10.800 is managing that millimeter precise muscle control, 00:07:11.279 --> 00:07:13.420 managing that explosive air pressure while navigating 00:07:13.420 --> 00:07:16.100 a piece of double mint around his molars. It's 00:07:16.100 --> 00:07:18.180 like performing open heart surgery while eating 00:07:18.180 --> 00:07:21.180 a sandwich. It's physically absurd. It really 00:07:21.180 --> 00:07:23.720 is. It speaks to a level of comfort that borders 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:27.060 on the superhuman. The musculature of his face 00:07:27.060 --> 00:07:30.259 was so highly trained that the gum wasn't even 00:07:30.259 --> 00:07:32.899 a hindrance to him. It reminds me that true mastery, 00:07:33.060 --> 00:07:34.899 like when someone really knows what they're doing 00:07:34.899 --> 00:07:37.000 down to their bones, it often looks careless 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:39.100 from the outside. You look at him leg cross, 00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:41.660 jaw chewing, and you think this guy isn't even 00:07:41.660 --> 00:07:45.860 trying. And that casual visual was the trap. 00:07:45.899 --> 00:07:48.680 Oh, so? Because the audience sees this relaxed 00:07:48.680 --> 00:07:51.560 gum chewing guy. But when he actually blew into 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:54.060 that horn, the sound that came out of the bell. 00:07:54.279 --> 00:07:57.120 was a total physical shock to the system. Yeah, 00:07:57.199 --> 00:07:59.079 Sundholter described the music coming out of 00:07:59.079 --> 00:08:01.339 Davison's horn like a flamethrower. He said it 00:08:01.339 --> 00:08:04.060 drove the band halfway into tomorrow, just an 00:08:04.060 --> 00:08:06.699 overwhelming wall of fire. The famous poet Philip 00:08:06.699 --> 00:08:09.660 Larkin was also a massive fan of Davison and 00:08:09.660 --> 00:08:11.699 analyzed his playing closely. Okay, what'd he 00:08:11.699 --> 00:08:14.100 say? Larkin noted Davison's notable energy in 00:08:14.100 --> 00:08:16.800 what he called an urgent bustling attack. He 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:19.560 used incredibly heavy vibrato. There was just 00:08:19.560 --> 00:08:22.149 a sheer undeniable physical force to it. You 00:08:22.149 --> 00:08:24.389 know, the text includes a quote from Humphrey 00:08:24.389 --> 00:08:26.850 Littleton that I absolutely love. He compared 00:08:26.850 --> 00:08:29.569 Davison's playing to the kind of reveler who 00:08:29.569 --> 00:08:31.750 throws an arm around your neck one second, acting 00:08:31.750 --> 00:08:33.509 like your best friend, and then tries to knock 00:08:33.509 --> 00:08:36.269 you out the next. That's a beautifully violent 00:08:36.269 --> 00:08:39.710 description of music. Unpredictable, aggressive, 00:08:40.350 --> 00:08:42.730 intimately close, and then suddenly overwhelming. 00:08:42.950 --> 00:08:45.049 Wait, I'm confused, though. Here's where it gets 00:08:45.049 --> 00:08:46.909 really interesting, because I'm going to push 00:08:46.909 --> 00:08:51.019 back on this entire premise. Go for it. We started 00:08:51.019 --> 00:08:54.279 by saying his wild nickname was a facade, right? 00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:57.659 And that he was secretly this meticulous craftsman. 00:08:58.039 --> 00:09:01.080 But look at the words we just used. Flamethrower. 00:09:01.700 --> 00:09:03.879 Urgent attack. A drunk guy trying to knock you 00:09:03.879 --> 00:09:06.620 out. That sounds completely sloppy. It sounds 00:09:06.620 --> 00:09:09.179 exactly like the chaotic guy who trashes hotel 00:09:09.179 --> 00:09:11.679 rooms. How do those two realities coexist? I 00:09:11.679 --> 00:09:14.580 mean, how is a f— flamethrower an example of 00:09:14.580 --> 00:09:16.480 surgical precision. Ah, well, you're touching 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:19.240 on the exact illusion he created. Oh. It sounds 00:09:19.240 --> 00:09:22.620 completely out of control. But Larkin's deeper 00:09:22.620 --> 00:09:25.779 analysis cuts right through that noise. Larkin 00:09:25.779 --> 00:09:28.740 points out that the stylistic mannerisms, the 00:09:28.740 --> 00:09:30.879 specific things that made it sound wild, were 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:33.820 incredibly deliberate, highly difficult techniques. 00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:36.460 None of it was an accident. OK, let's break down 00:09:36.460 --> 00:09:39.259 those techniques. Like, ELI -5, this for me. 00:09:39.389 --> 00:09:42.789 Larkin mentions deep horse blurrings. How do 00:09:42.789 --> 00:09:45.549 you make a brass instrument sound hoarse without 00:09:45.549 --> 00:09:48.409 just, you know, playing it badly? Well, you have 00:09:48.409 --> 00:09:51.330 to intentionally dirty the air stream. A novice 00:09:51.330 --> 00:09:54.450 player strives for a clear, ringing tone. Right. 00:09:54.809 --> 00:09:56.929 So to get a horse blurring, Davison would use 00:09:56.929 --> 00:09:59.389 techniques like vocalizing, literally humming 00:09:59.389 --> 00:10:01.610 or growling in the back of his throat while blowing 00:10:01.610 --> 00:10:03.669 air through his lips. That sounds exhausting. 00:10:03.809 --> 00:10:06.269 It is. Or he would use half -valving, where you 00:10:06.269 --> 00:10:07.990 don't press the trumpet keys all the way down, 00:10:08.350 --> 00:10:10.429 trapping the air and making the note sound strangled 00:10:10.429 --> 00:10:13.169 and smeared. Doing that on purpose while staying 00:10:13.169 --> 00:10:15.889 perfectly in key requires massive breath control. 00:10:16.120 --> 00:10:18.860 Oh, wow. Okay, Lerkin also mentions his athletic 00:10:18.860 --> 00:10:20.820 in front of the beat timing. What does that mean? 00:10:21.139 --> 00:10:23.279 This is crucial to that urgent feeling Littleton 00:10:23.279 --> 00:10:27.679 described. In jazz, the rhythm section sets a 00:10:27.679 --> 00:10:30.820 steady pulse. Most players lay back on that pulse 00:10:30.820 --> 00:10:33.360 to sound relaxed. Like playing slightly behind 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:35.879 the beat. Exactly. But playing in front of the 00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:38.600 beat means Davison was placing his notes fractions 00:10:38.600 --> 00:10:41.100 of a second before the rhythm section hit their 00:10:41.100 --> 00:10:44.139 beat. It's like drafting in a NASCAR race. Yeah. 00:10:44.250 --> 00:10:47.549 You are riding mere inches off the bumper of 00:10:47.549 --> 00:10:49.669 the car in front of you. To the audience, it 00:10:49.669 --> 00:10:52.250 looks reckless, like you are constantly on the 00:10:52.250 --> 00:10:54.250 verge of rear -ending the rhythm section and 00:10:54.250 --> 00:10:57.509 crashing the whole song. But in reality, it requires 00:10:57.509 --> 00:11:00.389 absolute terrifying control to push the momentum 00:11:00.389 --> 00:11:02.809 forward without accidentally speeding up the 00:11:02.809 --> 00:11:05.830 tempo. That is insane. It really creates a psychological 00:11:05.830 --> 00:11:08.149 tension in the listener. You feel rushed, you 00:11:08.149 --> 00:11:10.250 feel the heat of the flamethrower, but the tempo 00:11:10.250 --> 00:11:13.440 never actually breaks. Larkin also noted his 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:15.860 flaring shakes, which are intense lip trills, 00:11:16.179 --> 00:11:18.960 and his heavy vibrato, which isn't just a nervous 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:21.759 shaking of the horn, but a controlled rhythmic 00:11:21.759 --> 00:11:24.620 variation of the pitch. So the flamethrower effect 00:11:24.620 --> 00:11:27.799 was a calculated weapon. Underneath the horse 00:11:27.799 --> 00:11:30.700 sound and the driving rhythm, every single note 00:11:30.700 --> 00:11:33.840 was perfectly pitched. Exactly. Larkin compared 00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:37.240 Davison's cornet to his speaking voice. He possessed 00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:40.059 an emotional immediacy that was incredibly hard 00:11:40.059 --> 00:11:42.610 to parallel. And the proof of his control is 00:11:42.610 --> 00:11:45.309 what happened when the tempo slowed down. Oh, 00:11:45.570 --> 00:11:48.730 on the ballads? Yes. On ballads, Larkin described 00:11:48.730 --> 00:11:52.549 his playing as melting, almost articulate. He 00:11:52.549 --> 00:11:54.710 modeled his ballad playing after his absolute 00:11:54.710 --> 00:11:56.889 favorites, Louis Armstrong and Bobby Hackett. 00:11:57.370 --> 00:11:59.450 He could switch off the flamethrower and instantly 00:11:59.450 --> 00:12:01.799 become a romantic poet. The chef in the messy 00:12:01.799 --> 00:12:04.240 kitchen who was secretly plating a Michelin star 00:12:04.240 --> 00:12:06.860 dish. Exactly right. But if he was a secret technician 00:12:06.860 --> 00:12:09.519 playing 4D musical chess, why isn't his name 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:11.940 in lights next to Armstrong? Well, if we connect 00:12:11.940 --> 00:12:13.700 this to the bigger picture, we have to look at 00:12:13.700 --> 00:12:16.340 the timeline of his career. It was a remarkably 00:12:16.340 --> 00:12:19.440 long, grueling road to recognition. Davidson 00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:22.080 didn't just appear in the 50s fully formed. He 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:24.809 started way back in the 1920s. Right. The source 00:12:24.809 --> 00:12:27.029 notes he was playing in the 20s alongside guys 00:12:27.029 --> 00:12:30.070 like Muggsy Spanier and Frank Teshamacher. And 00:12:30.070 --> 00:12:32.529 they were essentially in a cover band literally 00:12:32.529 --> 00:12:35.090 playing the music of Louis Armstrong. Yeah, he's 00:12:35.090 --> 00:12:38.250 been years in the trenches studying the greats, 00:12:38.250 --> 00:12:40.269 learning the architecture of the music from the 00:12:40.269 --> 00:12:43.269 inside out. But the wider public didn't really 00:12:43.269 --> 00:12:46.490 catch on to him until the 1940s. That is a 20 00:12:46.490 --> 00:12:50.080 year gap. two decades of grinding, of shaping 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:52.240 that perfectly pitched, speak it voice on the 00:12:52.240 --> 00:12:55.879 cornet, chewing gum in smoky rooms, before achieving 00:12:55.879 --> 00:12:58.620 broader fame. It's a long time to wait. You have 00:12:58.620 --> 00:13:00.759 to possess a pathological love for the craft 00:13:00.759 --> 00:13:02.539 to stick with it for 20 years before you get 00:13:02.539 --> 00:13:05.500 your flowers. The endurance is remarkable. And 00:13:05.500 --> 00:13:07.779 what kept him relevant once he finally broke 00:13:07.779 --> 00:13:10.519 through in the 40s was his adaptability as a 00:13:10.519 --> 00:13:13.159 collaborator. How so? We think of a flamethrower 00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:15.659 as a soloist who burns the rest of the band down 00:13:15.659 --> 00:13:18.539 to get attention. But Davison knew how to fit 00:13:18.539 --> 00:13:22.120 into complex musical ecosystems. The source highlights 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:24.240 his legendary sessions with Sidney Bichette for 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:26.700 Blue Note Records. Oh, yeah. The text describes 00:13:26.700 --> 00:13:29.679 those sessions as collisions of two furious jazz 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:33.179 talents, which sounds terrifying. Sidney Bichette 00:13:33.179 --> 00:13:36.039 playing soprano saxophone. Davison on cornet. 00:13:36.830 --> 00:13:39.889 How do two flamethrowers occupy the same room 00:13:39.889 --> 00:13:42.269 without destroying the track? In lesser hands, 00:13:42.350 --> 00:13:44.629 it would be a complete disaster. But the text 00:13:44.629 --> 00:13:46.750 notes these collisions were oddly sympathetic. 00:13:47.090 --> 00:13:49.710 In New Orleans and Chicago -style jazz, the horns 00:13:49.710 --> 00:13:52.070 engage in collective improvisation. So they are 00:13:52.070 --> 00:13:55.129 making up melodies at the same time. Yes. And 00:13:55.129 --> 00:13:57.669 Davison understood how to find the sonic frequencies 00:13:57.669 --> 00:14:00.269 and rhythmic pockets that Bichette wasn't occupying. 00:14:00.529 --> 00:14:02.490 He could match Bichette's fury without stepping 00:14:02.490 --> 00:14:05.539 on his toes. That takes crazy spatial awareness, 00:14:05.740 --> 00:14:07.480 musically speaking. He did the same thing with 00:14:07.480 --> 00:14:09.679 the clarinetist Pee Wee Russell, uniting his 00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:12.100 sound in what the source calls the Condon tradition. 00:14:12.419 --> 00:14:14.879 What actually is the Condon tradition? It refers 00:14:14.879 --> 00:14:17.440 to a style of jazz pioneered by guitarist Eddie 00:14:17.440 --> 00:14:20.299 Condon, also known as Chicago -style jazz. It 00:14:20.299 --> 00:14:22.799 is highly polyphonic, meaning multiple melodies 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:24.879 weaving around each other simultaneously driven 00:14:24.879 --> 00:14:27.779 by a very steady, four -to -the -bar rhythm guitar 00:14:27.779 --> 00:14:30.639 pulse. So it requires musicians who are fiercely 00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:33.759 independent, but capable of intense listening. 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:36.519 Which brings us to his longest lasting professional 00:14:36.519 --> 00:14:40.179 association, Eddie Condon himself. Right. Davison 00:14:40.179 --> 00:14:42.320 worked and recorded with Condon from the mid 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:45.279 40s, right when his wider recognition was taking 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:48.960 off, all the way to Condon's final concert. They 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:51.139 built a sound together that defined an era of 00:14:51.139 --> 00:14:53.539 traditional jazz in New York. And the details 00:14:53.539 --> 00:14:56.919 of that final concert in April of 1972 are just 00:14:56.919 --> 00:15:00.139 too good to ignore. Where did this decades -long 00:15:00.139 --> 00:15:02.759 partnership finally culminate? The new School 00:15:02.759 --> 00:15:05.440 for Social Research in New York City. A deeply 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:08.480 prestigious, very buttoned up academic institution. 00:15:08.740 --> 00:15:11.039 The sheer irony of this. Consider the journey. 00:15:11.159 --> 00:15:14.389 You have a guy born in Defiance, Ohio. A guy 00:15:14.389 --> 00:15:16.950 whose moniker comes from his wild youth of drinking 00:15:16.950 --> 00:15:19.669 and hotel trashing. A guy who sits on stage with 00:15:19.669 --> 00:15:22.009 a drink on a barrel, legs crossed, chewing gum, 00:15:22.210 --> 00:15:24.309 blasting a horse -fling thrower out of his horn. 00:15:24.389 --> 00:15:26.509 Yeah, it's quite the image. And he caps off his 00:15:26.509 --> 00:15:28.570 defining musical partnership, playing a gig for 00:15:28.570 --> 00:15:30.789 intellectuals at the New School for Social Research. 00:15:31.070 --> 00:15:33.590 It is the ultimate encapsulation of his dual 00:15:33.590 --> 00:15:37.909 existence. The lowbrow, chaotic persona delivering 00:15:37.909 --> 00:15:41.309 highbrow, meticulous execution. So what does 00:15:41.309 --> 00:15:44.070 this all mean? We've looked at the decades long 00:15:44.070 --> 00:15:46.929 timeline, the eyewitness accounts of his bizarre 00:15:46.929 --> 00:15:50.090 posture and the critical analysis unpacking the 00:15:50.090 --> 00:15:52.470 hidden mechanics of his playing. And for you 00:15:52.470 --> 00:15:54.309 listening, I think the major takeaway here is 00:15:54.309 --> 00:15:57.509 the vital difference between style and structure. 00:15:57.649 --> 00:16:00.289 A crucial distinction to make. Wild Bill Davison 00:16:00.289 --> 00:16:03.230 sold his audience on a persona of absolute reckless 00:16:03.230 --> 00:16:05.850 abandon. That was his style. It was fueled by 00:16:05.850 --> 00:16:09.230 his defiance origins, his nickname, his gun chewing 00:16:09.230 --> 00:16:12.399 dismissal of the instrument and his loud, urgent, 00:16:12.580 --> 00:16:15.059 in front of the beat sound. But beneath all of 00:16:15.059 --> 00:16:17.620 that style was an unbreakable structure. Underneath 00:16:17.620 --> 00:16:19.960 it all was an artist utilizing immense breath 00:16:19.960 --> 00:16:22.559 control and half valve techniques to execute 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:25.940 every single note with profound, conscious, emotional 00:16:25.940 --> 00:16:28.860 immediacy. He never let the wildness compromise 00:16:28.860 --> 00:16:31.600 the actual work. The craft was always sacred, 00:16:31.799 --> 00:16:33.500 even if he went out of his way to pretend it 00:16:33.500 --> 00:16:35.480 wasn't. And this raises an important question, 00:16:35.539 --> 00:16:38.019 something for us to really mull over today. In 00:16:38.019 --> 00:16:41.240 our modern world, We are obsessed with curating 00:16:41.240 --> 00:16:44.360 an authentic personal brand. We are told that 00:16:44.360 --> 00:16:47.399 our outward persona must perfectly, neatly match 00:16:47.399 --> 00:16:49.700 our professional output. Oh, totally. Everything 00:16:49.700 --> 00:16:52.340 has to align. Exactly. If we want to be taken 00:16:52.340 --> 00:16:55.320 seriously as experts, we have to project a clean, 00:16:55.879 --> 00:16:59.159 sterilized image. We want the quiet, stainless 00:16:59.159 --> 00:17:01.759 steel kitchen. No flour on the ceiling, no pots 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:04.180 clinging out of rhythm. But consider what is 00:17:04.180 --> 00:17:06.759 lost by refusing to embrace the contradiction 00:17:06.759 --> 00:17:09.869 of a wild bill. Imagine the freedom and perhaps 00:17:09.869 --> 00:17:12.730 the genius we might unlock if we allowed ourselves 00:17:12.730 --> 00:17:15.390 to look a little chaotic on the outside. To be 00:17:15.390 --> 00:17:17.609 the person casually chewing gum and crossing 00:17:17.609 --> 00:17:21.150 our legs, while secretly, quietly, executing 00:17:21.150 --> 00:17:23.390 our craft with absolute calculated perfection 00:17:23.390 --> 00:17:25.730 on the inside. That is a brilliant thought to 00:17:25.730 --> 00:17:27.930 leave on. Maybe the mess isn't always a warning 00:17:27.930 --> 00:17:30.769 sign for disaster. Maybe, just maybe, it's the 00:17:30.769 --> 00:17:31.990 camouflage for a masterpiece.