Vaudevillian troubadour Bryce Edwards (of Birdlands critically acclaimed Frivolity Hour) and New Yorks premiere antimodernist cornetist Mike Davis (of The New Wonders--praised as an eloquent trumpet prodigy by The Wall Street Journal) are coming together to celebrate the centennial of one of jazzs hottest overlooked duos! A mainstay of New York studio groups in the 1920s, Red Nichols cool tone, inventive cornet language, and avant-garde arrangements seem to set up an alternate jazz future that never was; and though the ukulele-toting, mouth-trumpeting Cliff Edwards (who would later voice Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio) may seem like a jazz age oddity at first blush, he was one of the eras most innovative and jazz-forward pop vocalists and an early pioneer of scat singing (albeit in his own inimitably bizarre way). In 1925, these two singular musical voices combined forces to make some of the most infectious records of the 20s, and now, one hundred years later, Mike Davis and Bryce Edwards are joining forces to pay tribute and introduce the 21st century to these all-too-often forgotten figures. Edwards and Davis will be joined by an all-star band of traditional jazz specialists, including Ricky Alexander on reeds, Josh Holcomb on trombone, Felix Lemerle on guitar, Dalton Ridenhour on piano, Jay Rattman on bass saxophone, and Colin Hancock on drums.
