1 That's the Stuff You Got to Watch (take 1)
12" LP: Savoy SJL 1196
CD: Nippon Columbia COCY-78267, Nippon Columbia/Savoy SV-0159, Masters of Jazz MJCD 131

2 That's the Stuff You Got to Watch (take 2)
12" LP: Savoy SJL 1196
CD: Nippon Columbia COCY-78267, Nippon Columbia/Savoy SV-0159, Masters of Jazz MJCD 131

3 That's the Stuff You Got to Watch (take 3)
78 rpm: Savoy 564
12" LP: Savoy SJL 1196
CD: Nippon Columbia COCY-78267, Nippon Columbia/Savoy SV-0159, Masters of Jazz MJCD 131, Definitive Records DRCD 11137, 11160

4 Pointless Mama Blues
78 rpm: Savoy 564
12" LP: Savoy SJL 1196
CD: Nippon Columbia COCY-78267, Nippon Columbia/Savoy SV-0159, Masters of Jazz MJCD 131, Definitive Records DRCD 11137, 11160

5 Deep Sea Blues
78 rpm: Savoy 5516
12" LP: Savoy SJL 1196
CD: Nippon Columbia COCY-78267, Nippon Columbia/Savoy SV-0159, Masters of Jazz MJCD 131, Definitive Records DRCD 11137, 11160

6 Bring it on Home (take 1 (fs))
12" LP: Savoy SJL 1196
CD: Nippon Columbia COCY-78267, Nippon Columbia/Savoy SV-0159, Masters of Jazz MJCD 131

7 Bring it on Home (take 2)
12" LP: Savoy SJL 1196
CD: Nippon Columbia COCY-78267, Nippon Columbia/Savoy SV-0159, Masters of Jazz MJCD 131

8 Bring it on Home (take 3)
78 rpm: Savoy 5516
12" LP: Savoy SJL 1196
CD: Nippon Columbia COCY-78267, Nippon Columbia/Savoy SV-0159, Masters of Jazz MJCD 131, Definitive Records DRCD 11137, 11160

This is Davis' fairly inauspicious recording debut. He plays only in the ensemble, and is muted except on the opening ensemble of "Pointless Mama Blues." Freddie Webster was apparently coaching Davis during this session, prompting Savoy founder Herman Lubinsky to complain, "We ain't runnin' no school here!" Still, Davis has some nice obbligatos behind Williams on take 2 of "That's the Stuff" and on "Pointless Mama Blues." By the last two takes of "Bring it on Home" Davis' accompaniment is less tentative, but he still stays out of the solo light.

Herbie Fields led a group at a Savoy session on May 30, 1945 which yielded four tunes: "Just Relaxin'" and "Four O'Clock Blues" (both issued on Savoy 952); "It Had to Be You" (unissued); and "Camp Meeting" (issued on Savoy 591 and later reissued on SJL 2224). The trumpet player is usually listed as Dave Page -- e.g. Michel Ruppli, The Savoy Label: A Discography (Greenwood Press, 1980, p. 21), but some have speculated that it might be Davis. Although the tone is similar to Davis, the phrasing is not. And the quotation of "Way Down Upon the Swanee River" during the solo on "Relaxin'" is certainly not something Davis would do.

I am grateful to Eddy Determeyer for bringing this session to my attention.