SUNDAY, JULY 27, 2003

By MARK STRYKER
Free Press Music Critic

Vastly underrated and under-recorded, veteran saxophonist Charles Davis has a quirky middle-weight tone on both tenor and baritone saxophone. But it's a sound full of sincerity and soul and a perfect match for strikingly original bebop lines that he manages to carve out of the same chord changes everyone's been playing for decades.

And you couldn't ask for a more appropriate rhythm section -- pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Joe Farnsworth -- who strike a deep and relaxed groove from beginning to end. The surface isn't flashy, but the subtleties reward close listening, especially Davis' clever melodic twists, Walton's hip asides and the band's swinging unity