Bryce Edwards & Mike Davis’ “Hot Combination- the Cliff Edwards/Red Nichols Project”

By Alix Cohen

It’s the bee’s”s knees! *

An instrumental “After You’ve Gone” (Turner Layton/Henry Creamer) sashays in. Trombone surges, cornet and clarinet shimmy, sax kicks up. Tonight’s band is appealingly ‘Joe Brooks’, a term for a man who was well-dressed in the 1920s when appearance was everything. They look dapper.

“The music is its own thing, not this, not that, but hot jazz,” Mike Davis explains by way of introduction. “This tribute is 100 years overdue.”

“Oh! Lovey Be Mine” (Walter Donaldson) embodies “the kind of manic yearning one often feels in the early stages of romance,” Bryce Edwards notes grinning. It presents the artist expertly eefing, a kind of wheezing scat often described as a “vocalized snort”
or “breathy pop” used to add percussive flair to music. Originating in the south, it’s playful and proudly unpolished. Bryce seems to share both Cliff Edwards’ glee and his three octave range. “Gee what are they putting in the water here?!” the mischievous vocalist exclaims.

Bryce (on uke) steps in for Cliff Edwards (no relation), Davis is tonight’s Ernest Loring “Red” Nichols. The earliest known collaboration of “ukulele toting, mouth trumpeting” Edwards and virtuoso, apparently prickly, Nichols occurred in November 1925. Irving Berlin’s “Remember” was produced at that New York City recording session.

Given the nature of the 1920s music scene, it’s likely they met shortly before. Both were prolific and well-connected: Nichols was a sought-after cornetist and bandleader, while Edwards was a top-selling vocalist and entertainer.

For Harry Akst/Sam M. Lewis/Joe Young’s familiar “Dinah”, Bryce drops his “g”s and elongates the space between “Din-A” and “fin-A”. His left knee keeps time. Mike rises. The cornet rouses call-response with scat. Bass saxophone underpins, rendering oom-pah.

Chick Endor’s “How Can You Look So Good (and still be so goddamn bad?)” brings out the Art Carney in Bryce who prepares with arms, hands, eyes and possibly the most animated eyebrows in the business. “Ho-dee-oh doo doo dah, dah, oh” he sings. Up jerks a knee. “How can you, naughty mama?…”

Teenage Cliff Edwards “…marched into a music store and said, ‘give me your cheapest, most portable instrument. With a ukulele, he could go from saloon table to saloon table garnering tips. A waiter named him ‘Ukulele Ike.’ When he gets with Nichols, he becomes part of an ensemble.” (Bryce)

An instrumental of Nichols’ “Plenty Off Center” features only crisp cornet, teasing cymbal, and colluding piano. Mike is focused and rather elegant. More contained than his collaborator, the wirey musician nonetheless always has a body part in motion. Nichols’ “Trumpet Sobs” (as recorded by We Three 1926) spotlights cleanly-picked guitar, punctuating cymbal, and cornet with mute. Mike jauntily tips side to side. On neither occasion do we miss other instruments.

“How She Loves Me is Nobody’s Business” (Clarence Gaskill/Irving Mills) reflects Cliff Edwards’ vaudeville days. “The Beboppers weren’t the first to make jazz needlessly complicated,” Bryce quips. Music zig-zags. “…how she can kiss/Believe me this is/Nobody’s business…” Shoulders twist, knees successively rise; step, step. Hirschfeld would’ve loved drawing Bryce .

A different side of Cliff Edwards is showcased with “Dreaming of a Castle in the Air” (Chick Endor/E. Ward) Cornet is lyrical. Bryce extends his vibrato; twirls his uke. The band arrives textured as raw silk. (1925 arrangement- Andy Schumm) “Lonely Eyes” (Benny Davis/Harry Akst) opens with jitterbugging sax. Cornet and trombone join as buddies. Banjo adds syncopated filigree.

“The Lonesomest Girl in Town” (Jimmy McHugh/Irving Mills/Al Dubin) is “a little Victorian melodrama. She’s-more-to-be-pitied-than-censored sort of thing,” Bryce comments. Sound balance between vocal and band is splendid throughout. (Bravo sound designer.)
“Too many parties that bring you no fun/Too many bright lights instead of the sun…” Muted cornet doodles around the tune. Scat/eefing quiets. “Ain’t that just a cryin’ shame?” Bryce asks rhetorically, eyebrows in a point.

Many songs we’ve heard as hot jazz tonight were written by those responsible for more widely known material. Walter Donaldson wrote “Love Me or Leave Me”, Maceo Pinkard wrote “Sweet Georgia Brown”, Benny Davis and Harry Akst wrote “Baby Face”, Jimmy McHugh wrote “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”

Cliff Edwards introduced “Singin’ in the Rain” (Nacio Herb Brown/Arthur Freed) in 1929. It was a major hit. Still, his career waxed and waned until he played Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney’s Pinocchio. The song is unexpectedly touching, rather than exuberant. (arrangement Bryce Edwards)

An exuberant show played by consummate musicians. Clearly Bryce Edwards and Mike Davis are reincarnated.

*The Bee’s Knees= outstanding.

The Five Pennies, an entertaining 1959 film starring Danny Kaye, is a fictionalized story of Red Nichols’ life. His daughter did, in fact, have polio, however, making it poignant. Nichols ghosted solos. Louis Armstrong appears.

Bryce Edwards & Mike Davis’ Hot Combination- the Cliff Edwards/Red Nichols
Project
MD/Arrangements Mike Davis
Hosts – Bryce Edwards, Mike Davis

Bryce Edwards YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@bryceedwards4817
Mike Davis and The New Wonders Web Site: https://www.mike-davis-jazz.com/the-new-wonders

Photos- Alix Cohen

Band: Bryce Edwards (vocals & ukulele), Mike Davis (cornet), Ricky Alexander (alto saxophone & clarinet), Josh Holcomb (trombone), Dalton Ridenhour (piano), Jay Rattman (bass saxophone), Félix Lemerle (banjo & guitar), Colin Hancock (drums)

Birdland 315 West 44th Street https://www.birdlandjazz.com/

Will Friedwald on Cliff Edwards and Red Nichols: https://www.nysun.com/article/birdland-sets-a-centennial-celebration-of-one-of-jazzs-first-great-vocal-instrumental-collaborations?lctg=1493943003&recognized_email=davidearsonly%40gmail.com&newsletter-access&utm_source=MG&utm_medium=email-newsletter&utm_campaign=ARTS%20%20on%20Sunday%20%202025-08-31