John "Monster" Davis (August 31, 1947 – January 27, 2023) – Up Jumped The Devil (1977)
The leader of the Monster Orchestra wrote, arranged and produced this superb disco hit which became a fave of Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage.
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John "Monster" Davis was a Philadelphia-based musician, songwriter, producer, and bandleader who in the early 1970s was a member of MFSB, the Philadelphia International Records house band. Later in the decade, he formed his own Monster Orchestra.
Davis was a multi-instrumentalist who played the saxophone, flute, and keyboards. After working as a session musician at Sigma Sound Studios and playing with MFSB, Davis formed his own orchestra in the mid-70s. The Monster Orchestra was made up of MFSB stalwarts including Bobby Eli and Roland Chambers on guitars, Charles Collins on drums, “Sugar Bear” Foreman on bass, Larry Washington on percussion, Don Renaldo’s Strings and Horns, and the Sweethearts of Sigma (Barbara Ingram, Carla Benson, and Yvette Benton) on backing vocals.
The title track to their first LP Night And Day (1976) was a disco cover of the Cole Porter standard, which became a Top 5 disco hit. Their next single, the superb jam “I Can’t Stop,” was also released in 1976 and was the very first 12” single on SAM Records, the New York-based label owned by Sam Weiss. Previously, Weiss and his brother Hy had owned Old Town Records, and in the early 1990s he and his son Mike founded Nervous Records.
The second LP by John Davis and the Monster Orchestra was Up Jumped The Devil (1977).
Davis wrote, arranged and produced its phenomenal title track, which went to #5 on disco charts and was a fave of Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage.
Two singles were released from the Monster Orchestra’s fourth and final studio LP The Monster Strikes Again (1979). One was their superb cover of Ashford & Simpson’s “Bourgié Bourgié,” featuring Nick and Valerie along with Davis on vocals. The other was the stellar upbeat disco workout “Love Magic.”
It was co-written by Davis and songwriter Vince Fay, who also played bass on the album.
Sadly, Davis left us this past January at age 75.
#soul #funk #disco #JohnMonsterDavis