John Ross Twiston Davies (20 March 1927 – 25 May 2004) was an English audio engineer, who specialised in restoring classic

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

records A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

. He was also a working musician and a member of

The Temperance Seven The Temperance Seven is a British band originally active in the 1960s, specialising in 1920s-style jazz music. They were known for their surreal performances. Career The Temperance Seven was founded at Christmas 1955 by students at the Chels ...

. Davies was born in

Wivelsfield Wivelsfield village and the larger adjacent village of Wivelsfield Green are the core of the civil parish of Wivelsfield in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The villages are north of the city of Brighton and Hove. Wivelsfield paris ...

, Sussex, England, the son of a dermatologist. He was a

trombonist The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...

trumpeter The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard B ...

and alto

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pro ...

. In the early 1950s, he was a member of the Crane River Jazz Band led by

Ken Colyer Kenneth Colyer (18 April 1928 – 8 March 1988) was an English jazz trumpeter and cornetist, devoted to New Orleans jazz. His band was also known for skiffle interludes. Biography He was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, but grew up i ...

which spearheaded interest in the original New Orleans jazz style. Later he achieved chart success with the 1960s jazz revival band

. The group's recording of "

You're Driving Me Crazy "You’re Driving Me Crazy" is an American popular song composed (music and lyrics) by Walter Donaldson in 1930 and recorded the same year by Lee Morse, Rudy Vallée & His Connecticut Yankees and Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians (with vocal ...

" reached the top of the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in 1961. One of his eccentricities, captured in old photographs, was to wear a

fez Fez most often refers to: * Fez (hat), a type of felt hat commonly worn in the Ottoman Empire * Fez, Morocco (or Fes), the second largest city of Morocco Fez or FEZ may also refer to: Media * ''Fez'' (Frank Stella), a 1964 painting by the moder ...

. For many he was considered "the world's leading specialist in the art of sound restoration", specifically in regard to jazz and blues existing on pre-magnetic tape media such as shellac 78s. He was particularly interested in recordings from 1917 to 1940. Davies developed many methods for restoring old recordings and disliked modern techniques for removing

surface noise In sound and music production, sonic artifact, or simply artifact, refers to sonic material that is accidental or unwanted, resulting from the editing or manipulation of a sound. Types Because there are always technical restrictions in the way a ...

. While he appreciated attempts to 'clean up' recordings and to create new versions of old recordings for modern audiences, such as the stereophonic remastered recordings by Robert Parker, in general he said he preferred remasterings which "keep everything and do as little as possible" to the original recording, and thought the remastering engineer should "Add nothing, take nothing away". The presence of his name on the credit of a reissue is generally considered the mark of a quality product. He started his own record label called Ristic (after his childhood nickname) in the late 1940s which produced reissued recordings from 1949 to 1972. Davies was always generous with his time and his collection and wanted it to be available for other people to use for research and reissues after his death. The Borthwick Archive at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

has accepted the entire collection and is housing it in ideal conditions, and making a transfer suite available so that his wish can be carried out. Information about the collection collated from the collection catalogue is also available online from the University of York Digital Library, and a small selection of the tracks have been made available to listen to online.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, John R. T. 1927 births 2004 deaths English audio engineers People from Wivelsfield Musicians from Sussex English jazz alto saxophonists English jazz trombonists English jazz trumpeters 20th-century saxophonists