Gene Ammons: The All-Star Sessions

Like many musicians who performed in Billy Eckstine's big band between 1944 and '46, tenor saxophonist Gene “Jug" Ammons went on to jazz fame in the independent record label era of the late 1940s. He also did well in the blues 78 market (he was the first artist to record for Chess in Chicago) and the LP era as well.

Others veterans of the Eckstine band who would become jazz giants included Dexter Gordon, Leo Parker, John Malachi, Art Blakey, Sarah Vaughan, Budd Johnson, Tommy Potter, Fats Navarro, Sonny Stitt, Kenny Dorham and Frank Wess.

For Ammons's first recordings for Prestige, producer and founder Bob Weinstock teamed him with Sonny Stitt. Both straddled jazz and the blues neatly and like tenor saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray, Ammons and Stitt were competitive, which came out in their recordings.

By 1956, Weinstock had Ammons record a series of albums with knockout sidemen. These were positioned as Gene Ammons and His All Stars, which were largely jam sessions. Weinstock likely tore a page out of the playbook invented by producer Norman Granz, whose labels Clef, Norgran and, ultimately, Verve, recorded jam sessions by his Jazz at the Philharmonic touring groups of all stars.

Fresh Sound released the Ammons albums together on two double-CD sets some years back. Today, my focus is on The Gene Ammons' All Stars: Complete Recordings With Mal Waldron, Pepper Adams and Art Taylor. The three LPs featured on the two CDs are Groove Blues (recorded in January 1958), The Big Sound (January 1958) and Blue Gene (May 1958). The CD set includes one bonus track, from April 1956.

What makes these recordings special are their moody blues of various tempos and hues, the different textures of top sidemen on the dates, and Ammons's smoky and domineering tone.

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about regarding sidemen, The Real McCoy from The Big Sound featured Jerome Richardson (fl), John Coltrane (as), Gene Ammons and Paul Quinichette (ts), Pepper Adams (bar), Mal Waldron (p,arr), George Joyner (b) [aka Jamil Nasser] and Art Taylor (d).

On Ammon Joy from Groove Blues, Ammons was backed by the same ensemble.

And on Hip Tip from Blue Gene, the musicians were Idrees Sulieman (tp), Gene Ammons (ts), Pepper Adams (bar), Mal Waldron (p), Doug Watkins (b), Art Taylor (d) and Ray Barretto (cga).

Gene Ammons died in 1974 at age 49 of bone cancer and pneumonia.

JazzWax Tracks: You'll find The Gene Ammons All Stars: Complete Recordings With Mal Waldron, Pepper Adams and Art Taylor, (Fresh Sound) from 1958, here.

The sister two-CD set, Gene Ammons' All Stars: Complete Recordings with Jackie McLean and Mal Waldron (Fresh Sound), from 1956 and 1957, is here.

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JazzWax clips: Here's The Real McCoy...



Here's Ammon Joy...



And here's Hip Tip...