Al Haig - Al Haig Meets Master Bop Saxes

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 1999
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 71:27
Size: 164,2 MB
Art: Front

(2:36)  1. Light Gray
(2:48)  2. Stoned
(2:45)  3. Matter and Mind
(2:36)  4. The Toup
(3:05)  5. In a Pinch
(3:07)  6. It's the Talk of the Town
(2:51)  7. Five Star
(2:29)  8. Sugar Hill Bop
(3:28)  9. Twisted
(3:21) 10. Southside
(4:38) 11. Easy Living
(4:07) 12. Sweet Lorraine
(2:34) 13. Pardon My Bop
(3:02) 14. As I Live and I Bop
(2:44) 15. Interlude in Bebop
(2:42) 16. Diaper Pin (Pinhead)
(2:26) 17. Skull Buster
(2:43) 18. Ante Room
(2:47) 19. Poop Deck
(3:20) 20. Pennies from Heaven
(2:49) 21. Indian Summer
(2:57) 22. Long Island Sound
(2:42) 23. Mar-cia
(2:39) 24. Crazy Chords

Al Haig was one of the primal bop pianists. He endures in perpetuity with the spirits of George Wallington, Joe Albany, Dodo Marmarosa, Bud Powell and Elmo Hope. In the year 2000, Definitive Classics came up with a beautiful album of Haig's collaborations with tenor saxophonists Wardell Gray and Stan Getz, recorded in 1948 and 1949. Gray's genius is at once refreshing, his logic irresistible. Getz, like Gray, was profoundly influenced by Lester Young, and Haig was in many respects the ideal collaborator for their brand of bop-to-cool progressive jazz. That's why this music feels so pleasant and natural up inside of your head. Putting Getz and Gray together with Haig as the backbone of the collection makes all the sense in the world. This is superlatively hip music, perfect for cooking, booking, commuting, computing, operating heavy machinery or slacking off and cutting loose like there's no tomorrow.
~ arwulf arwulf; http://www.allmusic.com/album/al-haig-meets-master-bop-saxes-mw0000609243

Personnel:  Al Haig (piano), Wardell Gray, Stan Getz (saxophone)

Al Haig Meets Master Bop Saxes

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Wardell Gray & Dexter Gordon - The Chase and the Steeplechase

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 2005
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 49:57
Size: 114,6 MB
Art: Front

(11:35)  1. The Chase
(13:52)  2. The Steeplechase
( 6:58)  3. Milt to the Hilt
( 7:56)  4. Homecoming
( 3:27)  5. Swootie Patootie
( 3:15)  6. Sweet Lorraine
( 2:51)  7. Goodbye

A classic bit of aggressive bop from the team of Wardell Gray and Dexter Gordon famous in the LA scene for their fierce playing in competitive cutting contests! The album features the classic long reading of "The Chase", cut by Gordon and Gray at a GNP concert in 1952 backed by the similar "Steeple Chase", which grooves out in a similar format with very long tenor solos. The rest of the group features Conte Candoli on trumpet, Chico Hamilton on drums, Bob Tucker on piano, and Don Bagley on bass. The second part of the CD features classic early work from Tony Scott a set of clarinet tracks performed with a quartet featuring Dick Katz on piano, Milt Hinton on bass, and Sid Bulkin on drums. The style's a great mix of bop and swing in that mode that Tony always brought to his best work of the time, and which pushed an understanding of the clarinet in jazz long past the swing years. Titles include the original "Homecoming", "Sweet Loraine", "Goodbye", and "Swootie Patootie".  

© 1996-2018, Dusty Groove, Inc. https://www.dustygroove.com/item/635013

Personnel:  Wardell Gray tenor saxophone;  Dexter Gordon tenor saxophone;  Bobby Tucker piano; Don Bagley bass; Chico Hamilton drums

The Chase and the Steeplechase

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Chet Baker - Live at the Trade Winds 1952

Styles: Trumpet Jazz
Year: 1991
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 66:19
Size: 152,2 MB
Art: Front

(16:18)  1. Out of Nowhere
( 7:00)  2. Bernie's Tune
( 5:27)  3. My Old Flame
( 5:55)  4. Avalon
(11:15)  5. How High the Moon
( 7:01)  6. There Will Never Be Another Yo
( 5:47)  7. Sweet Georgia Brown
( 7:33)  8. I'll Remember April

Chet Baker was a primary exponent of the West Coast school of cool jazz in the early and mid-'50s. As a trumpeter, he had a generally restrained, intimate playing style and he attracted attention beyond jazz for his photogenic looks and singing. But his career was marred by drug addiction.Baker's father, Chesney Henry Baker,Sr., was a guitarist who was forced to turn to other work during the Depression; his mother, Vera (Moser) Baker, worked in a perfumery. The family moved from Oklahoma to Glendale, CA, in 1940. As a child, Baker sang at amateur competitions and in a church choir. Before his adolescence, his father brought home a trombone for him, then replaced it with a trumpet when the larger instrument proved too much for him. He had his first formal training in music in junior high and later at Glendale High School, but would play largely by ear for the rest of his life. In 1946, when he was only 16 years old, he dropped out of high school and his parents signed papers allowing him to enlist in the army; he was sent to Berlin, Germany, where he played in the 298th Army Band. After his discharge in 1948, he enrolled at El Camino College in Los Angeles, where he studied theory and harmony while playing in jazz clubs, but he quit college in the middle of his second year. He re-enlisted in the army in 1950 and became a member of the Sixth Army Band at the Presidio in San Francisco. But he also began sitting in at clubs in the city and he finally obtained a second discharge to become a professional jazz musician.  Baker initially played in Vido Musso's band, then with Stan Getz. (The first recording featuring Baker is a performance of "Out of Nowhere" that comes from a tape of a jam session made on March 24, 1952, and was released on the Fresh Sound Records LP Live at the Trade Winds.) His break came quickly, when, in the spring of 1952, he was chosen at an audition to play a series of West Coast dates with Charlie Parker, making his debut with the famed saxophonist at the Tiffany Club in Los Angeles on May 29, 1952. That summer, he began playing in the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, a group featuring only baritone sax, trumpet, bass, and drums -- no piano -- that attracted attention during an engagement at the Haig nightclub and through recordings on the newly formed Pacific Jazz Records (later known as World Pacific Records), beginning with the 10" LP Gerry Mulligan Quartet, which featured Baker's famous rendition of "My Funny Valentine."..More.. ~ William Ruhlmann https://www.allmusic.com/artist/chet-baker-mn0000094210/biography                

Personnel:  Chet Baker (trumpet) Sonny Criss (alto sax) Wardell Gray, Dave Pell (tenor sax) Jerry Mandell (piano) Harry Babasin (cello, leader) Bob Whitlock (bass) Lawrence Marable (drums)

Live at the Trade Winds 1952

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Wardell Gray - One For Prez

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1946
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 50:01
Size: 116,7 MB
Art: Front

(2:55)  1. Dell's Bells
(3:12)  2. One For Prez
(3:04)  3. The Man I Love
(3:00)  4. Easy Swing
(4:47)  5. The Great Lie
(3:00)  6. Dell's Bells
(3:15)  7. One For Prez
(3:23)  8. The Man I Love
(3:07)  9. Easy Swing
(3:09) 10. Dell's Bells
(1:39) 11. Dell's Bells
(3:06) 12. Dell's Bells
(3:33) 13. The Man I Love
(3:05) 14. One For Prez
(2:54) 15. One For Prez
(2:45) 16. One For Prez

Wardell Gray's admitted direct and huge influence is Lester Young, and as a tenor saxophonist growing up in the passing lane between swing to bop, it would be difficult for anyone to ignore the so called President of Jazz. Gray's time in Los Angeles with Dexter Gordon further refined his sound, but these recordings, his first as a leader, define the greatness of Gray. Originally recorded on 78s for Vogue Records, and an LP for the Fontana label, this collection is essentially a complete session, done November 23, 1946 in Hollywood, CA, with several alternate takes included. Drummer Harold "Doc" West and bassist Red Callender are the cream of the crop West Coast rhythm section at the time, and cook up a storm when asked to up the tempo. Alongside pianist Dodo Marmarosa, Gray is inspired to play unison lines with him on several occasions, especially in the introductions and melody lines of these pieces, as they mesh brilliantly into a stunning display of teamwork and compatibility. Five versions of "Dell's Bells" display the shared values between Gray and Marmarosa, as they scoot along in perfect tandem lines that seem telepathic, while also displaying the fluid dynamics of the tenor man. "One for Prez" falls along the same lines, basing this jam on the theme of "How High the Moon." Five versions of this one three at the end of the CD are shorter with a more edited introduction. Settling into a more cozy mood, three renditions of the ballad "The Man I Love" have Marmarosa in more of a support role, offering chiming chords and comping that is clearly interactive. 

Two takes of "Easy Swing" are just that, an original based on a simple theme adding big doses of the blues and an off-minor mode à la Thelonious Monk, a big influence on Marmarosa. Drummer Chuck Thompson replaces West for a sole take of "The Great Lie," an out-and-out furious bopper, all Gray, with Marmarosa and the ever brilliant Callender pumping up the rhythm to maximum levels. If you are fond of saxophonists like Don Byas, Chu Berry, Herschel Evans, and Lester Young, please include Gray and this wonderful introduction to him as a leader, backed by a bulletproof all-star combo, all deserving high.~ Michael G.Nastos https://www.allmusic.com/album/one-for-prez-mw0000202924

Personnel: Wardell Gray (tenor saxophone); Dodo Marmarosa (piano); Red Callender (bass); Harold "Doc" West, Chuck Thompson (drums).

One For Prez

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Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray - Citizens Bop

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 39:40
Size: 90.8 MB
Styles: Bop, Swing
Year: 1994
Art: Front

[2:58] 1. The Rubaiyat
[4:14] 2. My Kinda Love
[2:51] 3. Citizens Bop
[3:08] 4. One For Prez
[2:27] 5. Jingle Jangle Jump
[2:55] 6. Dell's Bells
[2:33] 7. I Hear You Knockin
[3:17] 8. The Man I Love
[3:01] 9. Easy Swing
[3:31] 10. Man With A Horn
[5:42] 11. Blue Lou
[2:55] 12. The Rubaiyat

Baritone Saxophone – Maurice Simon (tracks: 10); Bass – Red Callender; Drums – Chuck Thompson (tracks: 1 to 10, 12), Jackie Mills (tracks: 11); Piano – Dodo Marmarosa (tracks: 4, 6, 8, 9), Erroll Garner (tracks: 11); Piano, Organ – Gerry Wiggins (tracks: 1 to 3, 5, 7, 10, 12); Tenor Saxophone – Dexter Gordon (tracks: 1 to 3, 5, 7, 10, 12), Wardell Gray; Vocals – Gladys Bentley (tracks: 5).

Rare LA bop sides from Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray – two of the heaviest tenors to ever grace the west coast, recorded here in the prime of their late 40s careers. Tracks were recorded during the years 1946, 1947, and 1952 – and 6 tracks (including "The Rubiyat", "My Kinda Love", "Citizen's Bop", and "Man With A Horn") feature Gordon and Gray together in a group with Gerry Wiggins on piano and organ. The remaining 6 tracks feature Gray heading up bop quartets with either Dodo Marmaroso or Errol Garner on piano – and titles include "Dell's Bells", "One For Prez", "Blue Lou", and "Easy Swing".

Citizens Bop mc
Citizens Bop zippy

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Wardell Gray - Way Out Wardell

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 41:24
Size: 94.8 MB
Styles: Bop, Swing, Saxophone jazz
Year: 2014
Art: Front

[ 6:08] 1. Blue Lou, Pt. 1
[10:26] 2. Sweet Georgia Brown
[ 3:00] 3. Tenderly
[10:22] 4. Just You, Just Me (Just Bop)
[11:25] 5. One O'clock Jump

This album was recorded live in Los Angeles in 1948, and finds the great Wardell Gray amidst some of the finest musicians of the time. In the late 1940s, the West Coast jazz scene introduced the big band jazz concert idea to the public. At this time in his short career, Gray was starting his ascent and would achieve lasting fame in tenor sax history. The recorded sound on the album is tinny, given that it was recorded in a hall, and the echo is distracting. However, the compact disc cleaned much of this up, and the dueling between the two tenors shines right through. Vido Musso, the other fine tenor here, was with Stan Kenton for a time. His punchy style plays off the smoother swing of Gray. There's also some strong, bright soloing by Howard McGhee, Ernie Royal, Barney Kessel, and Red Callender. The rhythm section swings hard throughout the session, and Gray knows how to ride the wave with a vengeance. He had that effortless tone of Lester Young, and was full with the fire of bop at the same time. His improvisation was prodigious, and he could translate a landslide of ideas through his horn. The genius Erroll Garner, then only 35, renders a fine solo version of "Tenderly." The compact disc version adds the bonus cut "Sweet Georgia Brown." This is what ignited jazz at the summit sounded like in concert in the late 1940s. Recommended. ~Mark Romano

Way Out Wardell

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