Wardell Gray

[Durium]

Wardell Gray

Memorial

volume one

Another great classical recording from a bebop legend who passed away to young.

What about those seven takes of Southside - I don't think everybody likes this.

Wardell Gray - Memorial

Keep swinging

Durium

Edited March 21, 2007 by Durium

[Late]

Wardell's first few notes on "Twisted" sound like a baritone saxophone. Great stuff all around.

The vinyl has three different covers - 2 for the 12" and 1 for the 10".

I like the 10", because then it wasn't a "Memorial," but rather "Tenor Sax Favorites."

[Quasimado]

Durium - those are great Wardell videos on your site!

Q

[Big Beat Steve]

Great music, and one of my preferred bebop artists.

Yet I agree that this amount of alternate takes can be a bit tedious; thank goodness I have this music on Wardell's Prestige twofer entitled "Central Avenue". Still the best packaging of this material, I think.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

a great place to start is the Proper (UK) 4 cd wardell box: on this you will find almost the complete contents of MANY great wardell lps- incl. the prestiges, and real obsucre ones you'd only find in LA. some of the sessions are even bootlegs recorded by people with beards (eg. sonny criss 1949, portland)

see my recent wardell posts as well, re: wardell + count basies orch. live am radio broadcast record-- wardell and clark terry take all the solos

[Peter Friedman]

A Wardell Gray CD worth seeking out is titled "Light Gray' on Cool N' Blue 116. It has 24 tracks and includes material from Sittin' In With Records, Apollo Records, Seeco Records, New Jazz and Prestige.

[sidewinder]

  Durium said:

Wardell Gray

Great to see that fine Ray Avery photo posted !

[Late]

I don't think Gray died as a direct result of drug use. Wasn't he actually murdered ... in Nevada?

[Niko]

  Late said:

I don't think Gray died as a direct result of drug use. Wasn't he actually murdered ... in Nevada?

i think this is one of those "Composer of Walkin" type issues... iirc in Ted Gioias "West Coast Jazz" (or somewhere else) it is said that he overdosed and his roommates/drugmates had no better idea than drive his dead body out into the desert... but i don't know whether that was the last word in this case

[Chuck Nessa]

Never heard a murder story. JR Monterose gave me a story involving drugs. No idea if that was correct but don't know he was killed.

[Dig'Em]

Well, there's the fictional account of Gray's demise (see, for instance Death of a Tenor Man). Perhaps someday soon, his biography will emerge. Please, Richard?

Edited March 22, 2007 by Dig'Em

[(BB)]

According to the information in Gioia's West Coast Jazz, he mostly likely died of an OD then either fell and sustained head injuries or according to Dexter Gordon's version, Teddy Hale (a dancer in the show Wardell was working in at the time) and another person took the body to dump it in the dessert. Somewhere along the line Grey's neck was broken and his head was injured. Although there were also some that believed he was bumped off by a jilted lover or his dealer. Clear as mud.

Edited March 22, 2007 by (BB)

[Chuck Nessa]

The story I heard was he was really high and was jumping up and down on his bed. He fell off the bed and broke his neck.

[JSngry]

Teddy Edwards on Gray's death (Cadence, April 1994):

  Quote

CADENCE (Bob Rousch):You were working with him when he died.

T.E.: Yes, at the Moulin Rouge (Las Vegas) with Benny Carter's band. We played the first show and there was a girl, had been Frank Morgan's girlfriend, she somehow hooked up with Teddy Hill and the drug thing. So Wardell and Teddy were waiting for her to come into Vegas with the drugs [heroin]. So standing backstage was Wardell, John Anderson [tpt] and Jewel Grant [b.s.], waiting on the girl, reminiscing about how great a time we had in Detroit, this band was like a family. So Teddy Hill came back and beckoned to Wardell. So we all started to wak out, Teddy asked me if I had fifty cents. We walked out and the last time I saw them they were walking around this Fata Freeze (ice cream store) with John Anderson and Jewel Grant. We went on over to the housing for a while. We came back, and no Wardell for the second show, third show, no Wardell, his horn sitting there on his seat. In Las Vegas at that time, Black people weren't even allowed to go to the strip, we called it the Iron Curtain. I said, Wardell can only be dead or in jail, there ain't nothing else he can do if he's not over here. So after the third set I picked his horn up. So the next day my wife, she was dancing in the show, we went down on D Street, which was the main drag in the Black neighborhood, and we saw Teddy and his girl. So I said, "Man, what happened to you all?" And the girl started to say something and I saw Teddy shut her mouth with his eye, the look he gave her. I said something is drastically wrong. Teddy said, "Oh Wardell, he's wild, we hung out with him and then we left." You could tell it was a lie. This was about 2PM, then later it came out he was dead and they found him out in the desert.

They say Wardell OD'd, stood up, fell off the bed and broke his neck. What happened is when they dumped him out of the car they broke his neck. If they had taken him to the hospital he might have lived but they were afraid because they were dirty so they dumped him. I believe he was alive when they took him to the desert. But it wasn't foul play like gangsters, it wasn't that.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

so fucked up

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

why the hell did he start usin anyways? i thouhgt he was usually straight

[brownie]

A two-part account of Wardell Gray days in Las Vegas.

Wardell Gray: Mysterious Death of a Tenorman

[Van Basten II]

Just bought the Proper set, digged those Prestige sides and enjoyed the stuff he did with Goodman. Man, now i want to look for recordings by Goodman.

[jazzbo]

He heh. It's no crime to want to seek out Goodman sides!

There is a HEP cd that has Wardell and Benny, I bet more than is in the Proper box. (I'm not familiar with the contents of the Proper, those things give me the willies.)

If you want some PRIME Goodman, get the Charlie Christian Columbia box!

[Van Basten II]

The Goodman stuff is mostly Capitol sessions from his septet circa 1949-50

[jazzbo]

Well then seek out the Goodman on HEP, it won't duplicate much (if any) of the material.

And the Christian box has excellent Goodman small group and big band material.

[Ron S]

  jazzbo said:

If you want some PRIME Goodman, get the Charlie Christian Columbia box!

  Quote

And the Christian box has excellent Goodman small group and big band material.

Great set! Just be prepared to call the Sony 800 number listed in the booklet to have the schmutzed-up discs replaced when you first get it (one of the worst packaging jobs ever ).

[zen archer]

Last night i bought vol.1 44-46 on the Masters of jazz label contains 13

selections with the Hines outfit. In the liner notes it reads that there may be 15 volumes ?

the cd was released in 98 did they ever do nore than 1 can't find any info .

[brownie]

Unfortunately, the Masters of Jazz label went out of business a few years ago.

The Wardell Gray series went up to volume 7. It was one of the very last Masters of Jazz releases