Gene Ammons

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

i like "big bad jug". i just discovered it is out on CD. though my LP is fine...

I like the three LPs he did after getting back out of jail in '69- Brother Jug, The boss is back and the black Cat (my fave) but I've not heard this one. How does it compare?

It's very good indeed. Some tracks are absolute blasters - eg the title track. It's included in the twofer "Fine and mellow". The other LP in the CD isn't so good, though it did have its moments, such as "Tin shack out back". But it's also got a couple of Jug's worst cuts ever. Overall, there's more positive than negative on the CD - and some of the positive is so damn good...

MG

Edited June 23, 2007 by The Magnificent Goldberg

[JSngry]

i like "big bad jug". i just discovered it is out on CD. though my LP is fine...

I like the three LPs he did after getting back out of jail in '69- Brother Jug, The boss is back and the black Cat (my fave) but I've not heard this one. How does it compare?

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&a...10:jcftxqyaldje

[Alexander Hawkins]

A WORD OF CAUTION - "Live in Chicago" is, in my view, not up to the standard of the others, even though Eddie Buster is on organ and Jerrold Donovan on drums. Jug takes too many of the numbers too fast and his sound drops off.

I think he may have been trying to show someone he could play a bit of Bop

MG

I probably don't know enough Ammons to give me a sense of context, but I really like 'Live in Chicago'. Is that Donovan aka 'Ajaramu'?

[K1969]

i like "big bad jug". i just discovered it is out on CD. though my LP is fine...

I like the three LPs he did after getting back out of jail in '69- Brother Jug, The boss is back and the black Cat (my fave) but I've not heard this one. How does it compare?

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&a...10:jcftxqyaldje

thanks I'll bag my selft a copy. these samples sound quite enticing

[Chuck Nessa]

I probably don't know enough Ammons to give me a sense of context, but I really like 'Live in Chicago'. Is that Donovan aka 'Ajaramu'?

I like it too. That is Ajaramu.

[Teasing the Korean]

I like Jungle Soul.

[paul secor]

Another for Live in Chicago.

Boss Tenor is one of my favorite Gene Ammons records.

There are so many others:

Nice an' Cool; The Soulful Moods of Gene Ammons (these 2 have been combined on CD as Gentle Jug); the 2 Boss Tenors w. Sonny Stitt; Groove Blues - I've never been a huge fan of the jams - perhaps I'll have to listen up some more - I like this one because I can hear Trane playing alto on it; Jug - one that's somewhat overlooked, but a good one; Jug and Dodo. I guess I could include about two thirds of his catalogue as among my favorite Jug's.

He was just a wonderful musician.

[kh1958]

Four I just ordered for a cheap price from newbury comics, which I assume means they are disappearing.

Legends Of Acid Jazz

Live! In Chicago

Preachin'

Jug & Dodo [CD]

Edited June 23, 2007 by kh1958

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

i like "big bad jug". i just discovered it is out on CD. though my LP is fine...

I like the three LPs he did after getting back out of jail in '69- Brother Jug, The boss is back and the black Cat (my fave) but I've not heard this one. How does it compare?

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&a...10:jcftxqyaldje

That's a pretty fair review, though how they manage to get a Michel Legrand song composed for the biopic into the Billie Holiday repertoire is a miracle of ignorance!

MG

[king ubu]

I went from zero to most of Ammons' OJC/Fantasy discs within a few months and love most of it!

Favourites, off the top of my head:

- Gene Ammons Story: Gentle Jug

- Gene Ammons Story: Organ Combos (or what's it called again?)

- Jug

- Boss Tenor (RVG edition readily available)

- the various Jams, can't name a favourite... maybe "Blue Gene"?

- the album that's partly w/big band, "Late Hour Special" (I love this one quite some!)

- Up Tight (a great twofer, all just Jug with piano & rhythm)

But as others said, almost anything is worth hearing!

[Soulstation1]

This thread inspired me to download Jammin with Gene, Jammin in Hi Fi with Gene Ammons, Funky and The Happy Blues from eMusic. Thanks! I really like this stuff!

Dl'd the stuff last night

about a $1 a disc @ emusic

a great deal and great music

[NaturalSoul]

the legends of acid jazz is really beautiful, as is Preachin'. But my favorite is Boss Tenor

[Guest donald petersen]

actually i keep fluctuating, but "got my own" is pretty nice. despite the material and the strings, if you like ammons he definitely lays it down on this one. of it's time but kind of beautiful and a nice two-fer with "big bad jug" even though they are sort of split up weirdly.

i heard another ammons-early 70s late 60s prestige...what was it called. it was awesome but the record was too damaged to pay the price the store wanted. reddish cover...idris muhammed...it was good. ah-"my way". i will look for it again.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

actually i keep fluctuating, but "got my own" is pretty nice. despite the material and the strings, if you like ammons he definitely lays it down on this one. of it's time but kind of beautiful and a nice two-fer with "big bad jug" even though they are sort of split up weirdly.

Yes, Jug's SOUND on that is mostly as great as it ever was. And particularly on "Play me".

i heard another ammons-early 70s late 60s prestige...what was it called. it was awesome but the record was too damaged to pay the price the store wanted. reddish cover...idris muhammed...it was good. ah-"my way". i will look for it again.

"Chicago breakdown" on that LP is brilleroonies!

His performance of "My way" is terribly OTT, however - and Jug's sound is very strained, it seems to me. But I guess the tune DESERVES that kind of treatment.

But for sheer power of Jugsound, from that period, there's nothing more overwhelming than the title track from "Free again" - one of my all time favourite tenor solos. Bobby Bryant's arrangements for this LP are, in my view, a bit stiff, however.

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Up, to note that the "House warming" session is being issued on CD in Japan on 26 September.

ABCJ 431 Ammons,Gene(ts)/Baby Sax 2500

Howard McGhee (tp) Gene Ammons (ts) Jake Fisher (g) Barney Richmond

(b) Willie Mashburn (d) Waco (bgo)

Chicago, IL, circa May, 1962

House Warmin'

Jivin' Around

Nothing But Soul (Jazz With A Beat)

Jug And McGhee (Muggin' McGhee)

This is one of my favourite Ammons sessions. If you haven't got it, get it!!!!

MG

[Niko]

I probably don't know enough Ammons to give me a sense of context, but I really like 'Live in Chicago'. Is that Donovan aka 'Ajaramu'?

I like it too. That is Ajaramu.

what i hadn't known until a few minutes ago that it was also Ajaramu aka Joe Shelton, the drummer on the Sonny Stitt album with Buster and Johnny Board...

Edited February 8, 2010 by Niko

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I probably don't know enough Ammons to give me a sense of context, but I really like 'Live in Chicago'. Is that Donovan aka 'Ajaramu'?

I like it too. That is Ajaramu.

what i hadn't known until a few minutes ago that it was also Ajaramu aka Joe Shelton, the drummer on the Sonny Stitt album with Buster and Johnny Board...

I didn't know that, either. Didn't know about Ajaramu Shelton, either.

MG

[Niko]

I probably don't know enough Ammons to give me a sense of context, but I really like 'Live in Chicago'. Is that Donovan aka 'Ajaramu'?

I like it too. That is Ajaramu.

what i hadn't known until a few minutes ago that it was also Ajaramu aka Joe Shelton, the drummer on the Sonny Stitt album with Buster and Johnny Board...

I didn't know that, either. Didn't know about Ajaramu Shelton, either.

MG

in George Lewis AACM book it says that Gene Ammons advised Joe Shelton to utilize the more show-biz like Jerol Donavon which later became Ajaramu for afro-related resons i guess... here's a pretty interesting interview (also by Lewis) with Amina Claudine Myers partly about her time with Ammons ("I hated those jam sessions at McKie’s in Chicago"...)

http://bombsite.com/issues/97/articles/2857

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I probably don't know enough Ammons to give me a sense of context, but I really like 'Live in Chicago'. Is that Donovan aka 'Ajaramu'?

I like it too. That is Ajaramu.

what i hadn't known until a few minutes ago that it was also Ajaramu aka Joe Shelton, the drummer on the Sonny Stitt album with Buster and Johnny Board...

I didn't know that, either. Didn't know about Ajaramu Shelton, either.

MG

in George Lewis AACM book it says that Gene Ammons advised Joe Shelton to utilize the more show-biz like Jerol Donavon which later became Ajaramu for afro-related resons i guess... here's a pretty interesting interview (also by Lewis) with Amina Claudine Myers partly about her time with Ammons ("I hated those jam sessions at McKie’s in Chicago"...)

http://bombsite.com/issues/97/articles/2857

Thanks - very interesting interview.

MG

[mjzee]

We saw Fading Gigolo tonight (we really enjoyed it, btw). It has Gene Ammons all over the soundtrack - more than half the music in the movie, by my tally. Gene even rated a special thank you in the closing credits.

[marcello]

I saw Fading Gigolo also a couple of weeks ago. Liked the movie and was pleasantly surprise with the Ammons music. Entire song as well (Canadian Sunset) !

[JSngry]

What kinds of Gene Ammons musics are there in this movie? All pre-prison, or some post-prison as well? "Sack Full Of Dreams", perhaps? Please? If so, I will go see that movie, just because if I can hear Gene Ammons play "Sack Full Of Dreams" in a Hollywood movie, I will go forward into (and beyond) the lobby having felt satisfied, renewed, emotionally and intellectually invigorated and uplifted on a truth/reality-based basis, just like what a movies says it sets out to do every year at the Oscars, but I'm like, ok, where are THOSE movies, then, not in my world, sorry, at least hardly ever and/or never.. Then again, maybe I'm not there for them, maybe that's why they're not there for me. That would be fair.

[mjzee]

What kinds of Gene Ammons musics are there in this movie? All pre-prison, or some post-prison as well? "Sack Full Of Dreams", perhaps? Please? If so, I will go see that movie, just because if I can hear Gene Ammons play "Sack Full Of Dreams" in a Hollywood movie, I will go forward into (and beyond) the lobby having felt satisfied, renewed, emotionally and intellectually invigorated and uplifted on a truth/reality-based basis, just like what a movies says it sets out to do every year at the Oscars, but I'm like, ok, where are THOSE movies, then, not in my world, sorry, at least hardly ever and/or never.. Then again, maybe I'm not there for them, maybe that's why they're not there for me. That would be fair.

http://www.landmarktheatres.com/letters/fadinggigolo.htm