Gene Ammons

[kh1958]

Gene Ammons with Amina Meyers and George Freeman, that sounds like my kind of group. What is the origin of this material?

[SemperFam]

This is a LIVE! unreleased recording made at the Both/And Club in San Francisco, recorded by George Semper for KSOL radio station broadcast on June 12, 1970.

[JSngry]

Sounds like the tape has degraded a fair amount, but even at that, this is the group that some of us have long lusted to hear a recording of! Who's the drummer?

[Teasing the Korean]

Any love for the woefully mis-titled Bad Bossa Nova, which does not include even one single bossa?  It was reissued under the more appropriate title Jungle Soul.  It goes nicely in a summertime exotica shuffle play while I'm mixing rum cocktails. 

[Niko]

14 hours ago, JSngry said:

Sounds like the tape has degraded a fair amount, but even at that, this is the group that some of us have long lusted to hear a recording of! Who's the drummer?

from lineups I've seen elsewhere plus what seems to be written there I would guess it's Ajaramu (aka Joe Shelton aka Gerald Donovan)

[paul secor]

1 hour ago, Niko said:

from lineups I've seen elsewhere plus what seems to be written there I would guess it's Ajaramu (aka Joe Shelton aka Gerald Donovan)

More aka's than some wanted posters.

[Chuck Nessa]

2 hours ago, paul secor said:

More aka's than some wanted posters.

also Ajay and variants.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

this is insane

[Chuck Nessa]

1 hour ago, chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez said:

this is insane

:-)

[Late]

If you could only take one Gene Ammons album to your desert island, what would it be?

[Mark Stryker]

6 minutes ago, Late said:

If you could only take one Gene Ammons album to your desert island, what would it be?

No question it would be "Jug" (1961) with Richard Wyands, Doug Watkins, and J.C. Heard. (Sleepy Anderson plays organ on one cut, replacing Wyands' piano). 

[Late]

2 minutes ago, Mark Stryker said:

No question it would be "Jug" ... 

I was listening to that album when I made my post above. 👍 That one would be close for me, but it feels like I'm not remembering another title...

[Mark Stryker]

1 hour ago, Late said:

I was listening to that album when I made my post above. 👍 That one would be close for me, but it feels like I'm not remembering another title...

Well, the one that gets the most attention is Boss Tenor from 1960 with Tommy Flanagan, Doug Watkins, Art Taylor and Ray Barretto. It's GREAT -- in some ways greater than Jug. If I could take two Ammons records to the desert island, it would be those two. But the version of "Exactly Like You" on Jug tips the balance for me. YMMV. I will say that I think the real sweet spot in the discography is between 1960-62. There's obviously fantastic stuff before and after, and I have and love it all; but Jug is superman in that particular window.

Edited December 13, 2022 by Mark Stryker

[mhatta]

1 hour ago, Late said:

If you could only take one Gene Ammons album to your desert island, what would it be?

Young Jug: Live! in Chicago (Prestige)

Late Jug: Goodbye (Prestige)

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

do we ever get to hear the both/and tape

[John L]

It is really hard to choose just one Jug album.  But I would have a hard time parting with the early recordings he made for Chess.  For certain moods, nothing can beat those low key Moodsville albums (Nice an' Cool, The Soulful Mood).  Just even the way Jug plays the melodies of some of those ballads is soooooo satisfying.  

[Late]

Who does Ammons come out of? Or, to put it another way, who would you point to as Ammons' influence(s)? I'm not exactly hearing anything springing from the Young/Hawkins binary. 

[Larry Kart]

Pres for sure rhythmically, but much of the rest (tone, phrasing, sheer drama) is almost all Ammons, with maybe a dab of Jacquet, though Illinois had Pres roots too.

[Joe]

40 minutes ago, Late said:

Who does Ammons come out of? Or, to put it another way, who would you point to as Ammons' influence(s)? I'm not exactly hearing anything springing from the Young/Hawkins binary. 

It's a good question. I've always thought of him as belonging to the Prez family tree. But then there's the Walter Dyett factor. Von Freeman, Cliff Jordan, John Gilmore, Johnny Griffin... he tutored a lot of unique tenor players.

Edited February 16, 2023 by Joe

[Chuck Nessa]

48 minutes ago, Joe said:

It's a good question. I've always thought of him as belonging to the Prez family tree. But then there's the Walter Dyett factor. Von Freeman, Cliff Jordan, John Gilmore, Johnny Griffin... he tutored a lot of unique tenor players.

Nice.

[Chuck Nessa]

On 12/12/2022 at 11:31 PM, Late said:

If you could only take one Gene Ammons album to your desert island, what would it be?

For sentimental reasons, the one I was involved in. The rest is burned in my memories.

[Late]

12 hours ago, Joe said:

But then there's the Walter Dyett factor.

Yes, agreed—I wasn't thinking along those lines. The term should probably be capitalized as a phenomena unto itself: The Walter Dyett Factor. (Sounds like an early 60's cold war film.)

Dyett on Wikipedia. Check that list of who studied with him—wow. Besides tenor players, the list of bassists is also impressive.

[Joe]

58 minutes ago, Late said:

Yes, agreed—I wasn't thinking along those lines. The term should probably be capitalized as a phenomena unto itself: The Walter Dyett Factor. (Sounds like an early 60's cold war film.)

Dyett on Wikipedia. Check that list of who studied with him—wow. Besides tenor players, the list of bassists is also impressive.

One cannot overstate the incredible influence Black high school music teachers and bandleaders have had on the evolution of American music. Dyett in Chicago, Samual R. Browne in LA, G.A. Baxter at I.M. Terrell in Ft. Worth... And was it Harry Begian at Cass Tech?

https://ethaniverson.com/black-music-teachers-in-the-era-of-segregation/

[JSngry]

John Hardee at Skyline in Dallas!

[Late]

1 hour ago, Joe said:

One cannot overstate the incredible influence Black high school music teachers and bandleaders have had on the evolution of American music.

👍👍👍