Gene Ammons

[Joe]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

John Hardee at Skyline in Dallas!

That I did not know!

[JSngry]

yep. I knew a couple of his students at NT, freshman year. They kinda went crazy when the Savoy reissue came out. Apparently he didn't go into a lot of specifics about his past, so they just assumed he was some old guy who probably played some gigs here and there. Imagine their surprise!

They bought the record on the spot.

Too bad the Black & Blue sides weren't visible....

[Joe]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

yep. I knew a couple of his students at NT, freshman year. They kinda went crazy when the Savoy reissue came out. Apparently he didn't go into a lot of specifics about his past, so they just assumed he was some old guy who probably played some gigs here and there. Imagine their surprise!

They bought the record on the spot.

Too bad the Black & Blue sides weren't visible....

I feel like this is a story that needs to be told to a larger audience.

[JSngry]

This is The World Wide Webbernet, can't get no larger than that!!! 

[Michael Weiss]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

John Hardee at Skyline in Dallas!

Didn't know about that. Having gone to Skyline 1973-1976 I never heard his name mentioned there. However I came across this:

"In the late 1940s he moved back to Texas and taught school in Wichita Falls until 1955, when he settled in Dallas. There he held a teaching position at Oliver Wendell Holmes High School until his retirement in 1976. Hardee gave his last performance at the Nice Jazz Festival in France in 1975. He died in Dallas on May 18, 1984."

[JSngry]

Perhaps I am not remembering correctly, but it seems they said Skyline. 

Would Holmes have been a predominately African-American school in those days (early 70s)?

[hopkins]

On 12/19/2022 at 2:47 PM, John L said:

 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.  

I'll second that. Nice an' Cool is not so easy to come by, but it has been re-issued on CD along with The Soulful Moods in this release, with very enthusiastic lines notes by Bob Porter:

https://archive.org/details/cd_the-gene-ammons-story-gentle-jug_gene-ammons

https://www.discogs.com/fr/master/442727-Gene-Ammons-The-Gene-Ammons-Story-Gentle-Jug

Edited February 17, 2023 by hopkins

[JSngry]

14 hours ago, JSngry said:

Perhaps I am not remembering correctly, but it seems they said Skyline. 

Would Holmes have been a predominately African-American school in those days (early 70s)?

Reading about Skyline, it the early 70s it seemed that maybe they recruited various talents from other schools. If my friends had Hardee as a teacher (and they certainly appeared to have) perhaps they had him at Holmes before transferring to Skyline? They were both trumpeters/school band people.

 

[Late]

I didn't know that I'd been living under a rock, but it must be true. I just realized I don't know this album:

... but maybe I've heard it before—was it originally on Argo with a different cover? (From Argo to Prestige?) At any rate, I don't have it in my collection. Listening on YouTube right now.

Dig. 👋👋👋

[Joe]

This might be some of the grooviest Jug I've heard.

 

[hopkins]

Then you are in luck because the other half of those sessions were issued as Boss Soul.

[Late]

Piece To Keep Away Evil Spirits

Bam.

The more broadly I listen to Ammons, the more clearly I hear the Pres roots. 

Check out: Super 10 million, 71 thousand, 993 and you will have a better weekend.

[Joe]

11 hours ago, hopkins said:

Then you are in luck because the other half of those sessions were issued as Boss Soul.

Yep, I believe all or most tracks are on that Prestige 2fer.

5 minutes ago, Late said:

Piece To Keep Away Evil Spirits

Bam.

The more broadly I listen to Ammons, the more clearly I hear the Pres roots. 

Check out: Super 10 million, 71 thousand, 993 and you will have a better weekend.

This reminds me of this Ellery Eskelin Jug tribute record.

[Late]

And now, as part of an ongoing Jug-a-thon:

Jungle Strut

[Michael Weiss]

On 2/17/2023 at 8:00 AM, JSngry said:

Reading about Skyline, it the early 70s it seemed that maybe they recruited various talents from other schools. If my friends had Hardee as a teacher (and they certainly appeared to have) perhaps they had him at Holmes before transferring to Skyline? They were both trumpeters/school band people.

 

That's likely. You could go to Skyline from anywhere in the city - either half the day or full time.

[Teasing the Korean]

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?

I would have to bring Bad Bossa Nova, aka Jungle Soul, because it would pair better with coconut milk and pineapples than my other Gene Ammons albums.

[Late]

3 hours ago, Teasing the Korean said:

I would have to bring Bad Bossa Nova, aka Jungle Soul, because it would pair better with coconut milk and pineapples than my other Gene Ammons albums.

Only if you bring the LP with the Panthera tigris cover:

[Teasing the Korean]

24 minutes ago, Late said:

Only if you bring the LP with the Panthera tigris cover:

Yeah, I need that cover.  I have only the Bad Bossa Nova version.

[Late]

The Jug-a-thon continues. A perfect album for Sunday brunch:

An excellent collaboration between Eugene Stanley Ammons and Edward Hammond Boatner, recorded the day after this one:

What are your favorite Ammons/Boatner collabs?

 

 

On 2/18/2023 at 10:43 AM, Joe said:

This reminds me of this Ellery Eskelin Jug tribute record.

👍

 

[Late]

Deep Cuts Jug:

Free Again

The title track's tenor statement (not the oboe opening) reminds me of "Strange Fruit" for some reason. Ammons was (literally) free again, but had only two more years on the planet. Pure pathos in that tenor sound.

Cue to 4:45 in the YouTube video.

[Late]

...meanwhile, into the early evening, the Jug-a-thon plays on. I love this album:

Sometimes Prestige's reissue covers were better than the original. The opener on this album ("Tubby")—Brother Jack just kills with his comping. Rarely has organ comping generated so much heat. 🧨

Tubby

[Late]

On 2/15/2023 at 9:01 PM, Chuck Nessa said:

For sentimental reasons, the one I was involved in.

This one?

The Jug-a-thon continues. I thought I'd be spinning more than one album today, but—no—I only spun this one...multiple times:

Ammons' sound is untouchable. A molasses cookie. Three molasses cookies with a pot of black pekoe tea.

[Gheorghe]

Sometimes I like to listen to this one. 

I think I like the quartet tracks most, but also the All-Star Jam with Dex and Cannonball is very fine. 
It´s a very fine, boppish session. 

 

On the other hand, I think I have a Miles Davis-Stan Getz album from Birdland in the early fifties, where on Side B there is unlisted some Gene Ammons-Sonny Stitt with Tadd Dameron´s rhythm section, which is very very fine and I didn´t find it mentioned in the 2 books about Tadd Dameron. 

Edited February 21, 2023 by Gheorghe

[Late]

On 2/17/2023 at 8:21 AM, Joe said:

This might be some of the grooviest Jug I've heard.

 

The Jug-a-thon persists! Okay, currently listening to this. You are so RIGHT. These two albums are Jug in top form. This comp is highly recommended, for both newbies and jaded enthusiasts. But the CD cover art is horrible! The typographer should've been fired. Why make something new and sub-par when the original jackets could've been used?

Bam. Two EXCELLENT Jug albums. Light a fire, pour the cognac.

[Chuck Nessa]

On 2/21/2023 at 12:27 AM, Late said:

This one?

Yes,  that one. Sadly Don Byas wouldn't let us include his performances.