Gene Ammons: Complete Recordings with J. McLean & M. Waldron on 2 CDs

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These three albums are from a series of Gene Ammons-led sessions recorded for Prestige starting in 1955, when the tenor headed what amounted to the label's house group in after-hours collaborations that, despite their take-no-prisoners approach, yielded much swinging and imaginative excitement. Amid the fierce blowing Ammons displays power and intensity, and Jackie McLean reveals his concern for linear development, exhibiting a warm tone and phrasing firmly based on Bird. Three great trumpet players are featured in these albums. On Jammin' with Gene, Donald Byrd is in incisive and in arresting form, and Art Farmer is his usual elegant, fluent self, both on this album and Funky, while Idrees Sulieman is lyrical and forceful on Jammin' in Hi-Fi. Guitarist Kenny Burrell offers some typically fleet choruses on two of the sessions. On piano, Mal Waldron's spare solos offer some piquant moments and leanly provocative statements, supported splendidly by Doug Watkins' blues-rooted drive (he is replaced by the powerful Paul Chambers in the last date) and Art Taylor's intelligent rhythmic patterns. The last three bonus tracks on the second CD come from Ammons' album The Happy Blues, again with Farmer, McLean and Taylor, but with pianist Duke Jordan instead of Waldron, and bassist Addison Farmer and Candido Camero on conga.