SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
FALL, 2019
VOLUME SEVEN NUMBER THREE
MAX ROACH
Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:
BEN WEBSTER
(September 7-13)
GENE AMMONS
(September 14-20)
TADD DAMERON
(September 21-27)
ROY ELDRIDGE
(September 28-October 4)
MILT JACKSON
(October 5-11)
CHARLIE CHRISTIAN
(October 12-18)
GRANT GREEN
(October 19-25)
ROY HARGROVE
(October 26-November 1)
LITTLE JIMMY SCOTT
(November 2-8)
BLUE MITCHELL
(November 9-15)
BOOKER ERVIN
(November 16-22)
LUCKY THOMPSON
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/gene-ammons-mn0000160198/biography
Gene Ammons
(1925-1974)
Artist Biography by Scott Yanow
Gene Ammons,
who had a huge and immediately recognizable tone on tenor, was a very
flexible player who could play bebop with the best (always battling his
friend Sonny Stitt
to a tie) yet was an influence on the R&B world. Some of his ballad
renditions became hits and, despite two unfortunate interruptions in
his career, Ammons remained a popular attraction for 25 years.
Son of the great boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons, Gene Ammons (who was nicknamed "Jug") left Chicago at age 18 to work with King Kolax's band. He originally came to fame as a key soloist with Billy Eckstine's orchestra during 1944-1947, trading off with Dexter Gordon on the famous Eckstine record Blowing the Blues Away. Other than a notable stint with Woody Herman's Third Herd in 1949 and an attempt at co-leading a two tenor group in the early '50s with Sonny Stitt, Ammons worked as a single throughout his career, recording frequently (most notably for Prestige) in settings ranging from quartets and organ combos to all-star jam sessions. Drug problems kept him in prison during much of 1958-1960 and, due to a particularly stiff sentence, 1962-1969. When Ammons returned to the scene in 1969, he opened up his style a bit, including some of the emotional cries of the avant-garde while utilizing funky rhythm sections, but he was still able to battle Sonny Stitt on his own terms. Ironically the last song that he ever recorded (just a short time before he was diagnosed with terminal cancer) was "Goodbye."
Son of the great boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons, Gene Ammons (who was nicknamed "Jug") left Chicago at age 18 to work with King Kolax's band. He originally came to fame as a key soloist with Billy Eckstine's orchestra during 1944-1947, trading off with Dexter Gordon on the famous Eckstine record Blowing the Blues Away. Other than a notable stint with Woody Herman's Third Herd in 1949 and an attempt at co-leading a two tenor group in the early '50s with Sonny Stitt, Ammons worked as a single throughout his career, recording frequently (most notably for Prestige) in settings ranging from quartets and organ combos to all-star jam sessions. Drug problems kept him in prison during much of 1958-1960 and, due to a particularly stiff sentence, 1962-1969. When Ammons returned to the scene in 1969, he opened up his style a bit, including some of the emotional cries of the avant-garde while utilizing funky rhythm sections, but he was still able to battle Sonny Stitt on his own terms. Ironically the last song that he ever recorded (just a short time before he was diagnosed with terminal cancer) was "Goodbye."
Biography
Eugene “Jug” Ammons (saxophonist) was born on April 14, 1925 in
Chicago, Illinois and passed away on July 23, 1974 in Chicago, Illinois
at the age of 49.
Some of Ammons stylistic versatility can undoubtedly be traced to his
Chicago home, where he heard the piano stylings of his mother, and
perhaps most importantly his father, the celebrated boogie-woogie master
Albert Ammons. He also learned from the renowned “Captain” Walter
Dyett, the musical director of Chicago’s DuSable High School. Dyett was
instrumental in launching the careers of many other DuSable alumni,
including the legendary crooner and pianist Nat “King” Cole and fellow
saxophonist Johnny Griffin.
Ammons began to gain recognition while still at high school when in
1943, at the age of 18, he went on the road with trumpeter King Kolax’s
band. In 1944 he joined the band of Billy Eckstine (who bestowed on him
the nickname “Jug” when straw hats ordered for the band did not fit),
playing alongside Charlie Parker and later Dexter Gordon. Notable
performances from this period include “Blowin’ the Blues Away,”
featuring a saxophone duel between Ammons and Gordon. After 1947, when
Eckstine became a solo performer, Ammons then led a group, including
Miles Davis and Sonny Stitt, that performed at Chicago’s Jumptown Club.
In 1949 Ammons replaced Stan Getz as a member of Woody Herman’s Second
Herd, and then in 1950 formed a duet with Sonny Stitt.
The 1950s were a prolific period for Ammons and produced some
acclaimed recordings such as “The Happy Blues” (1955), featuring Freddie
Redd and Lou Donaldson. Musicians who played in his groups, apart from
Stitt, included Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, Kenny
Burrell, Mal Waldron, Art Farmer, and Duke Jordan.
In 1958, Ammons suffered his first career setback when he was
arrested and convicted for narcotics possession. He resumed playing at
the end of his prison term in 1960, when jazz was in the midst of
another sea change. A number of ensembles turned to the Hammond B-3
organ instead of the piano. The rise of unabashedly funky soul-jazz was a
natural match for Ammons’ driving, bluesy sound, and he was again able
to lend his arresting tone to a number of successful projects.
Unfortunately, Ammons’ drug problems led to a another arrest and
conviction in 1962 — though jazz and blues expert Bob Porter says that
Ammons was framed. Luckily, thanks to the savvy of Prestige Records
producer Bob Weinstock, the label was able to continue releasing new
material. Ammons was released from prison in 1969. From then until his
death from bone cancer on Aug. 6, 1974, he continued to make new
recordings, including the acclaimed collection The Boss Is Back, as well as equally memorable dates with saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Cannonball Adderley.
In the more than 25 years since his death, Ammons’ soulful approach
and versatility have continued to touch musicians and fans. The key to
his unique influence is found in what Ammons told a journalist in 1961,
when asked to offer advice to young musicians: “I would tell them to get
a sound. Practice their sound. That’s the most important thing.”
For Gene Ammons 89th Birth Anniversary, a Liner Note for The Prestige Reissue “Fine And Mellow”
April 14, 2014
No one who loves the sound of the tenor saxophone doesn’t love Gene Ammons (1925-1974) who first entered public consciousness playing alongside Dexter Gordon in Billy Eckstine’s band in the mid-’40s, and had the first of his many instrumental single hits in 1947 with “Red Top”. An unparalleled balladeer and blues practitioner who could more than hold his own in any cutting contest (his solo starts at 7:32—rhythm section is Hampton Hawes, Bob Cranshaw and Kenny Clarke!), as evidenced on a series of recorded ‘jam sessions’ that he recorded for Prestige in the second half of the ’50s, including the 1958 date, Groove Blues, on which John Coltrane played alto saxophone. Ammons spent 7 of his prime years in jail on a trumped-up narcotics charge, which is perhaps why he’s less remembered than he ought to be. He came out of the penitentiary with powers undiminished and a raw edge, recording jazz funk classics, expressionistic ballads, and straight-up swing. He was state-of-the-art; the tunes sound better with time’s passage.
In any event, ten years ago or so, I had an opportunity to document my feelings about the maestro in a liner note for a reissue of the proceedings of three 1972 sessions that were released contemporaneously on the LPs Get My Own and Big Bad Jug, which I’ve posted below.
Gene Ammons, “Fine and Mellow” (Liner Notes):
No tenor saxophonist of his generation understood melody more profoundly than Gene Ammons, whose ability to make his metal instrument emulate the human voice with unparalleled presence and dramatic weight gave him great stature among his peer group.
“Jug’s one of my heroes of all time,” says tenor saxophonist Von Freeman, referring to Ammons by his nickname. Now 81 and saying more on the tenor than just about anyone alive, Freeman met Ammons, two years his junior, in the middle 1930s at South Side Chicago’s DuSable High School, where both studied under the famous taskmaster Walter Dyett. “I give him a lot of credit, because he sort of opened up the saxophone around Chicago. Then again, he’s one of those cats that was playing in between Hawk and Prez, just like the rest of us.”
Freeman is referring to the way individualistic tenormen like himself and Ammons, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Paul Gonsalves, Wardell Gray, Lucky Thompson and Frank Wess — ’20s-born musicians who assimilated Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young before Charlie Parker entered the picture — blended Hawkins’ charging, arpeggiated, straight-up-and-down attack and thick operatic tone with Young’s relaxed, fluid, float-like-a-butterfly, bel canto conjurations. Ammons played economically, and he could accent his lines with stirring blues vocalizations, like Muddy Waters playing bebop saxophone. He had an unerring inner metronome, honed during an Art Blakey-booted two-year stint in Billy Eckstine’s orchestra; one Ammons note would launch the beat and the swing, and that note would permeate the room — or speaker. Plus, the ladies dug him; Ammons could bleed you to death with a ballad, smooth with quiet fire, like his idol Nat King Cole, or, a la Mario Lanza, oozing vibrato to maximize the melodrama.
Ammons possessed an incredibly powerful embouchure (Freeman recalls once seeing him snap off a saxophone neck while blowing), and in certain ways, his larger-than-life sound, which projected pain and jubilation in equal measure and seemed to emanate from deep in his innards, disguised his extreme musical sophistication. He inherited his rawer musical chromosomes from his father, Albert Ammons, the legendary boogie-woogie pianist-church deacon. He got the finesse from his mother, a music teacher and classical pianist.
“I used to go by Jug’s house,” Freeman recalls: ” They used to call me Lord Riff, because I could riff on anything, but I didn’t know what I was doing. One day when I was about 14, his mother said to me, ‘Son, you’re playing by ear, aren’t you.’ She’d been on her son about that years earlier. She said, ‘The ear is beautiful, but you should learn more about chords. Come over here.’ Then she sat down at the piano and started playing chords. She started me out.”
On the three autumn 1972 sessions that comprise “Fine and Mellow,” the 47-year-old, three years out of his second stint in jail, enters Rudy Van Gelder’s studio with a cohort of New York A-list studio pros, quickly comprehends the form and the texture of the songs and arrangements – here a melange of Billie Holiday material chosen to exploit the release of “Lady Sings The Blues,” MOR pop, and a few elemental originals suffused with funk-tinged blues sensibility – and lays down a succession of declamations that contain a surfeit of heart and soul, with the occasional wild edge, as he had done for the previous quarter-century on a series of jukebox staples like “My Foolish Heart” and “Canadian Sunset.”
It’s the sound and approach that made Ammons the people’s choice in Chicago from 1947, when he formed his own unit after Eckstine disbanded, until his death in 1974. “One night we had five gigs, all dances,” recalls pianist Junior Mance, who joined Ammons not long after he departed from Mercury Records, for which he recorded ‘Red Top,’ his first big hit. “In Gary, Indiana, which was our third gig, Jug’s car broke down and we couldn’t get back to the fourth. The club-owner took Jug to the union, and they called us down. We’re all sitting there, and Harry Gray, the local president, said: ‘You guys know better; why did you follow him in doing five gigs?’ Which was a stupid question. If anybody offers me five gigs in one night and I think I can do it… Anyway, our drummer, Ellis Bartee, who was just out of the Lionel Hampton band and who was very quick, said, ‘Well, Mr. Gray, I’m just here from Kansas City. When I came here, all I saw was the name Gene Ammons all over everywhere, because he’s the most popular. So I just figured, well, that’s the man to be with. I didn’t know we weren’t supposed to work five gigs in a night.’ They all laughed, and that got us off the hook.”
Musicians as diverse as Johnny Griffin, Clifford Jordan, Sonny Rollins and Henry Threadgill were hooked on Ammons. “Gene Ammons was sort of an idol of mine,” Rollins told me a few years ago. “He was out there doing it when I was still in school, and he was one of the older guys that I looked up to and respected a great deal. When I got to Chicago I had the opportunity of playing several times with Gene, and got to know him more as a colleague.”
Threadgill recalls a memorable week in 1961 or 1962 when Ammons guested with the Sonny Rollins Quartet at McKie’s, a popular 63rd Street club that Rollins immortalized in a song. “You can often hear things live that will never get on record,” Threadgill stated on WKCR in 1996. “On Sunday night, they locked the doors around 2:30 or 3 o’clock, and wouldn’t let anybody else in. They played until morning. I had no idea Gene Ammons could play like that. He was playing pieces up in the harmonic section, the altissimo of the tenor saxophone, and never played below that. Very high notes, played all of these melodies an octave higher than Sonny Rollins. It was quite a lesson.”
Tenor players at all levels will find lessons aplenty in these sessions. Listen to Ammons bellow out his statement on “Lucille,” an impassioned love cry penned by Harold Vick. He imparts maximum blues impact with a minimum of notes on the downhome “Tin Shack Out Back” and on “Lady Mama,” the latter an elemental vamp on the chords of “Freedom Jazz Dance,” written by fellow DuSable alumnus Eddie Harris, who as a youngster subbed for pianist James Craig on Ammons dances at Chicago’s Pershing Ballroom. He squeezes every bit of melodic juice from “Can’t Help Myself” and “God Bless The Child,” and, in the company of maestros Hank Jones and Ron Carter, evokes the surreal ambiance of “Strange Fruit.”
For all his personal problems, Ammons played with remarkable consistency, and these statements, like so much of his finest work, transcend the particulars of time and place and genre. With the reissue of “Fine and Mellow” another piece of his career mosaic falls into place, and we are the richer for it.
Gene Ammons: Boss Tenor Sax
- from Groove Blues
- by Gene Ammons
- from Gene Ammons Story: Gentle Jug
- by Gene Ammons
- from Boss Tenor [RVG Remaster]
- by Gene Ammons
by Shaunna Morrison Machosky
Gene Ammons on the cover of 1960's Boss Tenor.
Courtesy of Prestige
Groove Blues
This groove is so bright, and spirited you can barely spot a trace of blue in it until Ammons breaks into a solo a bit into the tune. The flute, provided by Jerome Richardson, adds considerable brightness. Jazz legends John Coltrane, Paul Quinichette, Pepper Adams, and Mal Waldron round out this album's all-star cast.
Willow Weep for Me
This standard is especially blue and soulful in Ammons' hands. It starts as a mellow ballad, breaks into a light swing, then winds back down into a slower pace. The Gene Ammons Story combines songs from two Ammons albums, Nice an' Cool and The Soulful Mood of Gene Ammons.
Canadian Sunset
The warm, full sound of Ammons' tenor sax captures attention just as well as a beautiful sunset. Ray Baretto is featured on conga, which adds a slightly Latin feel to this Canada-inspired tune.
- from Late Hour Special
- by Gene Ammons
- from Jug
- by Gene Ammons
The Party's Over
It feels like the party might be over, but it's definitely continuing somewhere else afterwards. "The Party's Over" features Ammons working with a larger ensemble, conducted by Oliver Nelson.
Ol' Man River
The introduction of this tune sounds as if Ammons captured the flow of a river through his tenor sax. The song picks up into a steady, swinging current from there.
https://www.jazzwax.com/2011/03/gene-ammons-up-tight.html
March 9, 2011
Gene Ammons: Up Tight!
Gene Ammons' Boss Tenor is arguably the tenor saxophonist's best known and most critically acclaimed album. With songs like Canadian Sunset, Close Your Eyes and Blue Ammons, the June 1960 album has enormous cohesion and creative aggression. But as rich as Boss Tenor is, I've always been more partial to Ammons' Up Tight! and its sister album, Boss Soul.
Recorded on October 17, 1961 for Prestige, Up Tight! featured Ammons with a sound that seemed bigger, fatter and more gospel-influenced than past outings. Joining Ammons on the date were pianist Walter Bishop, Jr., bassist Art Davis and drummer Art Taylor, with Ray Barretto on conga. The personnel remained the same on October 18, except for a switch at the piano: Patti Bown replaced Walter Bishop, Jr.
Up Tight! has a tough, sad history, which makes the recording that much more meaningful. Ammons recorded the album between prison terms. Addicted to heroin since the mid-'50s, Ammons was arrested in 1958 and charged with possession. After his conviction, Ammons was sentenced to Statesville Penitentiary near Joliet, Ill.
Shortly after his release in 1960, Ammons was re-arrested for violating the terms of his parole. Apparently playing in nightclubs was against the agreed-upon terms set by the parole board. When he was released the second time in 1961, Ammons began to record with a soul-jazz feel that was heavy on the blues and deeply introspective. Up Tight! is from this period.
Mindful of Ammons' continued addiction and risks the musician was taking with his health and the law, Prestige owner Bob Weinstock in 1961 decided to record Ammons as often as possible to build up a treasure chest of material to release in case the tenor saxophonist was re-arrested. Ammons agreed. So the day after Ammons recorded Up Tight!, he recorded another album's worth of material, which was placed on the shelf.
Weinstock's gut proved to be accurate. In late 1962, Ammons was arrested again for heroin possession, and this time he was sentenced to seven years at Joliet. Material from the session recorded a day after Up Tight! was released in 1966 as Boss Soul. In the liner notes to the second album, Bob Porter wrote:
"Perhaps a young jazz fan will hear Boss Soul
by accident or out of curiosity and discover something. The something
he gets from the LP will be hard to explain, perhaps just a feeling for
the man and his music, but this is what Ammons wants and needs.
"In letters to Prestige president Bob
Weinstock, Ammons continually hopes that the company has enough albums
"to keep my name alive." Fortunately thus far it has had enough but the
supply is dwindling. For those discovering Ammons for the first time,
there is much to go back for, and for those who have passed him by,
there is much to re-discover and re-evaluate. For those of us who have
been there, we, like Gene Ammons, can only wait."
If you're like me, you'll be swept away by I Sold My Heart to the Junkman, Soft Summer Breeze and Don't Go to Strangers. Up Tight! and Boss Soul is Ammons at his very best.
JazzWax tracks: Up Tight! and Boss Soul together document two of Gene Ammons' most perfect recording sessions. Patti Bown's piano playing on the latter is deliciously bluesy and relentlessly interesting. You'll find both albums together on one glorious CD, called Up Tight!, at iTunes and here.
JazzWax clip: Here's the full Up Tight! album, with Gene Ammons, (ts), Walter Bishop, Jr. (p), Art Davis (b), Art Taylor (d) and Ray Barretto (cga)...
and #0160;
Awakened by Gene Ammons
March 27th, 2015
I awoke this morning to the sound of a Gene Ammons ballad, “Stella by
Starlight.” As a disciple of the sound of Ben Webster and Lester Young,
and having been in the forefront – along with Von Freeman — of the
“Chicago school,” where a bluesy “expressiveness” was paramount to their
style, his music has always moved me. His personal life had its
challenges, having been incarcerated on a couple of occasions for
narcotics possession, but his sound overcame that, evidenced by the
contract he signed with Prestige Records following his 1969 release from
prison, which at the time was the largest ever offered by the label.
While some critics questioned the relevance of his style, the pianist Mal Waldron, who frequently accompanied Ammons on his dates, said this about him:
“Gene is soulful, down to earth…he has that sincere quality. He’s always himself and is always involved in what he’s doing…He never plays with his eyes out the window. He’s very close to basic jazz…his approach is from the heart instead of the head. His playing is vigorous and lifts everybody on the session with its spirit.”
While some critics questioned the relevance of his style, the pianist Mal Waldron, who frequently accompanied Ammons on his dates, said this about him:
“Gene is soulful, down to earth…he has that sincere quality. He’s always himself and is always involved in what he’s doing…He never plays with his eyes out the window. He’s very close to basic jazz…his approach is from the heart instead of the head. His playing is vigorous and lifts everybody on the session with its spirit.”
Eugene "Jug" Ammons (April 14, 1925 – August 6, 1974),[1][2] also known as "The Boss", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.[3] The son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons,[2][4] Gene Ammons is remembered for his accessible music, steeped in soul and R&B.
Biography
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Ammons studied music with instructor Walter Dyett at DuSable High School.[5] Ammons began to gain recognition while still at high school when in 1943, at the age of 18, he went on the road with trumpeter King Kolax's band. In 1944 he joined the band of Billy Eckstine (who bestowed on him the nickname "Jug" when straw hats ordered for the band did not fit), playing alongside Charlie Parker and later Dexter Gordon. Notable performances from this period include "Blowin' the Blues Away," featuring a saxophone duel between Ammons and Gordon. After 1947, when Eckstine became a solo performer, Ammons then led a group, including Miles Davis and Sonny Stitt, that performed at Chicago's Jumptown Club. In 1949 Ammons replaced Stan Getz as a member of Woody Herman's Second Herd,[2] and then in 1950 formed a duet with Sonny Stitt.
The 1950s were a prolific period for Ammons and produced some acclaimed recordings such as "The Happy Blues" (1955). Musicians who played in his groups, apart from Stitt, included Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, Kenny Burrell, Mal Waldron, Art Farmer, and Duke Jordan.
His later career was interrupted by two prison sentences for narcotics possession, the first from 1958 to 1960, the second from 1962 to 1969. He recorded as a leader for Mercury (1947–1949), Aristocrat (1948–1950), Chess (1950–1951), Prestige (1950–1952), Decca (1952), and United (1952–1953). For the rest of his career, he was affiliated with Prestige. After his release from prison in 1969, having served a seven-year sentence at Joliet penitentiary, he signed the largest contract ever offered at that time by Prestige's Bob Weinstock.[5]
Ammons had the first of two records released by Leonard Chess on the newly-formed Chess Records label in 1950, titled "My Foolish Heart" (Chess 1425); Muddy Waters was the second record, "Rolling Stone" (Chess 1426). Both records were released simultaneously.
Ammons died in Chicago in 1974, at the age of 49, from cancer.[6]
Playing style
Ammons and Von Freeman were the founders of the Chicago school of tenor saxophone. Ammons's style of playing showed influences from Lester Young as well as Ben Webster. These artists had helped develop the sound of the tenor saxophone to higher levels of expressiveness. Ammons, together with Dexter Gordon and Sonny Stitt, helped integrate their developments with the emerging "vernacular" of the bebop movement, and the chromaticism and rhythmic variety of Charlie Parker is evident in his playing.
While adept at the technical aspects of bebop, in particular its love of harmonic substitutions, Ammons stayed in touch with the commercial blues and R&B of his day. For example, in 1950 the saxophonist's recording of "My Foolish Heart" made Billboard Magazine's black pop charts.[4] The soul jazz movement of the mid-1960s, often using the combination of tenor saxophone and Hammond B3 electric organ, counts him as a founder. With a thicker, warmer tone than Stitt or Gordon, Ammons could at will exploit a vast range of textures on the instrument, vocalizing it in ways that look forward to later artists like Stanley Turrentine, Houston Person, and even Archie Shepp. Ammons showed little interest, however, in the modal jazz of John Coltrane, Joe Henderson or Wayne Shorter that was emerging at the same time.
Some ballad performances in his oeuvre are testament to an exceptional sense of intonation and melodic symmetry, powerful lyrical expressiveness, and mastery both of the blues and the bebop vernacular that can now be described as, in its own way, "classical".[citation needed]
Instruments
Early in his career Ammons played a Conn model 10M Bb tenor saxophone eventually switching to a Selmer Mark VI. He is often pictured playing a Brilhart Ebolin mouthpiece.[citation needed]
Legacy
King Pleasure recorded his vocalese take on Ammons' composition "Hittin' The Jug" under the title "Swan Blues".
Santana ("Jungle Strut") and Les McCann have also recorded Gene Ammons compositions.
Ammons is considered a major influence on the style of popular jazz tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman.[6]
On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Gene Ammons among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.[7]
Discography
As leader/co-leader
- Soulful Saxophone (Chess, 1947-49 [1959]) - also released as Makes It Happen and Young Jug
- Jug and Sonny (Chess, 1948-51 [1960]) - with Sonny Stitt
- The Golden Saxophone of Gene Ammons (Savoy, 1952–1953 [rel. 1959]) - also released as Red Top: The Savoy Sessions
- With Or Without (EmArcy, 1954 [10" LP]) - also released as Light, Bluesy, And Moody (Wing, 1963 [12" LP])
- All Star Sessions (Prestige, 1950–1955 [rel. 1956]) - with Art Farmer, Lou Donaldson, Sonny Stitt; also released as Woofin' & Tweetin'
- The Happy Blues (Prestige, 1956)
- Jammin' with Gene (Prestige, 1956) - also released as Not Really The Blues
- Funky (Prestige, 1957)
- Jammin' in Hi Fi with Gene Ammons (Prestige, 1957) - also released as The Twister
- The Big Sound (Prestige, 1958) - with John Coltrane, Paul Quinichette, Pepper Adams
- Groove Blues (Prestige, 1958 [rel. 1961])
- Blue Gene (Prestige, 1958)
- The Swingin'est (Vee-Jay, 1958) - with Bennie Green; also released as Juggin' Around
- Boss Tenor (Prestige, 1960)
- Nice an' Cool (Moodsville, 1961) (CD release: Gentle Jug Prestige, 1992)
- Jug (Prestige, 1961)
- Groovin' with Jug (Pacific Jazz, 1961) - with Richard "Groove" Holmes
- Dig Him! (Argo, 1961) - with Sonny Stitt; also released as We'll Be Together Again (Prestige)
- Boss Tenors: Straight Ahead From Chicago August 1961 (Verve, 1961) - with Sonny Stitt
- Just Jug (Argo, 1961) - also released as Gene Ammons Live! In Chicago (Prestige)
- Up Tight! (Prestige, 1961) (CD release: Prestige, 1994)
- Boss Soul! (Prestige, 1961 [rel. 1963]) (CD release: Up Tight! Prestige, 1994 [as with the above line])
- Twisting the Jug (Prestige, 1961) (CD release: Organ Combos Prestige, 1994) - with Joe Newman, Jack McDuff
- Brother Jack Meets the Boss (Prestige, 1962) - with Jack McDuff
- Boss Tenors in Orbit! (Verve, 1962) - with Sonny Stitt, Don Patterson
- Soul Summit (Prestige, 1962) - with Sonny Stitt, Jack McDuff
- Nothin' But Soul (Upfront UPF-116, 1962 [rel. 1969]) - with Howard McGhee; originally issued as House Warmin'! on Argo LP-4020 in 1963
- Soul Summit Vol. 2 (Prestige, 1961–1962) - with Etta Jones, Jack McDuff
- Late Hour Special (Prestige, 1961–1962 [rel. 1964])
- The Soulful Moods of Gene Ammons (Moodsville, 1962 [rel. 1963]) (CD: Gentle Jug Prestige, 1992)
- Blue Groove (Prestige, 1962 [rel. 1982])
- Preachin' (Prestige, 1962)
- Jug & Dodo (Prestige, 1962 [rel. 1972]) - with Dodo Marmarosa
- Velvet Soul (Prestige, 1960–1962 [rel. 1964]) (CD releases: Organ Combos Prestige, 1994; Gentle Jug-Vol. 2 Prestige, 1995; A Stranger In Town Prestige, 2002)
- Angel Eyes (Prestige, 1960–1962 [rel. 1965]) (CD releases: Organ Combos Prestige, 1994; Gentle Jug-Vol. 2 Prestige, 1995; Gentle Jug-Vol. 3 Prestige, 2000)
- Sock! (Prestige, 1954–1962 [rel. 1965]) (CD release: A Stranger In Town Prestige, 2002)
- Bad! Bossa Nova (Prestige, 1962) - also released as Jungle Soul
- The Boss Is Back! (Prestige, 1969) (CD release: Prestige, 1994)
- Brother Jug! (Prestige, 1969) (CD release: The Boss Is Back! Prestige, 1994 [as with the above line])
- Night Lights (Prestige, 1970 [rel. 1985]) (CD release: A Stranger In Town Prestige, 2002)
- The Chase! [live] (Prestige, 1970) - with Dexter Gordon
- The Black Cat! (Prestige, 1970) (CD release: Legends Of Acid Jazz: Gene Ammons Prestige, 1997)
- You Talk That Talk! (Prestige, 1971) (CD release: Legends Of Acid Jazz: Gene Ammons Prestige, 1997) - with Sonny Stitt
- My Way (Prestige, 1971)
- Chicago Concert (Prestige, 1971 [rel. 1973]) - with James Moody
- Free Again (Prestige, 1972)
- Got My Own (Prestige, 1972) (CD release: Fine And Mellow Prestige, 2003)
- Big Bad Jug (Prestige, 1972) (CD release: Fine And Mellow Prestige, 2003)
- God Bless Jug and Sonny: Live At The Left Bank (Prestige, 1973 [rel. 2001]) - with Sonny Stitt
- Left Bank Encores (Prestige, 1973 [rel. 2001]) - with Sonny Stitt
- Gene Ammons and Friends at Montreux (Prestige, 1973)
- Gene Ammons in Sweden (Enja, 1973 [rel. 1981])
- Together Again for the Last Time (Prestige, 1973 [rel. 1976]) - with Sonny Stitt
- Brasswind (Prestige, 1974)
- Goodbye (Prestige, 1974 [rel. 1975])
LP/CD compilations
- Biggest Soul Hits (Prestige PR-7306, 1964 [LP])
- The Best Of Gene Ammons For Beautiful People (Prestige PR-7708, 1969 [LP])
- The Best Of Gene Ammons With Brother Jack McDuff (Prestige PR-7774, 1970 [LP])
- Blues Up & Down, Vol. 1 (Prestige PR-7823, 1971 [LP]) - the original 1950 sessions
- Greatest Hits (Prestige PR-10084, 1974 [LP])
- Housewarmin' (Trip/Springboard TLX-5002, 1974 [2LP]) (compilation of The Swingin'est with Bennie Green + Nothin' But Soul with Howard McGhee)
- Early Visions (Cadet/Chess/GRT 2CA-60038, 1975 [2LP]) (compilation of Aristocrat/Chess material recorded 1948–1951)
- Red Top: The Savoy Sessions (Savoy/Arista SJL-1103, 1976 [LP]; Savoy/Denon SV-0242, CD release: 1994) (compilation of material recorded 1947–1953)
- "Jug" Sessions (The EmArcy Jazz Series) (Mercury EMS2-400, 1976 [2LP])
- Juganthology (Prestige PR-24036, 1976 [2LP]) - with Donald Byrd, Art Farmer, Idrees Sulieman, Lou Donaldson, Jackie McLean; sextets/septets recorded 1955–1957
- The Gene Ammons Story: The 78 Era (Prestige PR-24058, 1977 [2LP]; CD release: 1994)
- The Gene Ammons Story: Organ Combos (Prestige PR-24071, 1977 [2LP]; CD release: 1994)
- The Gene Ammons Story: Gentle Jug (Prestige PR-24079, 1977 [2LP]; CD release: 1994)
- The Big Sound (Prestige PR-24098, 1981 [2LP]) (compilation of The Big Sound + Groove Blues)
- Greatest Hits, Vol. 1: The Sixties (OJC 6005, 1988 [LP]; CD release: 1991)
- The Boss Is Back! (Prestige 24129, 1993) (compilation of The Boss Is Back! + Brother Jug!)
- Up Tight! (Prestige 24140, 1994) (compilation of Up Tight! + Boss Soul!)
- Young Jug (GRP 801, 1994) (CD compilation of Aristocrat/Chess material recorded 1948–1951)
- Gentle Jug, Vol. 2 (Prestige 24155, 1995)
- Legends of Acid Jazz: Gene Ammons (Prestige 24188, 1997) (compilation of The Black Cat! + You Talk That Talk!)
- Greatest Hits: The 50s (OJC 6013, 1998)
- Greatest Hits: The 70s (OJC 6018, 1998)
- Gentle Jug, Vol. 3 (Prestige 24249, 2000)
- A Stranger In Town (Prestige 24266, 2002)
- Fine And Mellow (Prestige 24281, 2003) (compilation of Got My Own + Big Bad Jug)
As sideman
With Billy Eckstine
- The Legendary Big Band 1943–1947 (Savoy Jazz, 2002) – 2CD anthology
- Soul Stirrin' (Blue Note, 1958)
- Tell It Like It Tis (Pacific Jazz, 1961–1962 [rel. 1966])
- Charles Mingus and Friends in Concert (Columbia, 1972)
- Kaleidoscope (Prestige, 1950 [rel. 1957])
- Stitt's Bits (Prestige, 1950 [rel. 1958])
See also
- Bucket O' Grease by Les McCann which includes his version of Jug's classic "Red Top".
- Santana III which includes their version of "Jungle Strut" (from Ammons' The Boss Is Back!)
References
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Gene Ammons
Eugene “Jug” Ammons was a jazz tenor saxophone player, and the son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons.
Ammons began to gain recognition when he went on the road with trumpeter King Kolax band in 1943, at the age of 18. He became a member of the Billy Eckstine and Woody Herman bands in 1944 and 1949 respectively, and then in 1950 formed a duet with Sonny Stitt. His later career was interrupted by two prison sentences for narcotics possession, the first from 1958 to 1960, the second from 1962 to 1969.
Ammons and Von Freeman were the founders of the Chicago School of tenor saxophone. His style of playing showed influences from Lester Young as well as Ben Webster. These artists had helped develop the sound of the tenor saxophone to higher levels of expressiveness. Ammons, together with Dexter Gordon and Sonny Stitt, helped integrated their developments with the emerging “vernacular” of the bebop movement, and the chromaticism and rhythmic variety of Charlie Parker is evident in his playing.
While adept at the technical aspects of bebop, in particular its love of harmonic substitions, Ammons more than Young, Webster or Parker, stayed in touch with the commercial blues and R&B of his day. The “soul Jazz” movement of the mid-1950s, often using the combination of tenor saxophone and Hammond B3 electric organ, counts him as a founder. Often using a thinner, drier tone than Stitt or Gordon, Ammons could at will exploit a vast range of textures on the instrument, vocalizing it in ways that look forward to later artists like Stanley Turrentine, Houston Person, and remarkably Archie Shepp. Ammons showed little interest however in the modal jazz of John Coltrane, Joe Henderson or Wayne Shorter that was emerging at the same time.
Some fine ballad performances in his oeuvre are testament to an exceptional sense of intonation and melodic symmetry, powerful lyrical expressiveness, and mastery both of the blues and the bebop vernacular which can now be described as, in its own way, “classical.”
https://dailymusicbreak.com/2018/03/11/gene-ammons-helped-fuse-bebop-and-chicago-blues/
Gene Ammons Helped Fuse Bebop and Chicago Blues
Perhaps nothing is as soothing and peaceful as cool saxophone music, and Gene Ammons was a master. Ammons, known as “The Boss” decades before Springsteen came along, played with all the greats. That should be no surprise, since he was one of them.Ammons lived from April 14, 1925 to August 6, 1974. Wikipedia starts its profile with the point that his music was rooted in soul and R&B, which made it accessible. It makes sense that this would be so considering that Ammons’ father was Albert Ammons, a well-known boogie-woogie piano player. Few jazz forms are as accessible (and, as a bonus, exhilarating) as boogie-woogie piano.
Ammons was born in Chicago. As with almost all of the giants, the names scattered through the bio become familiar very early on. In 1944, Ammons joined Billy Eckstine’s band, which also featured Charlie Parker and, later, Dexter Gordon. Three years later, he was leading a group at the Jumptown Club featured Miles Davis and Sonny Stitt. In 1949, Ammons replaces Stan Getz in Woody Herman’s Second Herd. The next year, Ammons and Stitt formed a duet. Eckstine, by the way, gave Ammons his other nickname, “Jug,” when straw hats ordered for the band did not fit.
The bio goes on to note the other greats Ammons played with as his career progressed. The dark side of the tale, however, is two stints in prison for narcotics violations. That apparently didn’t slow down his commercial success, however. Ammons, fresh out of Joliet in 1969, signed a big contract with Prestige.
The Wikipedia profile does a nice job of describing what differentiated Ammons. He, along with Von Freeman, founded the Chicago school of tenor sax. The style was influenced by Ben Webster and Lester Young and therefore was expressive. At the same time, it incorporated the changes that the bebop movement brought to jazz. Thus, he was instrumental in integrating the new techniques with the essential sound that audiences prize in tenor sax.
It’s interesting to see an individual artist such as Ammons in the context of his environment. In his case, that environment is Chicago. At the Encyclopedia of Chicago, William Howland Kenney posted an extremely interesting essay on the musical legacy of the city.
A key event was the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, which attracted ragtime pianists to Chicago.
The city’s central location and industrial heritage has made it a magnet for people in general and musicians in particular. The greatest example of this was the Great Migration of African-Americans from the south between 1916 and 1970. This influx led to an increase in venues in which music is played. These establishments – cafes, restaurants and so forth – were particularly dense on the South Side. Kenney points out that New York City specialized in songwriters; Chicago in performers. Both had plenty of each, of course.
It would take the rest of this website to name all the great musicians that call or called Chicago home (and that’s quite a feat since websites are by definition endless). Some of the most recognizable musicians and bands: Chicago (go figure), Paul Butterfield, Kanye West, Muddy Waters, Benny Goodman, Willie Dixon, Gene Krupa, Common, Sam Cooke, Herbie Hancock, Little Walter, The Impressions, Otis Rush, Elmore James, Buddy Guy, Howlin’ Wolf, Lonnie Brooks, Luther Allison, Curtis Mayfield and Mike Bloomfield. There are of course many, many others – and the stream shows no signs of stopping. (And, by the way, virtually all of those folks are highlight at The Daily Music Break. It seemed silly to stick in hyperlink after hyperlink.)
Clearly, all genres are well represented in Chicago. If anything, the real heart and soul of Chicago may be the blues. It’s interesting and Ammons took jazz’s newest incantation at that point, bebop, and bent it toward the blues.
Above is “The Happy Blues,” which is the title track from a 1956 Prestige album. In addition to Ammons, the players are Art Farmer (trumpet), Jackie McLean (alto sax), Duke Jordan (piano), Art Taylor (drums) and Candido (congas). This is not Richard Smith’s “Happy Blues,” which also is worth a listen. I couldn’t find any information about “Confirmation,” which is below. The song was written by Charlie Parker.
THE MUSIC OF GENE AMMONS: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH GENE AMMONS:
Gene Ammons