♪ Album Videos · Full Records on YouTube

Gene Ammons

Full Albums on YouTube

Nine Gene Ammons records spanning the early Prestige sides, the Boss Tenor peak, the dense 1962 sessions, and the comeback. Embedded as full-album YouTube videos so you can hit play and listen end to end. Each one links back to its full Vinyl Standard review.

Watch the Albums

Click play on any embed. Press F for fullscreen once the video loads. Videos are hosted on YouTube and link out to the source channel.

Era Two · Boss Tenor Run
Boss Tenor
1960 · Prestige

The record that named the era. Cut June 1960 at Van Gelder Studios with Tommy Flanagan, Doug Watkins, Art Taylor, and Ray Barretto on conga. Hittin' the Jug, Canadian Sunset, Confirmation. The warm tenor sound at full strength.

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Era One · Early Years
The Happy Blues
1956 · Prestige

An all-star jam session led by Ammons with Art Farmer, Jackie McLean, Duke Jordan, Addison Farmer, and Art Taylor, cut April 1956. The title track stretches over thirteen minutes and sets the template for the Prestige jam sides that followed.

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Era One · Early Years
The Big Sound
1958 · Prestige

The first half of a single January 1958 marathon session at Van Gelder Studios. Ammons leading a tenor-heavy front line with John Coltrane, Paul Quinichette, Pepper Adams, Mal Waldron, George Joyner, and Art Taylor.

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Era One · Early Years
Blue Gene
1958 · Prestige

Sextet date from May 1958 with Idrees Sulieman on trumpet, Pepper Adams on baritone, Mal Waldron on piano, Doug Watkins on bass, and Art Taylor on drums. The title track is a slow blues that lets Ammons stretch out.

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Era Two · Late Prestige
Bad! Bossa Nova
1962 · Prestige

Ammons's take on the bossa nova wave, cut September 1962 with Bucky Pizzarelli, Hank Jones, Norman Edge, Oliver Jackson, and Al Hayes on conga. Looser and groovier than the Stan Getz crossover records of the same moment.

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Era One · Early Years
Groove Blues
1958 · Prestige

The companion record to The Big Sound, drawn from the same January 1958 marathon. Coltrane, Pepper Adams, Jerome Richardson on flute, Mal Waldron, George Joyner, Art Taylor. The slower, more relaxed half of the date.

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Era Three · Comeback
Brother Jug!
1970 · Prestige

A few months out of prison and Ammons is already in the studio. Recorded November 1969 with Junior Mance, Buster Williams, Idris Muhammad, and Candido on conga. The comeback band that defined his early seventies sound.

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Era One · Early Years
Jammin' With Gene
1956 · Prestige

The second of the Prestige jam sessions, recorded July 1956 with Donald Byrd, Jerome Richardson, Mal Waldron, Doug Watkins, and Art Taylor. Four long tracks built around standards, with Ammons trading choruses for ten minutes at a stretch.

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Era Two · Late Prestige
Jug & Dodo
1962 · Prestige

A quiet date with the largely forgotten bebop pianist Dodo Marmarosa, cut May 1962 in Chicago. Sam Jones and Marshall Thompson round out the quartet. Ballad-heavy, intimate, and one of the most underrated entries in the Ammons catalog.

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