Gene Ammons

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

A few months out of prison and Ammons is already in the studio. Recorded November 1969, mostly with Sonny Phillips on organ, Billy Butler on guitar, Bob Bushnell on Fender bass, and Bernard Purdie on drums, plus one track, Ger-Ru, cut the day before with Prince James on tenor, Junior Mance, Buster Williams, Frankie Jones, and Candido on conga.

The third of the Prestige jam sessions, recorded July 1956 with Donald Byrd, Art Farmer, Jackie McLean, Mal Waldron, Doug Watkins, and Art Taylor. Three long tracks, with Ammons trading choruses for ten minutes at a stretch.

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.