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, and Art Taylor, cut April 1956. The title track stretches over thirteen 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 tenor-heavy front line with John Coltrane, Paul Quinichette, Pepper Adams, Mal Waldron, George Joyner, and Art Taylor.

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.

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.

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 with Junior Mance, Buster Williams, Idris Muhammad, and Candido on conga. The comeback band that defined his early seventies sound.

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.

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.