MusicWeb International

Webmaster: Len Mullenger

[ Jazz index ] [Nostalgia index]  [ Classical MusicWeb ] [ Gerard Hoffnung ]

BUY NOW AmazonUK   AmazonUS

WARDELL GRAY Way Out Wardell Boplicity by Ace CDBOPM 014

1. Blue Lou

2. Sweet Georgia Brown

3. Tenderly

4. Just You, Just Me

5. One O’Clock Jump

Wardell Gray – Tenor sax

Erroll Garner – Piano (tracks 1, 3, 5)

Irving Ashby – Guitar (tracks 1, 5)

Red Callender – Bass (tracks 1, 3, 5)

Jackie Mills – Drums (tracks 1, 3, 5)

Vido Musso – Tenor sax (tracks 2, 4)

Arnold Ross – Piano (tracks 2, 4)

Barney Kessel – Guitar (tracks 2, 4)

Harry Babasin – Bass (tracks 2, 4)

Don Lamond – Drums (tracks 2, 4)

Howard McGhee – Trumpet (tracks 2, 4, 5)

Benny Carter – Alto sax (track 5)

Vic Dickenson – Trombone (track 5)

Recorded at two of Gene Norman’s “Just Jazz” concerts in 1947, these five tracks contain some of the best blowing that Wardell Gray ever committed to disc. He sounds like a more wide-awake version of Lester Young, with a style that is alternately furry and gritty. On several tracks you can hear the wide range of his abilities: from fluent lyricism to the forceful power we associate with those hard-blowing saxists known as the Texas Tenors.

Besides Wardell’s memorable playing, which brings touches of bebop to five jazz standards, there is the wonderful bonus of Erroll Garner at the piano. He proves himself not only a superb soloist but also a sympathetic accompanist, adding economical punctuations which seem to have something of bebop in them. Erroll is also given his own feature on Tenderly, full of rhapsodic runs and sustained chords.

Other contributors who add to the excitement include trumpeter Howard McGhee, straining rather hard to reach the high notes in Sweet Georgia Brown ; Don Lamond who adds a fiery drum solo to the same track; Harry Babasin, who supplies a muscular bass solo in Just You, Just Me; and Benny Carter, whose alto sax adds refinement to One O’Clock Jump.

This is a short review, as the CD is short – barely 42 minutes – but the album is worth getting for the quality of the playing, especially from Gray and Garner. The recording quality is variable: sometimes fuzzy and often unsteady in volume. The personnel listing is the best I can manage, as the listing in the sleeve-note is not very clear.

Tony Augarde
www.augardebooks.co.uk

Error processing SSI file

Return to Index