Personnel:
Billy Massey, Art Farmer, Donald Byrd, Idrees Sulieman, Thad Jones, Webster Young (tp), Al Outcalt (tb), Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, John Coltrane, Al Cohn, Hank Mobley, Zoot Sims, Bobby Jaspar, Frank Foster (ts), Jackie McLean, Gene Quill, Phil Woods, Hal Stein, Sahib Shihab, John Jenkins (as), Jerome Richardson, Frank Wess (fl), Charlie Bateman, Duke Jordan, Red Garland, Al Haig, Tommy Flanagan, Mal Waldron, Hod O'Brien, Wade Legge (p), Teddy Charles (vib), Kenny Burrell (g), Gene Wright, Addison Farmer, Paul Chambers, Teddy Kotick, Tommy Potter, Doug Watkins (b), Teddy Stewart, Art Taylor, Charles Persip, Louis Hayes, Ed Thigpen, Elvin Jones (d)
Reference: PRCD-24275
Bar code: 090204962259
In the 1950s, Prestige records was to the recorded jam session (or "Blowing Session") as the New York Yankees were to baseball. Like the great prinstripers, prestige boasted a roster of stars. Some were well-stablished, like the power-hitting tenor sax tandem of Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt, but most were still relatively new to jazz's big leagues when they stepped up to the Prestige mike. John Coltrane, Jackie Mclean, Hank Mobley, Donal Byrd, Phil Woods, Art Farmer, Frank Wess, and Frank Foster were coming into their own during the Eisenhower era. Give heavy hitters like these a set of blues changes or the chords to a familiar standard, a solid rhythm section, the chance to stretch out, and the challenge of locking horns with talented peers and many home runs were sure to be launched.
This set's nearly 80 minutes of prime Prestige jamming is nothing less than a grand slam. Or, as the saxophonist eric Alexander writes in his superb liner notes, "This is straightforward, hard-swinging music, performed at the highest level. Essential."
Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt
"Around 1950, there were two major advances in recording technology. One was the advent of high-fidelity mono; '50s hi-fi wasn't quite stereo, but it was close. The other was the advent of the LP. Because improvisers were liberated from the time limits of 78s, the sort of extended jams that had been taking place in jazz clubs could take place in a studio. In the '50s, Prestige took full advantage of LP technology by recording a lot of blowing dates, and those studio jam sessions are the primary focus of this 79-minute compilation (which spans 1951-1957). Fantasy establishes a very jam-minded tone by making Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt's "New Blues Up and Down" the opening track. Ammons and Stitt were the ultimate in bop sportsmanship -- their tenor battles are legendary -- and "New Blues Up and Down" (a 1951 sequel to the original "Blues Up and Down") is a perfect way to begin a jam-oriented bebop/hard bop disc. In the '50s, Prestige loved to unite two or more jazzmen who played the same instrument, and on this CD, that could mean four alto saxes (Phil Woods, Gene Quill, Hal Stein, and Sahib Shihab on "Pedal Eyes"), four tenor saxes (John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Al Cohn, and Zoot Sims on "Just You, Just Me"), or three trumpets (Art Farmer, Donald Byrd, and Idrees Sulieman on "Forty Quarters"). But Prestige's jam sessions could also mean having a variety of horns on the front line, such as Ammons getting together with Farmer and alto saxman Jackie McLean on "The Happy Blues." The compilation's liner notes, by the way, were written by tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander. In many cases, musicians have been guilty of writing sophomoric, uninformed liner notes, but Alexander provides astute and insightful liner notes for this rewarding compilation."
—Alex Henderson (All Music Guide)
