CiTR

The great soulful voice of the tenor saxophone Gene Ammons made a number of jam session type albums for Prestige, all of them good solid Jazz. Ammons was flown in from his home city of Chicago and recorded this series of informal Jazz recordings with some often profound results. Tonight's Jazz Feature and the last one for 2019 is called "The Happy Blues". It features Gene with alto saxophonist Jackie McLean (one of Ammons' favorites), trumpeter Art Farmer, pianist Duke Jordan, Addison Farmer on bass, the always swinging Arthur Taylor on drums and the great Cuban conguero Candido Camero on conga drums. Only four tunes make up this date done in April of 1956. The first tune is the title track penned by Art Farmer. The second tune is called "The Great Lie" which Gene played when he was in Woody Herman's band. Tune 3 is a relaxed old standard called "Can't We Be Friends?"and the session winds up with Jackie Mclean's fast riff on the chords of "What Is This Thing Called Love" that Jackie called "Madhouse". All in all a super get together with like minded musicians playing at their best. Happy New Year to all and the best for 2020!