GENE AMMONS (April 14, 1925 - July 23, 1974)
Gene Ammons is the son of the great boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons. Born in Chicago, Gene studied music at Du Sable High School under Captain Walter Dyett. He left Chicago at 18 to tour with King Kolax. At 19, he made his first recording, with Billy Eckstine and his Orchestra on September 5, 1944. The Eckstein band was truly legendary. At that time the other tenor saxophonist was Dexter Gordon, Leo Parker was on baritone sax, Dizzy Gillespie was in the trumpet section, Art Blakey was the drummer, Tommy Potter on bass, and Sarah Vaughan also sang with the band. Tadd Dameron was one of the arrangers. A hothouse of talent and creativity. Gene continued playing and recording with the Eckstine band through their October 6, 1946, recording.

During Gene's tenure, here are a few of the other great horn players who recorded with the band:
trumpeters Fats Navarro, Kenny Dorham, Miles Davis
saxophonists Budd Johnson, Sonny Stitt, Frank Wess and Cecil Payne

In 1947, Gene did his first sessions (5) as a leader, as well as recording with his father for Mercury records (Albert Ammons And His Rhythm Kings), also participated in Leo Parker's All Stars for Savoy Records. In 1949, he recorded with Woody Herman And His Orchestra, replacing Stan Getz. On February 6, 1950, he recorded a Count Basie octet session. On March 5, 1950, he and Sonny Stitt recorded their classic two-tenor composition Blues Up And Down for the first time. Gene continued to record a session every year, primarily under his own name, through September, 1962. On November 10, 1969, he made "The Boss Is Back!" and continued to record until 1974. Ironically, the last song that he ever recorded, March 20, 1974 (just a short time before he was diagnosed with terminal cancer) was Goodbye.

As Scott Yanow says, "Gene Ammons, who had a huge and immediately recognizable tone on tenor, was a very flexible player who could play bebop with the best (always battling his friend Sonny Stitt to a tie) yet was an influence on the R&B world." He loved to team up with and do battle with other tenor players: setting a precedent with Sonny Stitt and later with Don Byas, Dexter Gordon and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, among others.

TINA BROOKS (June 7, 1932 - August 15, 1973)
Harold Floyd "Tina" Brooks and his twin brother Harry were born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, becoming the youngest of eight children. The family moved to NYC in 1944. By then, Harold was already being called Tina (pronounced Teena), a grade school nickname that came from his tiny or teensy size. Around this time, he started playing the C Melody saxophone, studying with his older brother David "Bubba" Brooks, Jr. Bubba had become an established R&B tenor saxophonist, and in late 1950, Tina subbed for Bubba for a few months in pianist Sonny Thompson's R&B band. Tina made his first recording with this band.

Throughout the early fifties, Tina worked with local New York Latin bands and various R&B outfits such as those of singer-pianist Charles Brown and trumpeter Joe Morris. In 1953 or 1954, he went on the road with pianist Amos Milburn, then joined Lionel Hampton's orchestra for the spring and summer of 1955. But he found this to be little more than another R&B gig: not enough room to stretch out.
In 1956, Brooks met trumpeter-composer Little Bennie Harris at the Blue Morocco, a Bronx jazz club. Harris took the young tenor player under his wing and taught him the vocabulary and intricacies of modern jazz. Tina also developed a close friendship with the brilliant pianist-composer Elmo Hope.

Alfred Lion, the owner of Blue Note Records, remembers Bennie Harris calling him up to a Harlem club to hear Tina in late 1957. He immediately began recording Brooks on Blue Note at a regular pace. He first hired Tina for a marathon Jimmy Smith recording on February 25, 1958, which led the next month to Tina's first leader session for Blue Note on March 16. This led to another session with Jimmy Smith, followed by several Kenny Burrell sessions and Howard McGhee's June 13, 1960, "The Connection" session, which was recorded less than 4 months after Freddie Redd's original "The Connection" album for Blue Note.

During 1959 and 1960, Tina was the understudy for Jackie McLean in Jack Gelber's play "The Connection," which was presented by The Living Theater in NYC. The pianist, composer, and musical director was Freddie Redd. This association led to three more Blue Note dates: both McLean and Brooks were on two Redd sessions; and under McLean's leadership, Tina played on and wrote three of the six tunes (Medina, Isle Of Java and Street Singer) for a wonderful sextet date.
Through his association with Blue Note, Tina met another great and underrated tenorman, Ike Quebec, who introduced him to Freddie Hubbard. Tina recorded on Freddie's first album as a leader on June 19, 1960, and contributed two originals, both the title composition Open Sesame and Gypsy Blue. Less than a week later, June 25, Freddie recorded on Tina's "True Blue" session, Tina's first released album as a leader.
Tina Brooks would only record two more sessions, both his own, which became: "Back In The Tracks" (October 20, 1960) and "The Waiting Game" (March 2, 1961). He was still only 28 years old when his recording career ended. Although he lived until 1974, he had been very ill and unable to play the saxophone for several years.

Tina Brooks' combo arrangments are available from Second Floor Music: Open Sesame and Street Singer.

RAY BRYANT (born December 24, 1931)
Following performances in his native Philadelphia with guitarist Tiny Grimes and as house pianist at the Blue Note Club with Charlie Parker, Lester Young, Miles Davis and others, Ray Bryant came to New York in the mid-1950s. His first jazz recording session in New York was with Toots Thielemans (August, 1955) for Columbia Records. That session led to his own trio sessions as well as sessions with vocalist Betty Carter for Epic Records in May and June ("Meet Betty Carter and Ray Bryant"). On August 5, 1955, Ray recorded with Miles Davis, and on December 2, 1955, with Sonny Rollins, both for Prestige Records. On April 3, 1956, Ray started his "Ray Bryant Trio" album for Epic Records, which contains his own first recording of his classic title Cubano Chant. Cal Tjader had recorded Cubano Chant earlier, on November 11, 1955, on Fantasy Records.

On September 17 and 19, 1956, Ray recorded on "Max Roach Plus 4," with Kenny Dorham and Sonny Rollins. In February, 1957, he recorded Cubano Chant two more times, first with the Art Blakey/Jo Jones Percussion Ensemble (February 22) and on February 25, with Art Taylor ("Tailor's Wailers"). Also in 1957, Ray can be heard on his own recordings and recordings with Carmen McRae, more Art Blakey, Clifford Jordan, Coleman Hawkins and Lee Morgan. Ray was also on three Dizzy Gillespie recordings that year, the first of which contains the first recording of Dizzy's classic, Con Alma, the second contains some great Gigi Gryce compositions and arrangements ("The Greatest Trumpet Of Them All"), and the third has Sonny Stitt's classic The Eternal Triangle, with Ray comping behind the incredible battling tenors of Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins ("Sonny Side Up").

Not bad for a young man who still hadn't turned 26 years of age! More of Ray's long and illustrious career will be discussed with his individual lead sheets.

SONNY CLARK (July 21,1931 - January 14, 1963)
A remarkable composer and pianist whose special touch and articulation makes him instantly recognizable at the piano, Sonny (Conrad Yeatis Clark) was born in Herminie, PA, a small mining town 60 miles from Pittsburgh. He started piano at four, and at six was featured playing boogie-woogie on several amateur hour radio programs. He spent his teenage years in Pittsburgh, playing vibes and bass in high school as well as being featured on piano. He went to California in 1951 with his older brother, also a pianist, and worked in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, starting his recording career at age 22 in February, 1953, with Teddy Charles. He soon recorded with Art Pepper and Buddy DeFranco (traveling to Europe for a couple of months to start 1954), then returned to LA to work with Buddy, Cal Tjader, Sonny Criss, Frank Rosolino, Serge Chaloff, Lawrence Marable-James Clay quartet and Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars. He decided to work his way back East by joining Dinah Washington, arriving in NYC in April of 1957. On June 11 and 12 he did his first NY recording sessions as part of the Sonny Rollins quartet for Riverside Records. June 23, 1957, marks his first Blue Note date as a member of a Hank Mobley sextet. Within the next month, on July 21, he recorded his own first leader date for Blue Note: "Dial S For Sonny." He continued to record many more sessions for Blue Note as both sideman (with Curtis Fuller, more Hank Mobley, Johnny Griffin, Clifford Jordan, Lee Morgan, Art Farmer, Lou Donaldson, Tina Brooks, Bennie Green, Jackie McLean, Grant Green, Ike Quebec, Dexter Gordon and others) and as a leader right up to his last recording session, a Stanley Turrentine sextet date (October 18, 1962). He recorded mostly for Blue Note but did find time to also record with Philly Joe Jones (Riverside), Coleman Hawkins (Colpix), more with Bennie Green (Enrica and Time), his own leader date and a date with Stanley Turrentine on Time. We are blessed that he left us with many great recordings from both his California and New York periods. Sonny, along with bassist Butch Warren and drummer Billy Higgins, created one of the truly classic rhythm sections of this period. He was hospitalized in late 1962 with a leg infection and was released only shortly before he passed away in January. Sonny was only 31 years old when he died.

EDDIE "Lockjaw" DAVIS (March 2, 1922 - November 6, 1986)
Tenor saxophonist Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis was self-taught. He developed his own sound and had an often unorthodox way of playing the saxophone. Johnny Griffin, with whom Lockjaw created an important 2-tenor sax alliance, and Lockjaw made many incredible recordings starting with their "Battle Stations" session for Prestige on September 2, 1960. Johnny told me that, at first, he used to look at Jaws' fingers to try to figure out how he came up with his unique lines. Johnny quickly abandoned that effort (trying to figure out Lockjaw's unorthodox approach), telling me something like: "He was incredible, I have no idea how he could play the saxophone that way. I very quickly stopped trying to figure out what he was doing. Watching his fingers would mess me up!"

Lockjaw's style was a very personal mixture of just about everything he heard, from R&B to bebop and much beyond. His recording career started with a couple of Cootie Williams sextet sessions (January 4 and 6, 1944), which are also the first recordings of legendary pianist Bud Powell. Aside from recording four 78 rpm sextet sides on January 6, they also recorded four big band sides (Cootie Williams And His Orchestra). On May 26, 1944, he recorded with Lucky Millinder And His Orchestra, alongside tenor saxophonist Lucky Thompson. After a few session in 1945, he recorded with Andy Kirk's big band on January, 3, 1946, alongside tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest, and with Fats Navarro in the trumpet section.

Lockjaw started his recording career as a leader in 1946 (hear one of the titles on jazzleadsheets.com). Jaws continued recording his own sessions and sessions with other leaders through the rest of the 1940s and into the '50s. He recorded with Count Basie And His Orchestra for the first time on July 22, 1952, alongside tenor saxophonists Paul Quinichette and Ernie Wilkins--who also played alto sax in the band. Lockjaw loved the Basie band and returned to the band many times during his career. From 1955 to 1960 he led an organ trio which included Shirley Scott. He often led the quintet with Johnny Griffin from 1960 to 1962 and other times, reuniting this "tough tenor" quintet in later years. I can't resist including two quotes from Eddie's converstations with drummer Art Taylor, which are found in A.T.'s book "Notes And Tones." Why did Eddie become a tenor saxophonist?: "In my case I wanted the instrument for what it represented. By watching musicians I saw that they drank, they smoked, they got all the broads and they didn't get up early in the morning. That attracted me. My next move was to see who got the most attention, so it was between the tenor saxophonist and the drummer. The drums looked like too much work, so I said I'll get one of those tenor saxophones. That's the truth." In 1940, former bandleader Teddy Hill became the manager of Minton's Playhouse on 118th Street in NYC. Everybody wanted to play at Minton's. It was one of the places to be heard, in order to build your career. As a result, many unqualified players would often try to sit in. During Lockjaw's tenure as leader at Minton's, Teddy Hill saddled him with the responsibility of deciding who played and who didn't play: "In some instances I was labeled as a tyrant, but on the whole the guys appreciated it. The word spread. If you can't play, don't go on Lockjaw's thing, because he'll ask you off. In doing that we got the best musicians." Many years later, when I first saw Lockjaw, he looked very scary to me. On one occasion, I remember him calling the ballad But Beautiful, looking at the pianist and bassist who gave the "yes" nod, then playing the song, finding out that neither really knew the tune. When it was finally over, Jaws gave them both a terrifying look and I heard him say, "Don't ever do that again!!!" Once I got to spend some one-on-one time with Lockjaw, I found him very warm, totally un-scary, and incredible to talk with.

WALTER DAVIS, JR. (September 2, 1932 - June 2, 1990)
Walter's piano playing was certainly influenced strongly by Bud Powell, and he has that Bud Powell enegy in his piano playing. I hear that same energy captured by only a handful of pianists. Like many of the other talented players coming up in the 1950s, Walter's ears were wide open to everything good. For example, he listened to Stravinsky with Bird or Dizzy, and in later years, you could find Walter also hanging with Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. In his teenage years, Walter told me personally, practically every day after high school in New Jersey, he would head to NYC and try to find Bud, Bird and Monk to hang out with. Many times, he said he'd find all three, and hang until late in the evening, then head back to NJ and have to struggle to get up the next day for high school.

He traveled with vocalist Babs Gonzales, then appeared in New York with Charlie Parker, Max Roach and Dizzy Gillespie through 1956. Walter started his recording career with Max Roach (1953). In 1956 he did his first recording sessions with Dizzy Gillespie. In 1958, while living in France, Walter recordinged with leaders Bobby Jaspar, Art Taylor and Donald Byrd. In 1959, Walter was back in New York, doing dates with Jackie McLean, and again, Donald Byrd and Art Taylor, before doing his own first date for Blue Note on August 2, 1959 ("Davis Cup"). Walter did his first record date with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messenger on November 10, 1959, then went back to Europe with the Messengers doing gigs and recordings in Europe until the end of 1959. Walter had a long playing and recording relationship with Blakey, who loved Walter's compositions and recorded many of them, including Walter gems such as Uranus, Backgammon, Jodi, Gypsy Folk Tales and others.

KENNY DREW, JR. (born June 14, 1958) Kenny Drew, Jr., son of pianist/composer Kenny Drew, Sr., started music lessons at the age of four. He studied classical piano with his Aunt Marjorie, but soon found he enjoyed playing jazz as well. He. has performed worldwide with a comprehensive variety of musicians, including Stanley Jordan, OTB, Stanley Turrentine, Slide Hampton, the Mingus Big Band, Steve Grossman, Yoshiaki Masuo, Sadao Watanabe, Smokey Robinson, Frank Morgan, Daniel Schnyder, Jack Walrath, Ronnie Cuber and many others. Kenny Drew Jr. was the winner of the 1990 Great American jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville, Florida. He has appeared as a leader at many major festivals, including the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, Kyoto Jazz Festival, Savannah on Stage Festival, Clearwater Jazz Festival, and the Newark Jazz Festival. Kenny has also performed as leader at many major jazz clubs around the country. He has recorded many albums as a leader and has also made numerous recordings as a sideman. See and hear amazing clips of Kenny's playing at his MySpace page.

Kenny Drew, Jr., has exceptional gifts as a pianist. He has developed incredible sight reading abilities and is able to master anything put in front of him almost immediately. He has thorough musical knowledge and tremendous technical facility. He is truly one of our great pianists, as well as a gifted composer.

ART FARMER (August 21, 1928 - October 4, 1999)
Art Farmer has long been admired for his lyrical playing. He started on trumpet, then switched to flugelhorn, helping to popularize the instrument. Eventually , Art played the Flumpet, a Flugelhorn-Trumpet combination that was especially designed for him. He played professionally since the 1940s, and started recording in bands at 19 years of age in 1948, when he played in the bands of Jay McShann, Benny Carter, Gerald Wilson and others. He worked with Gigi Gryce, Horace Silver and Gerry Mulligan in the 1950s and co-led the Jazztet with Benny Golson from 1959-62. Art Farmer lived in Europe since the late 1960s but returned to the U.S. often to record and tour. He has recorded numerous albums as a leader, including several within the last few years of his life.