Gene Ammons will make you FEEL

Eugene "Jug" Ammons also known as "The Boss", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, and the son of boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons
         

          Gene Ammons will make you FEEL

Gene Ammons, who had a huge and immediately recognizable and captivating tone on tenor, had the natural ability to take a tune and make it his own. He was a flexible and technically proficient player who could play in many musical idioms as well as being an incredible balladeer. He proved to be very much his own man, developing a distinctive, warm sound that nevertheless fitted well into the hard-edged playing of his colleagues. Some of his ballad renditions became hits and, despite two unfortunate interruptions in his career, Ammons remained a popular attraction for 25 years.

Born April 14, 1925 – July 23, 1974 in Chicago, Illinois, Ammons studied music with instructor Walter Dyett at DuSable High School. Ammons began to gain recognition while still at high school when in 1943, at the age of 18, he went on the road with trumpeter King Kolax's band. In 1944 he joined the band of Billy Eckstine (who bestowed on him the nickname "Jug" when straw hats ordered for the band did not fit), playing alongside Charlie Parker and later Dexter Gordon. Notable performances from this period include "Blowin' the Blues Away," featuring a saxophone duel between Ammons and Gordon. After 1947, when Eckstine became a solo performer, Ammons then led a group, including Miles Davis and Sonny Stitt, that performed at Chicago's Jumptown Club. In 1949 Ammons replaced Stan Getz as a member of Woody Herman's Second Herd, and then in 1950 formed a duet with Sonny Stitt.

Ammons had an ability to infuse originals and standards with preachy yet elegant clouds of sound, contributing to what became known as “soul jazz”. A pioneering tenor saxophonist in bebop jazz, cool school jazz, and, later, soul jazz, Gene “Jug” Ammons played alongside several of the bebop and postbop eras’ most noted players, including Charlie Parker, Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, Fats Navarro and Sonny Stitt to name a few. Ammons worked as a single throughout his career, recording frequently in settings ranging from quartets and organ combos to all-star jam sessions.
Drug problems kept him in prison during much of 1958-1960 and, due to a particularly stiff sentence, 1962-1969.

When Ammons returned to the scene in 1969, he opened up his style a bit, including some of the emotional cries of the avant-garde while utilizing funky rhythm sections, but he was still able to battle Sonny Stitt on his own terms. Ironically, the last song that he ever recorded (just a short time before he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1974) was “Goodbye.”

    Gene Ammons - Canadian Sunset (Original LP Remastered) (Full Album)


          Gene Ammons - Nice And Cool (Full Album)