Search - Wardell Gray :: Complete Sunset and New Jazz Masters

True BEBOP tenor

nadav haber | jerusalem Israel | 10/31/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It took me many years of listening to jazz to see that there not that many true beboppers who recorded. There were Parker and Gillespie, Fats Navarro, Sonny Criss, Bud Powell, and maybe a few more. One of the true beboppers was Wardell Gray, who was also an amazing tenor player and musician. His light sound and phrasing show a Lester Young influence, but he was an original, deeply rooted in Tenor tradition and the bebop revolution. This collection contains recordings from the years 1946-1949. Not all have the same sound quality, but Gray plays beautifully on each track. He plays clear phrases, fast or slow, displaying great musicianship. Here is someone who could really have benefitted from the hard-bop era, and we imagine how beautifully he could sound on a Blue Note or Prestige album from the early sixties, had he lived (he died at 34 in 1955). He certainly could have contributed something similar to what we got from Dexter Gordon (who's picture mistakenly appears on the cover. This mistake is now fixed on the cd's).
On the few ballads Gray shows great sensibility, and a feathery sound that is truly "music to my ears".
Other who play on the cd include Dodo Marmaroza, Erroll Garner, Al Haig, Dexter Gordon (the CHASE), and Roy Haynes.
This is recommended to all who want to hear a great bebop tenor in his prime."

A little bop trivia re: "Easy Swing" & Bird's "Steeplechase"

PH-50-NC | Southeast USA | 06/16/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a great collection--no need for me to review it here. But, as I was just listening to Wardell's "Easy Swing" (featured on this CD), I knew the melody was familiar from somewhere else...



"Easy Swing" is the same tune that Charlie Parker recorded two years later as "Steeplechase". I imagine Gray and Bird crossed paths a few times during the summer/fall of 1946 when Bird was in Los Angeles (Wardell recorded 'Easy Swing' in Nov. of 1946; later, Bird employed Gray on the 'Relaxin' at Camarillo' session, Feb. 1947).



Perhaps some researcher has already documented who wrote this tune; maybe neither Bird nor Wardell wrote "Easy Swing"/"Steeplechase".



Anyway, it's certainly not the only example in swing and bop of a tune going under two different titles and attributed to two different authors. It would be nice if, 60 years on, liner notes and discographies could reflect these, ah, "title schizophrenias" so listeners wouldn't think they were going crazy!



Also, this CD lists Gray as the composer of "Blue Lou", which is usally credited to saxophonist Edgar Sampson and manager/impressario Irving Mills.



All this is trivia, true--the music is what matters--but credit should go where it's due."