All-Star Sessions

• Artist: Gene Ammons All Stars With Sonny Stitt
• Rating:
• Release Date: 1955
• Total Time: 54:40
• Type: Compilation (best of), Instrumental
• Genre: Jazz

Review

A bop classic, All-Star Session was the recording debut of Gene Ammons as a leader with his group the Gene Ammons All-Stars, featuring his fellow tenor saxophonist Sonny Stitt. At the time, Ammons and Stitt were legendary on the New York bop scene for the extended cutting contests they would get into on-stage; wisely, the album re-creates that excitement on its first two extended tracks, "Woofin' and Tweetin" (whose 15-minutes-plus took up nearly an entire side of the original 1950 LP, still a daring move at the time) and the even-more-exciting ten-minute blast "Juggernaut." Stitt and Ammons make an intriguing pair, with Ammons' Lester Young-influenced style going up against the bluesier, rawer sound of the Charlie Parker disciple Stitt; neither back down, and even the ten brief 78 sides and studio outtakes that fill out this CD feature some hot solos. A pair of ballads recorded around the same time, "When I Dream of You" and "A Lover Is Blue," provide a much-needed breather and a bit of relaxation after the previous ten tracks' worth of classic hard bop. Those looking to explore Stitt and Ammons' enormous catalogs (both together and separately) could do much worse than starting right here. ~ Stewart Mason, Rovi

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