Gene Ammons: You Can Depend on Me—Quadromania Jazz Edition

Read About This Recording

One of the most significant tenor-saxophonists to emerge during the 1940s, Gene Ammons was a flexible player with a huge tone. He could play bebop with the best while displaying his own brand of soul that allowed him to excel on ballads and R&B-ish tunes too.

Born in Chicago in 1925, he was the son of the major boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons. Ammons played with King Kolax's group in 1943 and found his initial fame as a key soloist with the Billy Eckstine Orchestra during 1944-47. He began recording as a leader in 1947, worked with Woody Herman's Third Herd in 1949 and co-led a group with Sonny Stitt in the early 1950s. Ammons led a series of exciting jam session records in the 1950s and was a popular attraction. Unfortunately, his drug problems resulted in a long prison sentence during 1962-69 that kept him completely off the scene. After his release, Gene Ammons made a comeback and worked steadily until his premature death in 1974 from cancer at the age of 49.

You Can Depend on Me is an imported four-CD set that contains 86 selections dating from 1947-55. Nearly all of Ammons' recordings as a leader from this period are on this well-conceived package including such notable performances as "Red Top," "Brother Jug's Sermon," "Blues Up and Down" (with Stitt) and "My Foolish Heart." These three-minute gems, which include appearances by baritonist Leo Parker, trumpeter Howard McGhee, pianist Junior Mance and many top Chicago players, are consistently rewarding.

This exciting set is highly recommended.

—Scott Yanow

Contents

Imported from Europe!

Remastered!

CD 1 (TT: 58:27): Concentration; Red Top; Idaho; Concentration; Blowing Red's Top; El Sino; Ineta; Wild Leo; Leaping Leo; McDougal's Sprout; Hold That Money; Shermanski; Harold the Fox; Jeet Jet; Odd-En-Dow; Going for the Okey Doak; E.A.A.K. Blues; Blowing the Family Jewels; Sugar-Coated; Dues in Blues; Jay Jay.

CD 2 (TT: 63:09): Daddy Sauce's Airlines; Little Irv; Abdullah's Fiesta; Brother Jug's Sermon; Bless You; Stuffy; Once in a While; Ev'rything Depends on You; Hot Springs; When You're Gone; Little Slam; Pennies From Heaven; The Last Mile (The Last Check); Cha-Bootie; Full Moon; Bye Bye; Let it Be; Blues Up and Down; You Can Depend on Me; Touch of the Blues; Dumb Woman Blues.

CD 3 (TT: 61:46): Cha-Bootie; Who Put the Sleeping Pills in Rip Van Winkle's Coffee; Gravy; Easy Glide; Tenor Eleven; Goodbye; You Go to My Head; My Foolish Heart; Walkin'; I Can't Give You Anything but Love; Back in Your Own Backyard; Sweet Jennie Lou; Seven Eleven; Jug Head Rumble; Prelude to a Kiss; When I Dream of You; A Lover is Blue; 'Round About 1 A.M.; Jug; Wow; Blue and Sentimental.

CD 4 (TT: 66:24): Baby, Won't You Please Say Yes; You're Not the Kind; Ammons Boogie; Echo Chamber Blues; Hot Stuff; Them There Eyes; When the Saints Go Marching In; Archie; Undecided; Until the Real Thing Comes Along; Just Chips; Street of Dreams; Good Time Blues; Travellin' Light; Red Top; Fuzzy; Stairway to the Stars; Jim Dawgs; Sock; What I Say; This is Always; Blue Roller; Love is Here to Stay.

Gene Ammons, Tenor Sax/Vocals; Gail Brockman, Howard McGhee, Jesse Miller, Bill Massey, Johnny Coles, Nate Woodyard, Trumpets; Matthew Gee, Eph Greenleaf, Benny Green, Eli Dabney, Lino Murray, Henderson Chambers, Trombones; Leo Parker, Ernest McDonald, John Flaps Dungee, Alto Saxes/Baritone Saxes; Sonny Stitt, Mack Easton, Tenor Saxes/Baritone Saxes; Rudy Williams, Gene Easton, Baritone Saxes; James Craig, Junior Mance, Duke Jordan, Charles Bateman, Clarence Anderson, John Houston, Pianos; Christine Chatman, Piano/Vocals; Leo Blevins, Guitar; Gene Wright, Leroy Jackson, Lowell Pointer, Tommy Potter, Earl May, Ernie Shepherd, Ben Stuberville, Basses; Chuck Williams, Ellis Bartee, Wesley Landers, Ike Day, Jo Jones, Art Blakey, Teddy Stewart, George Brown, Drums; Earl Coleman, Marcel Daniels, Mary F. Graham, Vocals; Gene Ammons' Sextet; Gene Ammons' Quintet; Gene Ammons' Orchestra; Gene Ammons' Band.