Born on April 14, 1925, Ammons was a second-generation jazz musician from Chicago, who earned attention for his fiery work in Billy Eckstine’s big band, and his staged duels with fellow saxophonists.
DAVE DAVIES, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. Jazz tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons was born a hundred years ago on April 14, 1925. Ammons was a second-generation jazz musician from Chicago who earned early attention for his fiery work in Billy Eckstine’s big band and his staged duels with fellow saxophonists. Jazz historian Kevin Whitehead says Gene Ammons was one of the music’s great and most popular saxophone stylists.
(SOUNDBITE OF GENE AMMONS’ “BEEZY”)
KEVIN WHITEHEAD, BYLINE: Gene Ammons tearing it up on “Beezy” in 1952. The tenor saxophonist had come up in Billy Eckstine’s mid-1940s big band, whose tricky syncopations and advanced harmonies identified them with a new brand of jazz called bebop. Most boppers played intricate solo lines, but Gene Ammons favored big gestures and scooping bluesy phrases – the better to spotlight is big sound. He bounces off a classic bebop riff like it’s a trampoline on Eckstine’s “Oo Bop Sh’Bam.”
(SOUNDBITE OF BILLY ECKSTINE’S “OO BOP SH’BAM”)
WHITEHEAD: Born in Chicago, Gene Ammons had studied with the celebrated high school teacher who educated scores of jazz musicians, Walter Dyett. Gene had had a head start as the son of the great boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons. Father and Son recorded together in 1947, near the start of Gene’s career and the end of Albert’s. Their contrasting approaches to the blues mark a generational shift to a swifter new style for the atomic age. This is “Hiroshima.”
(SOUNDBITE OF ALBERT AMMONS’ “HIROSHIMA”)
WHITEHEAD: Gene Ammons’ drive and massive sound made him a ready competitor in friendly battles with other tenor players – with Dexter Gordon and Billy Eckstine’s band and then with Sonny Stitt, off and on for decades, starting around 1950.
(SOUNDBITE OF GENE AMMONS & SONNY STITT ALL STARS’ “BLUES UP AND DOWN (TAKE 3)”)
WHITEHEAD: On his own in the ’50s, Gene Ammons made plenty of up-tempo stompers, but he was also a master of tender ballads. His big tone was variable. He could bleat or blat like a rhythm and blues honker or caress a note at a whisper. His grand gestures, sudden eruptions and Lester Young-inspired repeated notes were especially effective at slow tempos, where he could really linger over a phrase.
(SOUNDBITE OF GENE AMMONS’ “OLD FOLKS”)
WHITEHEAD: Gene Ammons on “Old Folks” from 1952. In that decade, recording engineers started making his sound even more striking by bathing it in reverb. In the studio, he’d factor in that echo chamber effect, giving individual notes room to ring out.
(SOUNDBITE OF GENE AMMONS’ “CANADIAN SUNSET”)
WHITEHEAD: “Canadian Sunset,” 1962. Gene Ammons recorded a lot that year, but six years would pass before he’d record again. Ammons was a heroin user who spent most of the 1960s in an Illinois prison. On release, he got right back to work, resuming his bouts with Sonny Stitt and his recording career. The music had changed in his absence, with new electric instruments and pop influences. Gene Ammons carried on as usual. He was a populist already.
(SOUNDBITE OF GENE AMMONS’ “A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME”)
WHITEHEAD: Gene Ammons died in 1974 of cancer and pneumonia at age 49 – the up-tempo bruiser who played some of the prettiest ballads around. His bold, painterly strokes, dramatic use of space and feisty attitude could make him sound bigger than life-size at any tempo.
(SOUNDBITE OF GENE AMMONS’ “TILL THERE WAS YOU”)
DAVIES: Kevin Whitehead is the author of “New Dutch Swing,” “Why Jazz?” and “Play The Way You Feel.” On tomorrow’s show, New Yorker staff writer Sarah Stillman reports on the shocking number of people who died of starvation or dehydration in county jails, often mentally ill people arrested for minor crimes. She finds many of the deaths occur in counties where private companies are providing correctional health services. I hope you can join us.
To keep up with what’s on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @nprfreshair. FRESH AIR’s executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our managing producer is Sam Briger. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Susan Nyakundi and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. For Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, I’m Dave Davies.
(SOUNDBITE OF GENE AMMONS’ “TILL THERE WAS YOU”)
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