When you get up in the morning, you must have a song - Ray Charles

Friday, March 5, 2010

Wardell Gray - Central Avenue

I really dig Wardell Gray. I love the way he embraces bebop and swing both and yet manages to be the precursor to that whole west coast sound.

Gray later became semi-famous for his battles with Dex but I think these sessions stand up as well as anything he did.

Most have been reissued in various forms but were originally released as Prestige 78's.

Everything here comes from a Prestige twofer released the year I graduated high school. I can't imagine how I missed it. Due to time constraints I have not included a couple of alternate takes.

Wardell Gray
Central Avenue

  1. Twisted*
  2. Easy Living*
  3. Southside*
  4. Sweet Lorraine*
  5. Scrapple from The Apple #
  6. Move #
  7. A Sinner Kissed an Angel ~
  8. Blue Gray ~
  9. Grayhound ~
  10. Treadin ~
  11. April Skies ^
  12. Bright Boy ^
  13. Jackie ^
  14. Farmer's Market^
  15. Sweet and lovely ^
  16. Lover man ^
  17. The Man I Love +
  18. Lavonne +
  19. So Long Broadway +
  20. Paul's Cause +

Wardell Gray - tenor sax with
Al Haig - piano
Tommy Potter - bass
Roy Haynes - drums
Clark Terry - trumpet
Sonny Criss - alto sax
Dexter Gordon - tenor sax
Jimmy Bunn - piano
Billy Hadnott - bass
Chuck Thompson - drums
Phil Hill - piano
John Richardson - bass
Art Madigan - drums
Art Farmer - trumpet
Hampton Hawes - piano
Harper Crosby - bass
Lawrence Marable - drums
Robert Collier - conga
Frank Morgan - alto sax
Sonny Clark - piano
Teddy Charles - vibes
Dick Nivison - bass

* nyc - 11/11/49
# hula hut, LA - live - 8/27/50
~ Detroit - 4/25/50
^ LA - 1/21/52
+ LA - 2/20/53


Prestige P-24062

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sweet, thank you

brian said...

The first track (Twisted) have zero kb!

Could you repost it, please!

Hookfinger said...

Sorry Brian, I am having some serious issues with my cd burner. New one on the way =m I'll fix the tracks then.

2bad said...

Thanks, hook. Wardell is great but not so easy to find for some reason.

Unknown said...

Hi, great blog.

Any chance of a repost for Wardell Gray's Central Avenue?

Thanks,

Gavin (formerly pig bodine of BCB)

Hookfinger said...

Hell yeah, Gavin. Thanks for dropping by. A perfect opportunity to revisit a classic and fix it up. I'll get it up over the weekend.

BTW - do you have my email? I have some other non-postable stuff I think you would really dig.