Wardell Gray by Cabu

The essentials of Wardell Gray on 2 CDs.

When the body of Wardell Gray was found dead near Las Vegas at the end of May 1955, for reasons that have never been clarified, jazz tragically lost one of its most unique voices. A saxophonist emulating Lester Young , from the mid-forties he had developed an extremely attractive game whose primary virtues, namely elegance, sinuosity and inexhaustible inspiration, had made him the first great bebop tenor alongside the famous Dexter Gordon (by the way, let's listen to them both compete in imagination and swing on The Chase ).
As comfortable in the studio as in concert, in a quartet or in a big band (and not just any big band, Count Basie 's please, see Little Pony ), with Erroll Garner ( Blue Lou ) as 'with Benny Goodman ( Mary's Idea ), good-natured Ellingtonians ( The Jeep Is Jumpin' ) or die-hard boppers ( Blow, Blow, Blow, April Skies ), he literally "has a blast" on his eighteen choruses of fast blues in an anthology One O'Clock Jump .

So many superb greetings from a great soloist of yesterday to the good listeners of today...