Gene Ammons & Sonny Stitt - God Bless Jug and Sonny

Another early 70s date from Ammons and Stitt. This is a straight ahead date in contrast to contemporary soul jazz feel of "You Talk That Talk!" (see here), with a stellar lineup of Cedar Walton at the piano, Sam Jones on bass and Billy Higgins on drums. While the pedigree of the musicians here means the lineup might be unchanged were it recorded ten or fifteen years earlier, the live recording is of stellar quality and, in particular, the reverberating bass tone marks this out distinctly as a 1970s date. Jug and Sonny pair on tenor on "Blue 'n' Boogie", "Stringin' the Jug" and "Bye Bye Blackbird" (no electric tenor here!), with Ammons taking a tenor solo for an excellent "God Bless the Child", Stitt displaying his lightning chops and soulful playing in tandem on alto on "Autumn in New York", and the rhythm section taking the fore for "Ugetsu". The music here is, as might be expected, flawless and timeless in equal measure. It was issued, at long last, in 2001 as a CD on Prestige.

Performers: Gene Ammons (t-sx), Sonny Stitt (a/t-sx), Cedar Walton (pi), Sam Jones (bs), Billy Higgins (dr)

1. Blue 'N' Boogie

2. Stringin' The Jug

3. God Bless The Child

4. Autumn In New York

5. Ugetsu

6. Bye Bye Blackbird

mp3/320kbps