Forgotten bop pioneer
A must for everyone who likes classic jazz. Wardell Gray began in the swing era playing with the likes of Count Basie, then made a smooth transition to the new thing -- bebop. One of the pioneer bop tenors, Gray's sound is lyrical, endlessly inventive and never stops swinging. In Los Angeles in the late '40s he was famed along with fellow tenor Dexter Gordon for their sax battles, which were known to keep on going long after the other musicians had packed up and gone. Gray is unjustly little remembered now because of his early mysterious death in 1955. He was only 34; his friend Gordon survived to make many more fine records and even become a movie star.
