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Classic Jam Session work from Norman Granz – featuring a group with Stan Getz, Harry Edison, Wardell Gray, Benny Carter, Willie Smith, Buddy De Franco, Count Basie, and Freddie Green – on two long tracks, "Oh Lady Be Good" and "Blues For The Count". The session's got a number of interesting aspects – Basie plays organ, Getz is a bit harder than usual, and Willie Smith sounds great, as always, in one of his rare appearances from the time.

Volume 2 of a 2 LP set that brings together nearly all of Wardell Gray's classic LA bop recordings for Prestige – most of which were issued originally only on 45s and 78s. The players include the cream of the LA scene of the time – including Dexter Gordon, Sonny Criss, and Hampton Hawes – and tracks include long takes of "Move" and "Scrapple From The Apple", his famous "chase" with Gordon – plus "April Skies", "Jackie", "Farmer's Market", and "Bright Boy".

Volume 2 of a 2 LP set that brings together nearly all of Wardell Gray's classic LA bop recordings for Prestige – most of which were issued originally only on 45s and 78s. The players include the cream of the LA scene of the time – including Dexter Gordon, Sonny Criss, and Hampton Hawes – and tracks include classic long takes of "Move" and "Scrapple From The Apple", his famous "chase" with Gordon – plus "April Skies", "Jackie", "Farmer's Market", and "Bright Boy".

The first entry into Savoy's amazing Hollywood Jazz Session series – and a live recording that spans both sides of the record with just one track! Wardelly Gray and Dexter Gordon go head to head in a lineup that also includes Howard McGhee on trumpet, Trummy Young on trombone, Barney Kessel on guitar, and Hampton Hawes on piano – all joining together to show that the west coast had a very hard bop sound going on back in the late 40s – a hard-burning way of trading solos, heard beautifully in an extended performance of "Byas A Drink"!

Volume 1 of a 2 LP set that brings together nearly all of Wardell Gray's classic LA bop recordings for Prestige – most of which were issued originally only on 45s and 78s! The players include the cream of bebop at the time – both from LA and from New York – and artists here include Sonny Clark, Al Haig, Roy Haynes, Teddy Charles, and Lawrence Marable. The set's got a lot of shorter tracks – like his classic "Twisted" (covered vocally by Annie Ross and Joni Mitchell in later years), "Southside", "Treadin", and "Paul's Cause".

Volume 2 of a 2 LP set that brings together nearly all of Wardell Gray's classic LA bop recordings for Prestige – most of which were issued originally only on 45s and 78s. The players include the cream of the LA scene of the time – including Dexter Gordon, Sonny Criss, and Hampton Hawes – and tracks include classic long takes of "Move" and "Scrapple From The Apple", his famous "chase" with Gordon – plus "April Skies", "Jackie", "Farmer's Market", and "Bright Boy".

A rarity from the bop era – hard-blowing tracks that run for a duration that's way longer than the standard three minutes of most 78rpm singles. Here, Gordon and Gray blow head to head in some of their famous "battle" sessions – working with players like Sonny Criss, Howard McGhee, Hampton Hawes, and Barney Kessel in a format that was very popular on the LA bop scene. Each side of the 2LP set features one long track – and titles include "Disorder At The Border", "Cherokee", "Byas A Drink", and "The Hunt". Great 70s package – with notes on all the material the material.

Seminal sounds from the LA scene of the late 40s – one of the most important records to showcase the tenor talents of the legendary Wardell Gray – a key player on the harder side of the west coast for its formative bop years – and one whose career was cut short all too soon! The material here really shows that strong LA tradition of fervent jam session work – recorded here with Gray alongside additional tenor from Vido Musso – plus guitar from Barney Kessel and Irving Ashby, trumpet from Ernie Royal and Howard McGhee, trombone from Vic Dickenson, piano from Arnold Ross and Erroll Garner, and bass from Red Callender and Harry Babison. Tracks are nice and long – with plenty of room for Gray to show of his solo talents – and titles include "Tenderly", "Blue Lou", "Just You Just Me", and "One O'Clock Jump".

Some of the most hard-edged work cut by Stan Getz in the early years – a great reminder that he could really open up with the best of the bop world – and not just lay back and get mellow with an electric guitar! The setting has Stan working with some key west coast talents – including Wardell Gray on tenor, Sonny Criss and Willie Smith on alto, Charlie Shavers and Howard McGhee on trumpets, and Red Norvo on vibes – all players who stretch out with Stan on some longer open-ended tracks that really echo the west coast jam session mode of the time! Titles include "Hot House", "How High The Moon", "I Got Rhythm", and "Groovin High".

Way more than just a Dexter Gordon album – and instead, an important historic document of the bop scene on the west coast! The 3CD set features the complete recordings from an Elks Auditorium concert in 1947 – lots of long jam session tracks that not only feature history "battles" between Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray, but also key work from trumpeter Howard McGhee, tenorist Bill Moore, and alto player Sonny Criss! The lineup shows the hardest side of the LA scene at the time – and although Savoy did issue edits of the material on some key albums, this set of almost 3 hours of music is the first time the whole thing's appeared like this. Titles include "Bopera", "What Is This Thing Called Love", "Body & Soul", "Back Breaker", "The Hunt", "Bopland", "Bop After Hours", "Perdido", "Merry Go Round Blues", and "Blow Blow Blow".

A great collection of work by Fats Navarro – his complete Blue Note recordings, and a masterful collection of trumpet-based bop! There's are a total of 26 songs on this 2 LP set and several groups that Navarro played with are represented – The Tadd Dameron Sextet & Septet, The McGhee/Navarro Boptet and Bud Powell's Modernists. Other members of these groups included Charlie Rouse, Wardell Gray, Kenny Clarke, Milt Jackson and many more. Titles include "Our Delight", "The Chase", "Dameronia", "Lady Bird", "Double Talk", "The Skunk", "Dance Of The Infidels", and "Wail".

Amazing work from the early, legendary years of Billy Eckstine – that time when he was fronting one of the hippest backing groups a vocalist could hope to have! Eckstine's voice was already becoming the stuff of legend by the time of these recordings – but thanks to contributions from a host of famous boppers, his band was getting equal fame, too – a really legendary lineup that includes such greats as Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie,Kenny Dorham, and Fats Navarro on trumpets; Wardell Gray, Dexter Gordon, and Gene Ammons on tenor; Leo Parker on baritone; Art Blakey on drums; and many other huge names too! The band was virtually a school for a whole generation of jazzmen to come – allowing them to play together, get to know each other, and spin off in important small groups – much in the way the Kenton group a few years later allowed so much development on the west coast. And amidst all this great music, Billy's vocals have never sounded better – much bolder and hard-swinging than in later years!

A flurry of early harmonica jazz recordings from the early 50s – mostly by a young Toots Thielemans, but also featuring a number of tracks from the lesser-known Les Thompson as well! The tracks by Toots are mostly European recordings, done at a time when he was first feeling out a space for his instrument in jazz – and years before he became THE player on his instrument, used in countless sessions, studio work, and soundtracks. All recordings were done in Europe, and include material by Toots' own group, plus performances under the leadership of Zoot Sims and Benny Goodman. Titles include "Nalen Boogie", "Red Devil's Boogie", "Harmonica Rag", "Toots Blues", "Happy Go Lazy", and "All The Things You Are". The last 8 tracks on the set all feature Les Thompson working during a live Gene Norman Presents date in Pasadena in February 1952 – most of which also includes performances by Conte Candoli, Dexter Gordon, and Wardell Gray – on titles that include "Undecided", "Lady Be Good", "I'm In The Mood For Love", "Stardust", and "Hot Harmonica".

An unusual record that's had folks puzzling for decades – but one that's also kept their interest too, thanks to the quality of the music on the set! The record's got an unusual gimmick – in that it promises to feature all-star players encumbered by record contracts with other labels – listed as possibilities on the back that include Howrad McGhee, Wardell Gray, Teddy Edwards, Charlie Parker, and others. Yet it's our guess that this might be a pretty obscure lineup, but a great one too – and most numbers are live recordings, done with a hell of a lot of bop fire – quite possibly pulled from that late 40s stretch when Crown/Modern Records was doing a great job of capturing some of the early bop in LA! There's more than a few trumpets at times – and we're guessing one might be McGhee – and given their penchant for recording Vido Musso and Wardell Gray, it's quite possible both of these players are in the mix too. Yet despite the lack of real data on the players, the whole thing's a musical treasure with plenty of soulful bop on offer. Titles include "Ben's Mood", "Steady Teddy", "Deep Purple", "Big Boy (parts 1 & 2)", "Why Not", and "Stompin".