A
bop
classic,
All-Star Session
was the recording debut of
Gene Ammons
as a leader with his group
the Gene Ammons All-Stars
, featuring his fellow tenor saxophonist
Sonny Stitt
. At the time,
Ammons
and
Stitt
were legendary on the
New York bop
scene for the extended cutting contests they would get into on-stage; wisely, the album re-creates that excitement on its first two extended tracks,
"Woofin' and Tweetin"
(whose 15-minutes-plus took up nearly an entire side of the original 1950 LP, still a daring move at the time) and the even-more-exciting ten-minute blast
"Juggernaut."
make an intriguing pair, with
'
Lester Young
-influenced style going up against the bluesier, rawer sound of the
Charlie Parker
disciple
; neither back down, and even the ten brief 78 sides and studio outtakes that fill out this CD feature some hot solos. A pair of
ballads
recorded around the same time,
"When I Dream of You"
"A Lover Is Blue,"
provide a much-needed breather and a bit of relaxation after the previous ten tracks' worth of classic
hard bop
. Those looking to explore
' enormous catalogs (both together and separately) could do much worse than starting right here. ~ Stewart Mason