Metronome
Bill Coss : August, 1959

Mal wrote all the lines and, as is most often the case, he is the most interesting soloist on the record. Occasionally, everything gets out of hand, but the major credit is the obvious vitality and enthusiasm applied to lines which are not without merit. If you like your jazz of the ride-them-down variety, this is for you. Everyone solos and, within that groove, solos well. But it is Gene’s LP and he is particularly adept.

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Pittsburgh Courier
Harold L. Keith : 03/14/1959
Four stars

Jug Ammons, whose given name is Gene, is one of the few remaining tenor saxmen whose style of play remains glued to the swinging Kaycee Blues style made popular by the late: Herschel Evans and the inimitable Lester (Pres) Young. Mr. Ammons’ newest thing has been cut in the capable company of sidemen Idrees Sulleman, Pepper Adams, Mal Waldron, Art Taylor and Doug Watkins. Ray Barrette also puts his conga to work on Prestige LP. 7146. Ammons is at his proverbial best on Blue Gene, a grand improvisation on the evergreen blues.

Although Gene still relies on old cliches, he still sounds good and is extremely worthy of listening. Sulieman gets in some awesome licks on his trumpet. Scampein’, a fast-moving item, Blue Greens and Beans and Hip Tip.

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San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, CA)
C.H. Garrigues : 06/07/1959

The Prestige album shows not only Ammons’ tenor but Idrees Sulieman’s trumpet at their very best and spotlights this as one of the best horn combinations in the country. The four compositions are by Mal Waldron (last heard here as accompanist to Billie Holiday) who plays piano on all tracks. They are free blowing, very soul-filled affairs from beginning to end. Roy Barretto’s conga adds an element of novelty which merely suggests, and does not emphasize, an Afro-Cuban under-coloring. It is very effective in this hard-blues context.

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Westbury Times (Westbury, NY)
Dick Levy : 02/05/1959
Rated Excellent

Idrees Sulieman, Pepper Adams, Mal Waldron and Arthur Taylor are several of the artists presented
in this strongly communicative blues set. There are four tracks, each one blessed with an abundance of superior musicianship and inspiring performances. Blue Gene is a very slow earthy piece. Dig Gene, Waldron and Adams in some very constructive statements. In Scamperin’, wailing moments of value are had by Gene, Adams and Idrees behind some swinging conga work by Ray Barretto. Blue Greens is a real funky medium shouter (Gene and Pepper star) and the relaxed Hip Tip is well stated by all.

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Down Beat : 04/02/1959
John A. Tynan : 3 stars

For a blowing session such as this, the instrumentation is ideal. The horns complement each other from the standpoint of tonal balance, the rhythm section is strong and reliable and the charts (such as they are) are simple, uncomplex vehicles on which the guys happily ride to market.

Blue Gene is a slow blues with a typically intriguing Waldron lecture on the virtues of funk and a thoughtful Watkins bass solo. The aptly titled Scamperin’ is an up-tempo hustler on which Ammons spends a lot of time generating a kind of Hamptonian pseudo-excitement. Adams fails to rise above ordinary level and Sulieman only just makes his destination after detouring through a couple of startling references to the song, Dixie.

Blue Greens, in a medium groove, has exchanges of fours between the horns in which Adams gets his point across most effectively. Hip Tip, Waldron’s minor ballad, is marred a little by Gene’s rather braying tone and somewhat stodgy conception. Piano comping and solo, though, are excellent.

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Liner Notes by Ira Gitler

Anyone who has listened to jazz for an appreciable length of time has recollections stored up which are released in a ticker-tape stream across the mind when a name of any particular musician is mentioned. As I prepared to write this liner about Gene Ammons, phrases and incidents concerning him began flashing into my head.

Gene in the Billy Eckstine band — Blowin’ The Blues Away, Cool Breeze, Jitney Man… pictures in old Metronomes — some tribute to a musician onstage at the Apollo Theater — lineup of guest stars — part of the caption read something like, “Eugene Ammons, tenor-playing son of Albert Ammons” — another shot of Eckstine’s band climbing twelve flights of stairs to record during elevator strike — Gene in foreground — Navarro, Blakey and Tommy Potter also in view record playing in Main Stem (long gone Broadway record shop) — Red Top with Gail Brockman on trumpet — another record Dues In Blues with soulful alto by Flaps Dungee — other Ammons records — Junior Mance on piano, Ernie McDonald on baritone — once saw Ernie McDonald at the Regal Theater in Chicago come sliding out from his chair in a big-band to take a wild tenor solo to a frantic cockatoo, appearing on the same bill, which had gotten loose from its owner backstage… in R.O.T.C. at college — walking across field to drill class — tenor wailing over speaker system from which martial music usually was emanating — sounded like Allen Eager to me — advanced immediately to field shack to find sergeant playing St. Louis Blues by the Ammonses, père et fils… Birdland’s opening show — Christmastime 1949 — Gene doing a single with a rhythm section from another group — playeed a Pres-like I Can’t Give you Anything But Love… Birland again — about a year later — Jug (his nickname – short for Jughead) battling it out with Sonny Stitt on Blues Up And Down… in the recording studio — the old Apex on West 57th — in between takes — Gene marching all around the room blowing all the while with his big, fat sound — the rhythm section just sitting there, digging him — too bad the cutting machine (pre-tape) wasn’t going… sitting in drugstore with Bob Weinstock — eating lunch — boxes of Ammens Foot Powder caught our eyes — chortled about this reminder of Jug… another friend used to call him Mr. Ammonia — no valid connection with Gene — that cat just likes to play with words — he must have called him Gene Almonds at one time or another too…

Of course, Gene Ammons’ more recent activities, his second trip aboard the Prestige ship, entered my mind too. These, have included a series of jam sessions, recorded exclusively for LP, during the years 1955 through 1958. In these sessions, Gene has been surrounded by all star groups peopled by musicians like Art Farmer, Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, Lou Donaldson, Paul Quinichette, Jerome Richardson, Duke Jordan, John Coltrane and Kenny Burrell. This set is no exception and all but one of the supporting cast have accompanied him in one or more of his previous Prestige outings.

Idrees Sulieman, he of the volatile trumpet, was a collaborator in Jammin’ In Hi Fi With Gene Ammons (7110). Idrees favorite trumpeters are Dizzy Gillespie and Clifford Brown. The bent of his playing, although very personal, shows where he comes from. Born into a musical family of St. Petersburg, Florida in 1923, Idrees first impressed listeners in the New York area with his playing in the groups of Sid Catlett and Thelonious Monk in the mid-Forties. He has had big band experience with Calloway, Hampton, Hines, Basie and Gillespie, among others. Recently, he has been free-lancing around New York.

Detroit’s gift to the baritone saxophone, Pepper Adams, was a member of the last Ammons outing, The Big Sound (7132). Pepper’s first experience was gathered in Rochester, N.Y. as a tenor player (Incidentally, his 1930 birthplace was Highland Park, Illinois, not Detroit as I, and some others, have erroneously stated in the past.) In Detroit he began playing bari and worked with Lucky Thompson, Jimmy Richardson and, later, Kenny Burrell. His horn was brought to the attention of the jazz public-at-large with the orchestras of Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson in 1956-57. 1958 found him at the head of his own group at both the Five Spot Cafe and the Great South Bay Jazz Festival.

Mal Waldron, Billie Holiday’s accompanist and a group leader in his own right (on Prestige and, occasionally, in person), has contributed to four previous Ammons ambles. Mal, as a writer and player, graced Jammin’ With Gene (7060), Funky (7083) and the two mentioned for Sulieman and Adams For Blue Gene, he wrote all the lines, including the ballad, Hip Tip. Usually. Gene plays a standard for his ballad offering.

Bassist Doug Watkins, a veteran of many Prestige dates, can count 7060 and 7083 among his recording souvenirs. Doug, who has been heard with Art Blakey and Horace Silver, recently returned from several months of playing in Europe.

Art Taylor was the drummer with the same European touring group (Donald Byrd was another member) as Watkins. A.T. has probably appeared on Prestige more than any other musician. He has been on every Ammons session but one Art and Doug are a good team, as their many appearances on this label will bear out.

Added to the team for this LB (long blowing) is congero Ray Barretto. Those of you who heard Ray in Red Garland’s Manteca (7139) are well aware of his qualities as a jazz conga player. More than any other performer on this Latin drum, he understands its use in a jazz context. Ray has played with Tito Puente, Pete Terrace et al but was sitting in with jazz combos before he ever played with these Latin bands.

The happy-sad, slow blues, Blue Gene opens the set followed by the fast blues, Scamperin’. The second side has still another blues, this time it is in a medium-funk groove, appropriately titled Blue Greens ‘N Beans. The minor-keyed ballad, Hip Tip, closes the set Since there is only one man for each type of instrument, you will have no trouble identifying the soloists. Everyone but Taylor and Barretto, gets a chance to blow at length in what is a relaxed, yet inspired, session. Although Art and Ray don’t solo, they demonstrate, throughout, that they know what swinging is all about.