Wardell Gray (February 13, 1921 – May 25, 1955) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

tenor saxophonist The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

who straddled the

swing Swing or swinging may refer to: Apparatus * Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth * Pendulum, an object that swings * Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus * Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse * Swing ri ...

and

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...

periods.

Biography

Early years

Gray was born in

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...

, the youngest of four children. He spent his early childhood years in Oklahoma, before he and his family moved to

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Joop Visser, "Dexter Gordon: Settin' the Pace", Proper Records, p23 in 1929. In early 1935, Gray began attending Northeastern High School, then transferred to

Cass Technical High School Cass Technical High School (simply referred to as Cass Tech) is a public high school in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, United States.

, noted for having

Donald Byrd Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (December 9, 1932 – February 4, 2013) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues trumpeter and vocalist. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was one of the few hard bop ...

Lucky Thompson Eli "Lucky" Thompson (June 16, 1924 – July 30, 2005) was an American jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist whose playing combined elements of swing and bebop. Although John Coltrane usually receives the most credit for bringing the soprano sa ...

and

Al McKibbon Al McKibbon (January 1, 1919 – July 29, 2005) was an American jazz double bassist, known for his work in bop, hard bop, and Latin jazz. In 1947, after working with Lucky Millinder, Tab Smith, J. C. Heard, and Coleman Hawkins, he replaced ...

as alumni. He left in 1936, before graduating. Advised by his brother-in-law Junior Warren, as a teenager he started on the

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitch ...

, but after hearing

Lester Young Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist. Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most ...

on record with

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

, he was inspired to switch to tenor saxophone. Gray's first musical job was in Isaac Goodwin's small band, a part-time outfit that played local dances. When auditioning for another job, he was heard by Dorothy Patton, a young pianist who was forming a band in the Fraternal Club in

Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of ...

, and she hired him. After a very happy year there, he moved to Jimmy Raschel's band (Raschel had recorded a few sides earlier in the 1930s but did not do so again), then to the Benny Carew band in

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

, Michigan. It was at around this time that he met Jeanne Goings; together they had a daughter, Anita, who was born in January 1941.

With the Earl Hines Orchestra

Just up the road from the Congo Club was the Three Sixes; A young dancer Jeri Walker knew

Earl Hines Earl Kenneth Hines, also known as Earl "Fatha" Hines (December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983), was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. He was one of the most influential figures in the development of jazz piano and, according to one source, " ...

, and when the Hines band came through Detroit in late 1943, she persuaded Earl to hire Wardell—on alto, since there was no tenor vacancy at the time. This was a big break for the 21-year-old, as the Earl Hines Orchestra was not only nationally known, but had nurtured the careers of some of the emerging bebop musicians, including

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but a ...

and

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

. Although most of them had left by the time Gray joined, playing with the Hines band was still a lively and stimulating experience for the young tenor player. They toured the country, and it was when they were in California that Gray met Dorothy Duvall. She was married but, although the marriage was on the point of collapse, an unfortunate intervention by a "friend" led Gray to believe that this was not so, and he returned to Jeri; they were married in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

in September 1945. Wardell spent approximately three years with Hines, and matured rapidly. He was soon a featured soloist, and the band's recordings show a relaxed, fluent stylist very much in the Lester Young mold. While some of the live Jubilee sessions have been reissued on CD (1), the studio recordings from 1945-46 are still available only on LP.

Arrival on the West Coast

He left Hines late in 1946, settling in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

; soon after arriving there, he recorded the first session under his own name. This was a quartet session for Eddie Laguna's Sunset label, and on it Wardell had strong support from

Dodo Marmarosa Michael "Dodo" Marmarosa (December 12, 1925 – September 17, 2002) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. Originating in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Marmarosa became a professional musician in his mid-teens, and toured with several ...

on piano. The date produced some excellent sides, notably " Easy Swing" and " The Man I Love"; there is a reissue of the whole session, including alternate takes (2), but a selection is available on (12). In Los Angeles, Wardell worked in a number of bands including

Benny Carter Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career ...

, the blues singer

Ivory Joe Hunter Ivory Joe Hunter (October 10, 1914 – November 8, 1974) was an American rhythm-and-blues singer, songwriter, and pianist. After a series of hits on the US R&B chart starting in the mid-1940s, he became more widely known for his hit recordin ...

, and the small group that supported singer

Billy Eckstine William Clarence Eckstine (July 8, 1914 – March 8, 1993) was an American jazz and pop singer and a bandleader during the swing and bebop eras. He was noted for his rich, almost operatic bass-baritone voice. In 2019, Eckstine was posthumously ...

on a tour of the West Coast. But the real focus in LA at this time was in the clubs along Central Avenue, which was still thriving after the boom years brought about by the huge injection of wartime defence spending. Here Wardell found his element, playing in the mainly after-hours sessions in clubs such as Jack's Basket Room, the Down Beat, Lovejoy's and the Club Alabam, and his early success in these sessions led Ross Russell to include him in a studio session he was organising for his Dial label. The session was designed as a showcase for Charlie Parker, but Wardell acquitted himself superbly, showing no sign at all of being over-awed by Parker's presence (3). It was in the Central Avenue clubs that Wardell held his tenor battles with

Dexter Gordon Dexter Gordon (February 27, 1923 – April 25, 1990) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and actor. He was among the most influential early bebop musicians, which included other greats such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gi ...

. These two were ideally matched: Wardell's light sound and swift delivery were more than a match for Dexter's big, blustering sound, and their tenor jousts became a kind of symbol for the Central Avenue scene. Gordon later recalled: "There'd be a lot of cats on the stand but by the end of the session it would wind up with Wardell and myself.... His playing was very fluid, very clean.... He had a lot of drive and a profusion of ideas". Their fame began to spread, and Ross Russell managed to get them to simulate one of their battles on "The Chase" (4), which became Wardell's first nationally known recording and has been assessed as "one of the most exciting musical contests in the history of jazz". The success of "The Chase" was the break that Wardell needed, and he became increasingly prominent in public sessions in and around LA, including the "Just Jazz" series of jam sessions organised by the disc jockey

Gene Norman GNP Crescendo Record Co. is an independent record label founded in 1954 by Gene Norman ''(né'' Eugene Abraham Nabatoff; 1922–2015). It started as a producer of jazz, then expanded into many other genres, including comedy, rock, and ''Star Trek' ...

. There were concerts at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium and the

Shrine Auditorium The Shrine Auditorium is a landmark large-event venue in Los Angeles, California. It is also the headquarters of the Al Malaikah Temple, a division of the Shriners. It was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument (No. 139) in 1975, and ...

and other venues (5, 6, 7). The session, which included "

Just You, Just Me "Just You, Just Me" is a song from the 1929 musical film ''Marianne'', composed by Jesse Greer with lyrics by Raymond Klages. It was introduced by Marion Davies and Lawrence Gray. The song has had many revisions after its first appearance and has b ...

" and "

Sweet Georgia Brown "Sweet Georgia Brown" is a jazz standard composed in 1925 by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard, with lyrics by Kenneth Casey. History Reportedly, Ben Bernie came up with the concept for the song's lyrics – although he is not the credited lyricis ...

", has some of Wardell's best playing, but the only CD version of this is crudely abbreviated. (Several unedited versions of these performances have since been issued.) A 1947 concert at the Elks Ballroom in Los Angeles featured both Wardell and Dexter Gordon, and included an 18-minute performance released on 8 78 RPM records as "The Hunt"; the entire concert has been released as a 3-CD set(21)

Benny Goodman and Count Basie

Apart from a spell with a small band led by Al Killian (some Jubilee recordings by this group (8) show Wardell in fine form) Wardell was still working mainly in one-off sessions during 1947. However, at a concert around the turn of that year which also featured

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His conc ...

, Wardell so impressed the clarinettist that Goodman hired him for a small group which he was just setting up as part of his flirtation with bebop. Goodman had previously been highly critical of bop playing but, speaking of Wardell to ''

Metronome magazine ''Metronome'' was a music magazine published from January 1885 to December 1961. History Founding (1885) Bandmaster Arthur Albert Clappé (1850–1920) first published ''The Metronome'' in January 1885 for band leaders. In 1891, Harry Colema ...

'', he said that "if he's bop, that's great. He's wonderful!" Goodman's new group included the young

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

clarinettist Ake "Stan" Hasselgard and, initially,

Teddy Wilson Theodore Shaw Wilson (November 24, 1912 – July 31, 1986) was an American jazz pianist. Described by critic Scott Yanow as "the definitive swing pianist", Wilson had a sophisticated, elegant style. His work was featured on the records of many ...

, and it opened at

Frank Palumbo Frank Palumbo (May 23, 1911 – February 12, 1983) was an American power broker, political boss, entrepreneur and racketeer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is best known as the owner of Palumbo's, an entertainment complex in South Philadelphi ...

's Click Club in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

in May 1948. Enthusiasts recorded the nightly broadcasts from the club, some of the best of which have been released on CD (9), and they contain some superbly relaxed, fluent tenor work from Wardell. There is little sign of bop in the group's playing, the only noticeable influence being in some of Wardell's phrasing and in aspects of

Mary Lou Williams Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, an ...

' arrangements for the band. The group was not, however, a financial success and Goodman eventually broke it up, but by now Wardell was fully established on the East Coast as an up-and-coming musician. For a while in late 1948/early 1949 he worked with the

Count Basie Orchestra The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 19 ...

, while also managing to record with Tadd Dameron (10) and, in excellent quartet and quintet sessions, with

Al Haig Alan Warren Haig (July 19, 1922 – November 16, 1982) was an American jazz pianist, best known as one of the pioneers of bebop. Biography Haig was born in Newark, New Jersey and raised in nearby Nutley. In 1940, he majored in piano at Obe ...

(11, 12). The quartet session included "Twisted", one of Wardell's best-known recordings which was used as the basis for a best-selling vocalese version by

Annie Ross Annabelle McCauley Allan Short (25 July 193021 July 2020), known professionally as Annie Ross, was a British-American singer and actress, best known as a member of the jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Early life Ross was born in Surr ...

. Wardell left Basie in 1949 to return to Benny Goodman. However, life in the Goodman band became increasingly uncongenial for him. In addition, his marriage to Jeri was breaking up. Goodman was not an easy employer at the best of times and this, combined with the constant travelling, made Wardell increasingly unhappy: recordings of the band, both studio sessions (13) and live airshots (14, 15), feature work by Wardell that is below his own best standards. (That it is the Goodman surroundings that was the problem, rather than any fall-off in Wardell's ability, is shown in a session recorded with local musicians in Detroit (11, 18); Wardell's work on this session is exemplary). On leaving Goodman, Wardell rejoined Count Basie. Basie had bowed to economic pressures and broken up his big band, forming a septet which included

Clark Terry Clark Virgil Terry Jr. (December 14, 1920 – February 21, 2015) was an American swing and bebop trumpeter, a pioneer of the flugelhorn in jazz, and a composer and educator. He played with Charlie Barnet (1947), Count Basie (1948–51), Duk ...

and

Buddy DeFranco Boniface Ferdinand Leonard "Buddy" DeFranco (February 17, 1923 – December 24, 2014) was an Italian-American jazz clarinetist. In addition to his work as a bandleader, DeFranco led the Glenn Miller Orchestra for almost a decade in the 1960s and ...

; Wardell joined them in, probably, July 1950. This setting was a much happier one for him and the group enjoyed some success; airshots from the time show a very relaxed, swinging band with no weak links (16). It was during this good time from a musical point of view, that Wardell's personal life also became happier. He was finally divorced from Jeri and was at last free to marry Dorothy and, together with Dorothy's daughter, Paula, they set up in a little house in Los Angeles. The only drawback to working with Basie (who had by now enlarged his group again to big band size) was the constant travelling, and Wardell eventually decided to leave so that he could enjoy more home life. The decision was entirely understandable, though the Basie rhythm section was ideally suited to Wardell's brand of swing and, from a musical point of view, enthusiasts for his playing may regret his decision. And an unexpected side-effect was that, because work in the LA area was short (for black musicians, anyway) Wardell still had to travel frequently in search of jobs. Nevertheless, life at home was good, and one of the few interviews that he ever gave (to the British ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

'') showed that he was very happy. In 1950, Gray played a live concert at the San Francisco Veteran's Memorial Hall as a guest with Gerald Wilson's band. Remarkably captured in high fidelity stereo (the only such example in his discography), this recording was released for the first time in 2006 (17). Gray can be heard in fine form during featured solo spots with small combo backup on " Nice Work if You Can Get It" and "

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

" and also with Wilson's big band on the blues "Hollywood Freeway" where Gray trades exciting choruses with

Zoot Sims John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...

and

Stan Getz Stanley Getz (February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre ...

The decline

At around this time his recording sessions started becoming fewer—though a live session with Dexter Gordon, recreating the excitements of Central Avenue, and a studio session with

Art Farmer Arthur Stewart Farmer (August 21, 1928 – October 4, 1999) was an American jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player. He also played flumpet, a trumpet–flugelhorn combination especially designed for him. He and his identical twin brother, doub ...

and Hampton Hawes (both on 18), have fine examples of Wardell's playing. However, there are increasing signs of a lack of engagement in Wardell's work around 1951/52, notably in a further live session with

from February 1952 (5), and it seems that he may have been becoming disillusioned with the music business. That he was still capable of playing superbly is shown by his work on a live jam session at

The Haig The Haig was a jazz club located at 638 South Kenmore Avenue in Hollywood. Along with the Tiffany Club it was one of Los Angeles's premier jazz venues in the 1950s and strongly associated with West Coast jazz. History Author James Lincoln Col ...

(19), but such sessions were by now very sparse, and more typical work from this period was recorded on a session with Teddy Charles (17). At around this time, Gray apparently became involved with drugs; friends reported that this was taking its toll. His playing was now less fluent, and a studio session in January 1955 (12), which was to be his last, shows strong but (by his own standards) rather unsubtle playing.

Disappearance and death

Gray was still working regularly despite his drug problems, and when

was engaged in May 1955 to provide the band at the opening of the

Moulin Rouge Hotel The Moulin Rouge Hotel was a hotel and casino located in West Las Vegas that was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1992. Although its peak operation lasted only six months in the second half of 1955, it was the first dese ...

, he called on Gray. Gray attended rehearsals but was absent when the club opened on May 25. The next day he was found on a stretch of desert on the outskirts of Las Vegas dead with a broken neck. Although various sources still describe the circumstances of Gray's death as mysterious, the closing note of a solography on the tribute web site wardellgray.org states that "''The circumstances are now clear (ref. Han Schulte interviewing Teddy Edwards in the late 80s): Teddy was on the spot, May 1955 in Las Vegas, when WG died in his hotel room after an overdose. His friends, working with the group of Benny Carter in LA, wanted no police trouble, so they put his body in a car and brought it to the desert. By unloading, the body fell on the ground and his neck was broken. That's it.''"

In popular culture

James Ellroy Lee Earle "James" Ellroy (born March 4, 1948) is an American crime fiction writer and essayist. Ellroy has become known for a telegrammatic prose style in his most recent work, wherein he frequently omits connecting words and uses only short, s ...

's novel ''

The Cold Six Thousand ''The Cold Six Thousand'' is a 2001 crime fiction novel by James Ellroy. It is the first sequel to ''American Tabloid'' in the Underworld USA Trilogy and continues many of the earlier novel's characters and plotlines. Specifically, it follows three ...

'' contains a reference to Gray's disappearance and death: according to this, he was murdered by (fictional) racist conspirator Wayne Tedrow, Sr. for having an affair with his wife, Janice. Bill Moody's book ''Death of a Tenor Man'' tells the story of a contemporary investigation of Wardell's death by fictional detective/pianist Evan Horne.

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian an ...

explicitly references Wardell in his novel ''

On the Road ''On the Road'' is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United States. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonis ...

'': "They ate voraciously as Neal, sandwich in hand, stood bowed and jumping before the big phonograph listening to a wild bop record I just bought called 'The Hunt', with Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray blowing their tops before a screaming audience that gave the record fantastic frenzied volume."Jack Kerouac, ''On the Road: The Original Scroll'', Penguin Books, 2007, p 215.

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her st ...

included a version of the Ross/Gray song " Twisted" on her double-platinum album ''

Court and Spark ''Court and Spark'' is the sixth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Released in January 1974, it infuses the folk rock style of her previous albums with jazz elements. It was an immediate commercial and critical success— ...

''.

Discography

(cross-indexed to the text above) #LaserLight 15 766 (''Earl Fatha Hines And His Orchestra'') #

Black Lion Records Black Lion Records was a British jazz record company and label based in London, England. Alan Bates founded Black Lion Records in 1968. The label had two series of releases, one for British jazz musicians and one for international musicians. I ...

BLCD 760106 (Wardell Gray: ''One For Prez'') these sessions are also available on ''The Complete Sunset and New Jazz Masters'' CD. #Spotlite SPJ-(CD) 109-2 (Charlie Parker: ''The Dial Masters'') 2-CD set #Spotlite SPJ-(CD) 130 (Dexter Gordon: ''Dexter Gordon On Dial - The Complete Sessions'') #Giants of Jazz CD 53064 (Wardell Gray: ''The Chase'' ...Guest: Dexter Gordon) #Giants of Jazz CD 53097 (Various Artists: ''An Unforgettable Session'') live recordings from a 1947 ''Gene Norman Presents "JUST JAZZ"'' concert at The Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California. #Savoy SV-0164, SV-0165, SV-0166 (Various Artists: ''Jazz West Coast Live/Hollywood Jazz Live - Volumes 1, 2, 3'') #Fresh Sound FSR-CD 156 (Sonny Criss: ''California Boppin) 1947 #Dragon DRCD 183 (Stan Hasselgard & Benny Goodman: ''Hasselgard and Goodman At Click'') 1948 #Blue Note CDP 72438 33373 23 (Fats Navarro & Tadd Dameron: ''The Complete Blue Note and Capitol Recordings'') 2-CD set #Cool And Blue C&B-CD 116 (Wardell Gray: ''Light Gray'') 1948–1950 #Swingtime ST CD1 (Wardell Gray: ''Easy Swing'') 1946–1955 #Capitol CDP 72438 32086 23 (Benny Goodman: ''Undercurrent Blues'') # Hep CD36 (Benny Goodman: ''Benny's Bop'') 1948–1949 #Jazz Archives 90.510-2 (Benny Goodman) #Moon MCD 076-2 (Wardell Gray: ''How High The Moon'') #Jazz Factory JFCD 22880 (Gerald Wilson: ''Big Band Modern'') #Original Jazz Classics OJCCD-050-2 (Wardell Gray Memorial - Volume 1) compilation of sessions for

Prestige Records Prestige Records is a jazz record company and label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock in New York City which issued recordings in the mainstream, bop, and cool jazz idioms. The company recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz music ...

from 1949, 1950 and 1953. #Original Jazz Classics OJCCD-051-2 (Wardell Gray Memorial - Volume 2) another Prestige compilation, these sessions are from 1950 and 1952. #Fresh Sound FSR-CD 157 (''Wardell Gray Quintet - Live At The Haig'') 1952 #Savoy SVY17441 (3-CD set) (''Bopland'') 1947

As sideman

With

Louis Bellson Louie Bellson (born Luigi Paulino Alfredo Francesco Antonio Balassoni, July 6, 1924 – February 14, 2009), often seen in sources as Louis Bellson, although he himself preferred the spelling Louie, was an American jazz drummer. He was a composer, ...

*'' Just Jazz All-Stars'' (Capitol, 1952) *'' Skin Deep'' (Norgran, 1953) With Frank Morgan *'' Frank Morgan'' (Gene Norman Presents, 1955)

References

External links

Abraham Ravett's site 'Forgotten Tenor' based around his film on Wardell
*
Wardell Gray Website: This site provides a full discography, chronology and many other features about Wardell Gray

Album: Way Out Wardell
With Wardell Gray,

Erroll Garner Erroll Louis Garner (June 15, 1921 – January 2, 1977) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His instrumental ballad " Misty", his best-known composition, has become a jazz standard. It was first re ...

, Vido Musso (ts),

Howard McGhee Howard McGhee (March 6, 1918 – July 17, 1987) was one of the first American bebop jazz trumpeters, with Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and Idrees Sulieman. He was known for his fast fingering and high notes. He had an influence on younger beb ...

(tp),

Arnold Ross Arnold Ephraim Ross (August 24, 1906 – September 25, 2002) was a mathematician and educator who founded the Ross Mathematics Program, a number theory summer program for gifted high school students. He was born in Chicago, but spent his youth ...

(p),

Barney Kessel Barney Kessel (October 17, 1923 – May 6, 2004) was an American jazz guitarist born in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Known in particular for his knowledge of chords and inversions and chord-based melodies, he was a member of many prominent jazz groups a ...

(g),

Harry Babasin Yervant Harry Babasin, Jr. (19 March 1921 – 21 May 1988) was an American jazz bassist. His nickname was "The Bear". Biography Babasin was born in Dallas, Texas to an American mother and an Armenian father. He attended North Texas State Universit ...

(b),

Don Lamond Donald Douglas Lamond Jr. (August 18, 1920 – December 23, 2003) was an American jazz drummer. Biography Born in Oklahoma City, Lamond attended the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore in the early 1940s, and played with Sonny Dunham and Boyd ...

(ds), Recorded：Los Angeles, CA, February 27, 1947. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Wardell 1921 births 1955 deaths Musicians from Oklahoma City Musicians from Detroit Jazz tenor saxophonists American jazz tenor saxophonists American male saxophonists Bebop saxophonists Cass Technical High School alumni Count Basie Orchestra members Benny Goodman Orchestra members Savoy Records artists Prestige Records artists 20th-century American musicians 20th-century saxophonists Jazz musicians from Michigan American male jazz musicians 20th-century American male musicians