The Best Recordings 1936-1947

AMG Review of The Best Recordings 1936-1947

arwulf arwulf
All Music Guide

Often mentioned in the same breath with his contemporaries Meade "Lux" Lewis and Pete Johnson, Albert Ammons was in some ways the most creatively adept of the three, and seems to have had a lot in common with the stride school of piano. That affiliation is very evident on the opening track on this Best of Jazz compilation containing what the producers felt to be 22 of his "best" performances on record. "Nagasaki" appears to have been one of this pianist's preferred jam vehicles. Whenever he played it something came alive inside of him and he began exuding a joyous sensibility that could cheer up even those who are hell-bent on being miserable. The swinging sextet realization of "Nagasaki" recorded in Chicago on February 13, 1936 is a marvel of concentrated happiness and could easily be mistaken for a recording by Fats Waller and His Rhythm. Taken in succession, tracks one through four cover the cardinal points of Albert Ammons' stylistic universe: stride, oogie woogie, lues and swing. This outstanding collection really does present many of the greatest recorded moments from the all-too-brief career of this exceptionally fine piano player. You'll hear Ammons soloing his ass off; jamming out with trumpeter Harry James (track 12); accompanying lues queen Sippie Wallace (track 18) and collaborating with his amazing son, tenor saxophonist Gene Ammons (tracks 19, 20 and 21). In case you're wondering about the title "Nagasaki," try to understand that for years this was an all-purpose jazz standard based upon a Tin Pan Alley fox trot published in 1928 with know-nothing lyrics that seemed to confuse the Japanese city in question with Honolulu. One of the weirder instances of wry retitling occurred during the Ammons and Ammons session, which took place back in Chicago at some point during the autumn of 1947. Setting out to perform papa Ammons' favorite tune, the men involved reflected upon the fact that Harry S. Truman had all but obliterated the famous city (site of Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly) from its location on the island of Kyushu on August 9, 1945 by means of a nuclear explosion, and chose to name their record after Hiroshima, the city containing some 419,000 people onto which Harry S. Truman had an atomic bomb dropped on August 6, 1945. None of this disturbing context, of course, can be detected in the jazz recorded some two years later by a powerful six-piece band led by pianist Ammons and featuring his formidably talented son, tenor saxophonist Gene.