Jam Session – Montreux 1973

At the 1973 Montreux Jazz Festival, after performing a set with his regular group (with keyboardist Hampton Hawes, electric bassist Bob Cranshaw, drummer Kenny Clarke and percussionist Kenneth Nash), tenor-saxophonist Gene Ammons invited a few friends to sit in.

Those friends were altoist Cannonball Adderley, cornetist Nat Adderley and tenor-saxophonist Dexter Gordon and the result was a lengthy and exciting uptempo blues.

While this performance was released on an Ammons Lp of the time, it was only in recent times that one could actually see the jam session on film.

The masterful musicians were obviously having a great time with Cannonball taking a particularly lengthy solo and the four horns having a torrid tradeoff at the end.

-Scott Yanow