Les Thompson/Wardell Gray

["d.m.fairweather" <dmf273@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm a big fan and collector of the bebop tenor saxophonist Wardell Gray.  Wardell is my
favorite tenor man - period.

Today I learned that chromatic harmonica player Les Thompson had an RCA-Victor 10"
album of a 1952 concert he played in Pasadena, CA with the "Les Thompson 7" featuring
both Wardell Gray and Dexter Gordon on saxes!   Two songs from that concert are pretty
well known among Wardell Gray and Dexter Gordon fans "The Chase" and "The
Steeplechase".  But Les didn't play on those two songs.  He DOES play on several
additional songs which have never been on CD --  until now!

Thanks to Danny Wilson for hipping me to this recent French release which also includes
rare Toots:


http://www.parisjazzcorner.com/uk/dis_list_prod.php3?prodamie=&prod=1&LabNum=&Identifiant=b939ff5880f2be1641a5a18bf08fcc1a&Couleur=bleu&page=2


And for those of you want to know more about Les Thompson, Danny has put together this
great page:

http://www.bassharp.com/lesthomp.htm

I had the pleasure of meeting Les about 5 years ago.  I wish I'd known about his band
with Wardell and Dexter then, I would have asked him a million questions about it!  I
don't know if you're on Harp-L, Les, but if you are, speak up!