Born in Chicago, Illinois, Ammons studied music with instructor Walter Dyett at DuSable High School. Ammons began to gain recognition while still at high school when in 1943, at the age of 18, he went on the road with trumpeter King Kolax's band. In 1944 he joined the band of Billy Eckstine (who bestowed on him the nickname "Jug" when straw hats ordered for the band did not fit), playing alongside Charlie Parker and later Dexter Gordon. Notable performances from this period include "Blowin' the Blues Away," featuring a saxophone duel between Ammons and Gordon. After 1947, when Eckstine became a solo performer, Ammons then led a group, including Miles Davis and Sonny Stitt, that performed at Chicago's Jumptown Club. In 1949 Ammons replaced Stan Getz as a member of Woody Herman's Second Herd, and then in 1950 formed a duet with Sonny Stitt.
The 1950s were a prolific period for Ammons and produced some acclaimed recordings such as "The Happy Blues" (1955), featuring Freddie Redd and Lou Donaldson. Musicians who played in his groups, apart from Stitt, included Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, Kenny Burrell, Mal Waldron, Art Farmer, and Duke Jordan.
His later career was interrupted by two prison sentences for narcotics possession, the first from 1958 to 1960, the second from 1962 to 1969. He recorded as a leader for Mercury (1947-1949), Aristocrat (1948-1950), Chess (1950-1951), Prestige (1950-1952), Decca (1952), and United (1952-1953). For the rest of his career, he was affiliated with Prestige. After his release from prison in 1969, having served a seven-year sentence at Joliet penitentiary, he signed the largest contract ever offered at that time by Prestige's Bob Weinstock.
Ammons died in Chicago in 1974, at the age of 49, from cancer.
Ammons and Von Freeman were the founders of the Chicago school of tenor saxophone. Ammons's style of playing showed influences from Lester Young as well as Ben Webster. These artists had helped develop the sound of the tenor saxophone to higher levels of expressiveness. Ammons, together with Dexter Gordon and Sonny Stitt, helped integrate their developments with the emerging "vernacular" of the bebop movement, and the chromaticism and rhythmic variety of Charlie Parker is evident in his playing.
While adept at the technical aspects of bebop, in particular its love of harmonic substitutions, Ammons more than Young, Webster or Parker, stayed in touch with the commercial blues and R&B of his day. For example, in 1950 the saxophonist's recording of "My Foolish Heart" made Billboard Magazine's black pop charts. The soul jazz movement of the mid-1960s, often using the combination of tenor saxophone and Hammond B3 electric organ, counts him as a founder. With a thicker, warmer tone than Stitt or Gordon, Ammons could at will exploit a vast range of textures on the instrument, vocalizing it in ways that look forward to later artists like Stanley Turrentine, Houston Person, and even Archie Shepp. Ammons showed little interest, however, in the modal jazz of John Coltrane, Joe Henderson or Wayne Shorter that was emerging at the same time.
Some fine ballad performances in his oeuvre are testament to an exceptional sense of intonation and melodic symmetry, powerful lyrical expressiveness, and mastery both of the blues and the bebop vernacular that can now be described as, in its own way, "classical."
King Pleasure recorded his vocalese take on Ammons' composition "Hittin' the Jug" under the title "Swan Blues".
"Answer Me, My Love" written by Fred Rauch, Carl Sigman and Gerhard Winkler, performed by Gene Ammons, is featured on the soundtrack for Romance & Cigarettes (2005).
He played on a Bb Conn 10M tenor saxophone with a Brilhart Ebolin mouthpiece.
Ammons is considered a major influence on the style of popular jazz tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman a.o..
Just Friends
Gene Ammons Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Just friends, but not like before
To think of what we've been and not to kiss again
Seems like pretending it isn't the ending
Two friends drifting apart
Two friends, but one broken heart
We loved, we laughed, we cried, and suddenly love died
The song "Just Friends," composed by John Klenner, with lyrics by Sam Lewis, and performed by Gene Ammons, presents a scenario where two former lovers decide to remain friends. The first line, "Just friends, lovers no more," introduces the notion that the romantic part of the relationship is over, and now they've transitioned into a friendship. However, the following line, "Just friends, but not like before," suggests that their relationship has changed and may never fully revert to how it was before they were romantically involved. The line "To think of what we've been and not to kiss again" highlights the struggle of suppressing romantic feelings for someone they've shared intimacy with. This suppression is likened to pretending that the relationship hasn't ended.
The chorus, "Two friends drifting apart, two friends, but one broken heart," conveys a sense of sadness as they slowly drift away from each other. The final line of the song, "We loved, we laughed, we cried, and suddenly love died" encapsulates the essence of the song. It speaks to the beauty and fragility of love and how sometimes, even when everything seems perfect, it can just end suddenly.
Line by Line Meaning
Just friends, lovers no more
We are now only friends and not lovers anymore.
Just friends, but not like before
We remain as friends, but our relationship is not the same as before.
To think of what we've been and not to kiss again
When we reminisce about our past, it's difficult not to kiss each other again.
Seems like pretending it isn't the ending
It feels like we are just pretending that our relationship is not over.
Two friends drifting apart
The two of us are becoming more distant as friends.
Two friends, but one broken heart
We're still friends, but one of us is experiencing heartbreak.
We loved, we laughed, we cried, and suddenly love died
We experienced many emotions together, but our love for each other suddenly disappeared.
Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing
Written by: JOHN KLENNER, SAM M. LEWIS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind