Dexter Gordon & Wardell Gray: The Hunt

Two of Wardell Grays and Dexter Gordons tenor duels, The Chase and The Hunt, rank among the all-time highlights of west coast jazz. While The Chase, recorded a month earlier on June 12, was the seven-minute top-seller, The Hunt is an all-out 18-minute jam session where several Cali pioneers skip the melody altogether in order to roll up their sleeves and get down and dirty with their improvisations. This track represents so many things at once: bop that doesnt really sound like Bird and Diz; a rare jazz performance where audience interaction plays an important role in the tunes development; and two leading west-coast tenors proving that they can jam as hard as any of those dominant east coasters. The tracks importance is encapsulated by a singular moment of jazz history intersecting with another landmark of American cultural history, when Dean Moriarity himself, of Kerouacs On the Road, remembers listening to a wild bop recordThe Hunt, with Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray blowing their tops before a screaming audience that gave the record fantastic frenzied volume. A historically significant track featuring Gordon at his most vibrant.