Edward's Eyes

Teddy Edwards, who took part in classic tenor battles with Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray in Los Angeles during the mid-to-late 1940's, has been a major tenorman ever since. However, his decision to live in L.A. has resulted in him being greatly underrated through the years. Fortunately the superior hard bop tenor (who showed that there was more than just cool jazz being played on the West Coast in the 1950) has recorded on a fairly frequent basis throughout his career. This CD reissue brings back music from 1959-60 with Edwards joined by either Amos Trice, Joe Castro or Ronnie Ball on piano, Leroy Vinnegar or Ben Tucker on bass and Billy Higgins or Al Levitt on drums…

Teddy Edwards has long been one of the most underrated of the bop tenors, due in large part to his decision to settle in Los Angeles. Edwards is in typically swinging form on this quartet date with either Phineas Newborn, Jr., or Danny Horton on piano, bassist Leroy Vinnegar and drummer Milt Turner. The tenor contributed four originals and also performs the obscure "A Little Later" and four standards with warmth and creativity within the hard bop genre.

The liner notes written by Kirk Silsbee tell a tale easily as intriguing as the fine music on this CD. Producer Lester Koenig asked Teddy Edwards to assemble a large ensemble of lesser known jazz musicians from Los Angeles to record originals and new arrangements of standards. Those players had difficulty with the somewhat tricky charts, and because they were not up to the highest standards, the project was mutually agreed upon to be scrapped. Nearly 35 years later, Ed Michel came upon the tapes, assessed that the feeling and spirit in them was good enough, and had them cleaned up by editing in alternate takes spliced by audio computer to enhance the originally imperfect sessions…