Born in Oklahoma in 1921 and raised in Detroit, tenor player Wardell Gray hitched up with Earl Hines' Orchestra in 1943, getting off at Los Angeles in 1946. Gray's career bridged styles, from the big band style when Gray played with Hines, Benny Goodman and Count Basie, to Bop and West Coast Cool, as on display here with trumpeter Art Farmer, amongst others.

This is probably Gray at his Zenith. He became sort of a home-body in the early 1950's, eschewing life on the road for one with his family in L.A.. Ward died mysteriously in 1955, leaving the jazz world to wonder what might have been, yet thankful for that which was left behind.