Tenor saxophonist Jimmy Forrest began his recording career in 1943 with Andy Kirk's band. There, he learned all he needed to know about swing. By 1949, he was touring and recording with Duke Ellington. Next came his first leadership album, Night Train, in 1951, featuring the hit title song. Night Train, a lift from Ellington's Happy Go Lucky Local (1946), which was featured in Ellington's The Deep South Suite. But in all fairness to Forrest, he took an Ellington riff and turned it into something special.
Along the way in the 1950s, Forrest wound up addicted to heroin. After 1954, he wouldn't record again until 1958, when he began collaborating on LPs with trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison and on others with trombonist Bennie Green. He also recorded extensively as a sideman.
In April 1961, Forrest recorded Out of the Forrest for Prestige, featuring Jimmy Forrest (ts), Joe Zawinul (p), Tommy Potter (b) and Clarence Johnston (d). The LP was one of his best, a combination of blues and standards on which Forrest projected his tough swinging sound.
The tracks:
- Bolo Blues (Jimmy Forrest)
- I Cried for You (Gus Arnheim, Arthur Freed, Abe Lyman)
- I've Got a Right to Cry (Joe Liggins)
- This Can't Be Love (Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers)
- By the River Sainte Marie (Edgar Leslie, Harry Warren)
- Yesterdays (Otto Harbach, Jerome Kern)
- Crash Program (Forrest, Johnston)
- That's All (Alan Brandt, Bob Haymes)
Here's Jimmy Forrest's Out of the Forrest (Prestige) without ad interruptions...
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