Jazz Sahib - Complete Sextets Sessions 1956-1957 (2-cd Set)

This double CD set features veteran bop era saxophonist Sahib Shihab (a.k.a. Edmund Gregory). After playing alto saxophone with Luther Henderson and Fletcher Hendersons bands, he tuned into the new music of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Despite his association with stars such as Roy Eldridge, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Tadd Dameron, Lucky Thompson, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie, he remains largely underrated. While with Gillespie in 1951 he started to play baritone sax and since then alternated in both instruments, although the big horn became his main voice. In 1956 and 1957, before he went to Europe, he madealong with several outstanding sidemensome great sextet recordings on baritone, as a leader, mostly for Savoy Records, except one early alto session for Epic Records. Here, for the first time on CD, are all these sextet sides plus two swinging dates he recorded with Mort Herberts group, also for Savoy. This collection surely will put him in the place he deserves in the jazz field.