Ben Webster on "How Deep Is the Ocean?"

Ben Webster, ca. 1947 (William P. Gottlieb)

Ben Webster is one of the many great swing-era tenor players whom I've yet to check out to any serious degree—some others include Don Byas, Lucky Thompson, and Chu Berry, as well as the legacy of husky-toned tenor players who came after (Stanley Turrentine, Ike Quebec, etc.). The monolithic Coleman Hawkins-Lester Young dipole of influence is daunting enough to engage with as it is, but in terms of pure sonic diversity, these sometimes overshadowed tenor players of the earlier chapters in jazz history present some fascinating alternatives to the couple of dominant mainstream tenor sound influences that seem to be everywhere these days. I honestly haven't checked out enough of Ben Webster's discography to tell how Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson (1959) measures up to the critically agreed upon high points of his output, but I had this record lying around in my collection and thought it might make a fine point of entry as any other into Ben Webster. 

Here's his solo from "How Deep Is the Ocean?"

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