Gene Quill

In the 1950s, the alto sax didn't get much louder than Gene Quill, a hard-edged soloist who could rival Jackie McLean and frequent-partner Phil Woods when it came to intensity, enthusiasm, and hard bop aggression. Like Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt or Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray on tenor, Woods and Quill (known as "Phil & Quill") often engaged in celebrated alto battles that exemplified musical sportsmanship at its finest. Because Quill was so tireless and energetic a player in the 1950s (when his battles with Woods were documented by Prestige and RCA), the altoist was a natu...