Wardell Gray

…mock-battles with fellow tenor saxophonist Wardell Gray during the late 1940s. While serving a prison term for narcotics-related charges he made his acting debut in the film Unchained (1955).

…Back saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray (both influenced by Parker) were playing in the same city, neither being called West Coast-style players; at the same time, in Boston, white saxophonist John LaPorta and trumpeter Herb Pomeroy were playing very much in the cool style that was considered West Coast.