Editing Wardell Gray (section)

===Arrival on the West Coast===
He left Hines late in 1946, settling in [[Los Angeles, California]]; soon after arriving, he recorded the first session under his name. This was a quartet session for Eddie Laguna's [[Sunset Records|Sunset label]], and on it Wardell was supported by [[Dodo Marmarosa]] on piano. The date produced "Easy Swing" and "[[The Man I Love (song)|The Man I Love]]".

In Los Angeles, Wardell worked with [[Benny Carter]],<ref name="Bebop">{{cite book |last1=Yanow |first1=Scott |title=Bebop |date=2000 |publisher=Miller Freeman |location=San Francisco |isbn=0879306084 |page=115}}</ref> blues singer [[Ivory Joe Hunter]], and the small group that supported singer [[Billy Eckstine]] on a tour of the West Coast. But the real focus in Los Angeles was in clubs along Central Avenue, which were still thriving after the boom years brought about by the huge injection of wartime defence spending. Here Wardell played in after-hours sessions in clubs such as [[Jack's Basket Room]], the Down Beat, Lovejoy's, and the Club Alabama. His early success in these sessions led [[Ross Russell (jazz)|Ross Russell]] to include him in a studio session he was organizing for his [[Dial Records (1946)|Dial label]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Russell|first=Ross| title=Bird Lives! | publisher=Quartet| year=1976 |isbn=0-7043-3094-6 |pages=238–240}}</ref>

In the Central Avenue clubs Wardell held tenor battles with [[Dexter Gordon]]. Gordon recalled, "There'd be a lot of cats on the stand, but by the end of the session, it would wind up with Wardell and myself...His playing was very fluid, very clean.... He had a lot of drive and a profusion of ideas".<ref>Cited in Visser, pp. 24-25.</ref> Their fame began to spread, and Ross Russell managed to get them to simulate one of their battles on "The Chase", which became Wardell's first nationally known recording and has been called "one of the most exciting musical contests in the history of jazz".<ref name="JazzBook">{{cite book | last=Berendt|first=Joachim|authorlink=Joachim-Ernst Berendt| title=The Jazz Book | publisher=Paladin| year=1976|pages=357}}</ref>

The success of "The Chase" was the break Wardell needed, and he became increasingly prominent in public sessions in and around Los Angeles, including a series of jam sessions organized by the disc jockey [[Gene Norman]].<ref name="Bebop" /> There were concerts at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, the [[Shrine Auditorium]], and other venues.