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Saturday March 12, 1955


brownie

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Whilst Bird undoubtably lives it's curious that so few players play in his style now.

Loads influenced but very few copyists ( that I know of) . A good thing really,

as museum piece jazz is not for me. The nearest to Bird I've heard has been Jesse Davis ( but he's closer to Stitt IMO)

last night spun Bird at Hi Hat , Washington Concerts (BN) and got thoroughly confused re the recording dates of the former.( discography in Uptown, Boston 1952 CD gives very different dates to those stated on the BN CD)

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We were a teenage group of real jazz nuts in far off Cape Town, South Africa, and Charlie Parker was a mythical God to us. Even to us fifteen year-olds, he was the fountainhead from which all else had sprung (our knowledge of jazz at that time was based largely on that found in liner notes). I distinctly remember being in bed early on the morning after his death, and reading a small piece in the Cape Times about the "death of a famous jazz musician in New York" the day before. I was stunned and later that day, after I informed all of my jazz buddies, none of whom had seen the piece in the newspaper, we went to Frank's house and played several Parker albums. For whatever reason, I distinctly recall the joy I received that afternoon from hearing his version of "Star Eyes" ... I still do. The most intriguing memory is that right after lunch at my high school, the famous phrase "BIRD LIVES" appeared in rather large letters on the student's washroom wall ... word spread and we made excuses to go and see it. No one ever owned up to doing it (I wish I could take the credit), and it remained there for several months, before being whitewashed over by some uncaring custodian.

As an aside .... for many years, written minutely in the grouting of the tiles above one of the urinals on my floor at the university, was the legend "Bird Lives" ... hmmmmmmm .. I wonder who put it there? After several years of comfort staring at this affirmation, one day I was intensely disturbed to see that someone had added the word "Larry" to the front of the message! I tried removing it, but was never too successful, so I switched to another urinal. Now that I am in an entirely new building, and have a new washroom, the fiftieth anniversary will be honored in suitable style tomorrow when no one is around.

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Roy Haynes is bringing a Bird tribute to the Kennedy Center tomorrow night, on the very date of the 50th anniversary. I believe Roy turns 80 the next day.

I will be at the 9:30 show. Christian McBride and Kenny Garrett are on board, piano and trumper unlisted. Anyone else going?

Bertrand.

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Roy Haynes is bringing a Bird tribute to the Kennedy Center tomorrow night, on the very date of the 50th anniversary. I believe Roy turns 80 the next day.

I will be at the 9:30 show. Christian McBride and Kenny Garrett are on board, piano and trumper unlisted. Anyone else going?

Bertrand.

I caught the "Birds of a Feather" group in Fort Lauderdale in late '02. Group included Kenny Garrett, Nicholas Payton, David Kikoski & Dwayne Burno. Roy was magnificent throughout and the highlight for me that evening was a duet between KG and Haynes on "Star Eyes".

Coincidentally I was listening to the CD of that group (Hargrove in place of Payton) at the gym yesterday while doing some cardio. Nothing like Bird tunes and exercise to get the heart pumping. :tup

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