Charlie Parker - Bird's Eyes

[Bright Moments]

Can anybody shed some light on a series of cd's known as Charlie Parker - Bird's Eyes? Is this material available elsewhere? Is it all compilation material? how many cd's were in the series? Is the entire series available for purchase?

much thanks!

[mjzee]

Some discussion here:

http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=17188

[Bright Moments]

thanks mjzee - some info, but not addressing my questions.

[paul secor]

To answer some of your questions:

From an interview conducted by Ken Dryden w. Paolo Piangarelli who owns the Philology label - published in 2008: "I've issued 25 volumes of Parker [bird's Eyes], with many more unreleased." - http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=30604

Cadence carries the Philology catalogue, including many of the Bird's Eyes titles.

http://db.cadencebuilding.com/searchresults/?description_option=contains&description=&title_option=contains&title=&label_option=is&Label=philology&price_option=lte&Price=&Number=&BK=BK&CD=CD&CDR=CDR&DVD=DVD&LP=LP&VHS=VHS&new=new&date_added=any&max_count=500&offset_count=0&sort_order=description&Search=Search - Scroll down to find the Charlie Parker titles.

What's unique to the Philology label will take a better man than I to figure out. They've issued a lot of great material in what seems to be a haphazard manner. If you can find an up to date Charlie Parker discography perhaps you can make sense of it. Good luck with that.

Hope this has helped you at least a little.

Edited May 5, 2010 by paul secor

[Bright Moments]

it does Paul - thanks!

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

i wish i had them all

[JSngry]

[brownie]

Started buying those Bird's Eyes releases when they came out on vinyl (after the publication of the limited-series 22LP Bird Box).

Piangiarelli who had produced that Bird Box put out the LPs that contained more unissued items.

Volume 1 included the 1940 unaccompanied solo performances of 'Honeysuckle Rose' and 'Body and Soul' (wrongly dated from early 1937!), its initial release on commercial record.

The LP proudly stated 'It's not hi-fi Bird but it's hi Bird!'. The other releases stayed true to this!

I continued purchasing the CD releases when they were available to the general public and gave up when it became a mailorder venture.

The whole thing was too much of a mess!

[AllenLowe]

just don't tell Big Beat Steve.

[bichos]

the bird´s eyes serie is reaching now to vol. 105!! with a lot of duplicating itself. from vol. 26 on this are cd-r´s you can get only from mr. piangiarelli via mail. on some of them there are rarities on it that you can only get there (before the labels from andorra were on the market). for example the wonderful live recording of dizzy and bird from billy berg´s 1945. (and i don´t mean the jubilee performances that sometimes labeled as from billy berg´s!). this are for me one of bird´s best recordings!!! or the birdland broadcast with bud powell, hank mobley and max roach - a wonderful rendition of "star eyes" -where you can hear parker´s child baird crying in the background (from chan parker´s collection) - not issued elsewhere (i think philology has this from one of phil schaap´s bird flight broadcasts). or a complete(!) version of one of the "home cookin´" tracks form 1.february 1947!

here is a link to the wonderful miles ahead site to check out what is on the philology vol. 1-69:

http://www.plosin.com/milesAhead/BirdDiscoLabels.aspx

keep boppin´

marcel

[flat5]

Great Bird discography site! Thank you bichos.

[Bright Moments]

wow - great site - thanks.

[Dave James]

I think this was mentioned elsewhere, but Volume 11 (Bird In France from 1949) & Volume 12 (Bird in 1950) of the Bird's Eyes series are available as downloads from eMusic. That strikes me as rather random. Maybe Philology is just testing the waters?

Edited May 5, 2010 by Dave James

[John L]

I think this was mentioned elsewhere, but Volumes 11 (Bird In France from 1949) & Volume 12 (Bird in 1950) of the Bird's Eyes series are available as downloads from eMusic. That strikes me as rather random. Maybe Philology is just testing the waters?

That is interesting, as is the fact that iTunes offers side-by-side the Verve Bird releases and the much cheaper bootlegs of the same releases.

[Brad]

That site has been around a long time and he does a heck of job. My recollection is that the site used to be affiliated with the University of Maryland but then they parted ways.

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

doec cadence still actually sell them?

[Big Beat Steve]

just don't tell Big Beat Steve.

Why?? :D

Actually I had fancied this series at some time in the past myself - the not exactly hi-fi sounds on "Bird Is Free" on the "Charlie Parker Records" label had been my introduction to "live Bird" in my VERY early collecting days at school so that would not have frightened me away - but never really followed it up because I figured I already had a fair cross-section of Bird snippets and except for diehard Bird cultists it would just have been tooo hard to tell which is which.

Edited May 7, 2010 by Big Beat Steve

[Bright Moments]

have these ever been sold as a "box set"?

[kh1958]

doec cadence still actually sell them?

They have about half of them listed as in stock on their website.

[bichos]

have these ever been sold as a "box set"?

no.

keep boppin´

marcel

[Bright Moments]

have these ever been sold as a "box set"?

no.

keep boppin´

marcel

dang

[paul secor]

have these ever been sold as a "box set"?

no.

keep boppin´

marcel

dang

If you have a decent amount of uncommon Bird, a box set of Bird's Eye's material (assuming that such a thing existed) would give you a lot of duplication. Your best bet is to try and match up dates of the material on the CDs with a discography - not the easiest thing to do -and go for what you want/need.

[mjzee]

the bird´s eyes serie is reaching now to vol. 105!! with a lot of duplicating itself. from vol. 26 on this are cd-r´s you can get only from mr. piangiarelli via mail. on some of them there are rarities on it that you can only get there (before the labels from andorra were on the market). for example the wonderful live recording of dizzy and bird from billy berg´s 1945. (and i don´t mean the jubilee performances that sometimes labeled as from billy berg´s!). this are for me one of bird´s best recordings!!! or the birdland broadcast with bud powell, hank mobley and max roach - a wonderful rendition of "star eyes" -where you can hear parker´s child baird crying in the background (from chan parker´s collection) - not issued elsewhere (i think philology has this from one of phil schaap´s bird flight broadcasts). or a complete(!) version of one of the "home cookin´" tracks form 1.february 1947!

here is a link to the wonderful miles ahead site to check out what is on the philology vol. 1-69:

http://www.plosin.com/milesAhead/BirdDiscoLabels.aspx

keep boppin´

marcel

Does anyone know how to order these from him by mail?

[bichos]

have these ever been sold as a "box set"?

no.

keep boppin´

marcel

dang

If you have a decent amount of uncommon Bird, a box set of Bird's Eye's material (assuming that such a thing existed) would give you a lot of duplication. Your best bet is to try and match up dates of the material on the CDs with a discography - not the easiest thing to do -and go for what you want/need.

that´s exactly what i did. a lot of work but it makes fun! (beware it´s only for bird hardcore afficionados!!)

keep boppin´

marcel

[bichos]

b.t.w. here are two very complete and intersting japanese bird sites with lot of informations about the bird´s eyes series:

first:

http://murayama-hideki.com/CharlieParker/AlbumPhilology.html#BirdsEyes1

second:

http://bird.parkerslegacy.com/

keep boppin´

marcel