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Charlie Parker at Birdland, 1950


Lazaro Vega

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I don't know either if the Fat Boy/Ember or what it's called (the 4CD set pictured above) runs at correct speed, but it does seem that this guy Bregman (?) who was involved with the Ember discs, was some kind of Parker authority... (he also helped putting out the complete Chicago disc with the amazing Freeman guitar!)

What;s "The Complete Chicago Disc"?

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'This guy Bregman ?' is Robert M. Bregman who co-authored the Charlie Parker Discography that was published in 1993 by Cadence Jazz Books before the internet killed most of those books

DGyardbirdinc2.jpg

Bregman also was very much involved with the Bird's Eyes series from Philology Records!

Respect for Monsieur Bregman <_<

IIRC he teaches/taught (?) at the University of Toronto where I used to teach and where Jack Chambers, who wrote the Miles and Twardzik bios also teaches. I once asked Chambers and he said they'd never met.!!

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I don't know either if the Fat Boy/Ember or what it's called (the 4CD set pictured above) runs at correct speed, but it does seem that this guy Bregman (?) who was involved with the Ember discs, was some kind of Parker authority... (he also helped putting out the complete Chicago disc with the amazing Freeman guitar!)

What;s "The Complete Chicago Disc"?

Looks like this is it:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Pershing-Club-Charlie-Parker/dp/B00008HAU7

There's an Amazon seller who's offering it new for $9.95 + $2.98 s/h.

& I agree, George Freeman is great--sounds ahead of his time.

Edited by Pete C
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I don't know either if the Fat Boy/Ember or what it's called (the 4CD set pictured above) runs at correct speed, but it does seem that this guy Bregman (?) who was involved with the Ember discs, was some kind of Parker authority... (he also helped putting out the complete Chicago disc with the amazing Freeman guitar!)

What;s "The Complete Chicago Disc"?

This one here:

live-in-chicago-charlie-parker-cd-cover-art.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Live-at-Pershing-Hotel/dp/B00005K3SF

Contains more than was on CD4 of the Savoy live box (which is essential for what's on CD1-3... CD4 has some of the Chicago/Pershin material plus the Diz/Bird Carnegie Hall set that's also on that Blue Note CD that again is essential because it contains the Dizzy Big Band set from Carnegie Hall, while that Bird/Diz set is marred somewhat by Bill Harris' lacklustre drumming...)

And before you or anybody else asks, this here's the Carnegie disc:

71SLiuTPufL.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Carnegie-Hall-Charlie-Parker/dp/B000005H9I

I don't know either if the Fat Boy/Ember or what it's called (the 4CD set pictured above) runs at correct speed, but it does seem that this guy Bregman (?) who was involved with the Ember discs, was some kind of Parker authority... (he also helped putting out the complete Chicago disc with the amazing Freeman guitar!)

What;s "The Complete Chicago Disc"?

Looks like this is it:

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Pershing-Club-Charlie-Parker/dp/B00008HAU7

There's an Amazon seller who's offering it new for $9.95 + $2.98 s/h.

& I agree, George Freeman is great--sounds ahead of his time.

That's the Spanish rip-off, of (I assume) the one pictured above (which is on Ember).

Freeman... yeah, a visitor from another planet! Saturn, I guess :crazy:

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some covers:

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Charlie-Parker-Be-Bop-410095.jpg

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never saw any of these

Yes, I picked these Saga ones up later on. I remember ordering some of the Spotlite reissues of the Dial sessions from Denmark of all places in the early seventies; I think I saw an ad in Downbeat for a mail-order company there, wrote to them, got the catalogue, saved up my pocket money, went to the post office to get an international money order, etc, etc, then waited a couple of months for them to arrive. The internet was unimaginable, then. The Parker Savoys I managed to pick up at a record store in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Ozzie Cadena ran it (it was mostly rock/psychedelia, water-pipes, incense, you get the picture), but once in a while he would bring in a small box of Savoy LPs, including those dreadful LP reissues of the Parker sessions with the alternate takes and false starts from various sessions scrambled up between the various LPs, but at least I got to hear the music. (I didn't know who Ozzie was a that point, he wasn't very forthcoming, and you had to visit regularly and hope to catch his latest batch). The good old days?!

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hey, I liked those Savoy Lps - especially in the notes where they tell you how fascinating you'll find the conversations on the stopped takes (which was usually a shrill whistle and somebody yelling "hey,") But the sound was very good. And those were the first Bird I ever heard.

Edited by AllenLowe
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I still have the 5LP box with the Savoy studio material - it's how I first heard it and I won't give it away!

The funniest take is that false start that's really just one or two notes of bass...

it´s from the tiny grimes date. and this two seconds are missing on all other issues of this savoy sessions. (it´s without bird).

keep boppin´

marcel

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Yes, the sound on those LPs was very good, except for the Greatest Hits album (spoken introduction by Al "Jazzbo" Collins which sequed directly into Bird Gets the Worm); there is an amazing and off-putting pitch wobble between Bird's first and second choruses on Ko-Ko. I still have a 5 LP box set on Savoy, but I'm sure it's in session order. I must have a look, as it's been a while since I've had a listen to them. These are some of the very rare jazz recordings for which I'm happy to have every scrap; eg that wonderful, wonderful Bird solo on the incomplete take of Parker's Mood. However I can probably manage to lead a happy and fulfilled life without owning a copy of the two bass notes from the Tiny Grimes session...

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Drummer "Joe" Harris with Bird and Diz. Correcting for "Bill." Didn't realize there was more of Bird at the Pershing than on the Savoy set of live broadcasts.

How essential is the extra non-Savoy Pershing material? Does it have any guitar solos? Losin's description of it suggests that it's the heads and Bird's solos only.

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Drummer "Joe" Harris with Bird and Diz. Correcting for "Bill." Didn't realize there was more of Bird at the Pershing than on the Savoy set of live broadcasts.

How essential is the extra non-Savoy Pershing material? Does it have any guitar solos? Losin's description of it suggests that it's the heads and Bird's solos only.

It is only heads and Bird solos (the earlier sets). But Bird is in great form. I enjoy it quite a bit.

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  • 6 years later...

this was one of my first albums : The  2 LP CBS set with that painting of Bird.

Fantastic. though until there I never had heard a worse sound quality (my item seemed to have only the treble and you had to turn the treble completle down and the bass up and still would have a very very metallic sound)

I had the Savoy studio dates before (this actually was my first Bird), but studio recordings were to short and you couldn´t hear the drums.

Besides Bird I was mostly impressed with Bud and Blakey. I loved that fierce drumming Blakey had on this and when I later bought a studio record of the Messengers I was disappointed the drums didn´t sound as loud as on Bird 1950. I love powerful drumming.

And Bud: I was the lines, it was how he makes the piano sound, something I never had heard before that way .....

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