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Unheard Bird!


medjuck

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Just read this on Peter Losin's "Miles Ahead" site:

Several months ago the Louis Armstrong House Museum put a large number of Armstrong's tapes online. One of them includes a jam session featuring Charlie Parker and Big Nick Nicholas. The sound quality is poor, and most of the details of the session are unknown, but it is more "unheard Bird." With help from a lot of people I have tried to make sense of this session here.

I'm trying to register so that I can get to hear it but haven't heard whether or not my request was accepted yet. 

 

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Of course I have not heard about this session , but Big Nick Nicholas seems to have been a quite popular figure at Birdland also. 

Also from 1951 is that famous session of Miles Davis with the Tenor Tandem "Eddie Lockjaw Davis" and "Big Nick Nicholas". The also play "Lady Bird" on that. 

And the mentioned "Bird with the Herd" I have on LP, I don´t know the label, it was then a quite expensive LP without much liner notes info. 

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Big Nick made two for IN. His latter-day playing might well be an "acquired taste", as he had developed a very personal intonation, and a vocal style to go with it. But I love it (and the records that showcase them), having heard him first on the Dizzy Salle Pleyel thing. His extended solo on "Ooo Pa Pa Dah" continues to fascinate, now more than ever.

I can definitely here how he got there from here.

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  • 6 months later...

Excellent!

It sounds like there's a sizable audience there.  Could it be from a club rather than from Buddy Johnson's basement?  Also, I'm hearing, for example around 11:28, the pianist being mixed louder as he starts his solo.  It also sounds too clear to be an audience recording with a single mike.  Could this have been some sort of radio broadcast (although that wouldn't explain the lack of a radio announcer)?  Could the leader have been Big Nick, with Bird sitting in?

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