Dizzy "Bahiana"

[Gheorghe]

I first heard it after my friend Cristi , who was 5 years older than me , saw the group live at "Ronnie Scott´s " in Londra. This was shortly after the recording of that album, originally a double LP. 

This is latin feeling at it´s best, with a really wonderful group with the great Paulinho on percussion, with flute and two guitars Al Gafa and Mike Howell. I was surprised to see that Mike Howell also played guitar. I only knew him as the fantastic bassist he was, when he played with Dizzy´s quartet for a long long time and where his bass solo on "Tunisia" was one of the highlights of the evening. 

I don´t know why this album got so few reviews, and some of them even negative, like in Jürgen Wölfer´s book "Dizzy Gillespie" from Oreos press, Germani (written in german). 

I like it because it´s not the typical Pablo recording with just straight ahead jazz more in the Norman Granz manner. 

[felser]

Howell was on guitar when recorded a couple of not-bad albums for Milestone in the early 70's.  The latter has Bennie Maupin.  Haven't heard them in 40 years, so don't remember that much about them.  I did not realize he moved to bass later on.

[sidewinder]

I’ve still got the 2LP set of this one and like it a lot. Will dig it out.

[Milestones]

I remember buying this quite cheap on vinyl decades ago--a used record.  I recall that I liked some tracks, others not so much.  I would like to hear it again.  It doesn't appear to be available on Apple Music.

 

 

[mhatta]

I have a CD reissue, but the last tune "Olinga" is heavily edited (the original length must be 20 min or so, but the CD version lasts only 11:25).  Great playing aside, I love Al Gafa's compositions -- I think "Barcelona" and "In the Land of the Living Dead" are exceptional.  Al Haig somehow found these rarely revisited gems and played on his last album Blue Manhattan.  Haig's renditions are beautiful, too.

 

 

[felser]

On 12/17/2021 at 1:06 AM, mhatta said:

I have a CD reissue, but the last tune "Olinga" is heavily edited (the original length must be 20 min or so, but the CD version lasts only 11:25). 

Sorry to hear that, I remember "Olinga" being my favorite thing on there (though it's been 30+ years since  I heard the album).

[Gheorghe]

On 17.12.2021 at 7:06 AM, mhatta said:

I have a CD reissue, but the last tune "Olinga" is heavily edited (the original length must be 20 min or so, but the CD version lasts only 11:25).  Great playing aside, I love Al Gafa's compositions -- I think "Barcelona" and "In the Land of the Living Dead" are exceptional.  Al Haig somehow found these rarely revisited gems and played on his last album Blue Manhattan.  Haig's renditions are beautiful, too.

 

 

Finally I had the time to listen to this. Never heard it before. That´s really a great thing Al Haig does. 
Too bad he died when he was only 60 years old. He could have had a great career as one of the surviving bop musicians. 
Al Haig, as I consider, had a rough start. He played with Bird and Diz as early as 1945. During that time his piano playing sounds "stiff" in a way. At that point it still didn´t sound like bop. But in 1948, 49, playing with Bird at the Roost and recording with Wardell Gray, he really had it all together and was the best pianist next to Bud, I mean at his own, not really copying Bud. 
I always think about this when I remember how I started to play. My first attempts to play "bop" sounded like a cross between the early Haig and maybe Sadik Hakim on those 1945 Savoy recordings..... when I heard it back on tape I was puzzled it sounds so "stiff and edgy" and doesn´t flow. It also took me years to get that edge off..... 

And don´t forget: In an 1964 interview in Paris, while recovering from TB, Bud stated, that Al Haig is his idea of a perfect pianist". 

Back to Dizzy: Yes, I also found an urge to get the later Diz-material for stage performance. All guys play "Tunisia" and so on, but nobody plays "And Then She Stopped" or "Fiesta Mojo" ...