Gheorghe

100% Agreement to your review of "Bird ´n Diz". The choice of Buddy Rich for that Album is a better one than the choice of Tommy Turk for the Bird 1949 Studio sides. Anyway, I think Buddy´s time is also very good behind Monk here. I don´t know what Monk thought About Buddy Rich, but this very straight ahead swing fits to Monk´s more excentrical piano lines. Don´t Forget that Art Blakey on Monk´s 1947 BN sides also sounds very metronomical. Buddy Rich together with vintage boppers was not such a rare combination: You have him on the second "Bands for Bonds" broadcast by Barry Ulanov (Bird, Fats, Allen Eager, John Laporta, Lennie Tristano, Buddy Rich) , you have him also on the second half of the WNEW 1947 Saturday Night Jazz Session (Fats, Eager, Ventura, Buddy Rich). I Always wondered if the high pitched voice that shouts "BUDDY RICH" on those sides is Fat´s voice ? It´s on the second tune "Sweet Georgia Brown" before Buddy´s drum solo. Buddy Rich is also on the 1950 Bud Powell date (Tea for Two and Get Happy), but on those sides you don´t really hear him, he is under recorded……. By the way: You mentioned the rarely played tunes Mohawk and Bloomdido. Well, Bloomdido …… I remember I had to Play it once with a quite famous, in Europe settled alto Saxophone player, he just told me "Blues in Bb, and in the 8th bar you Play Db minor Gb……" That´s it, with this advice you can play it.

Sounds fantastic.

Interesting playing lists ! But what I noticed is that most of the stuff is acoustic. When I think back to the 70´s I remember the most stuff was Electric. I also have quite a lot of 70´s jazz, but very much of it is the Electric Miles etc.

It´s incredible how Long this remained unissued. I think it was issued for the first time in the early 90´s. I never understood why it remained inussued since it is much better than the two Victors. But the best Bud as allways can be heard on the even later issued stuff from Birdland 1957 with Donald Byrd, Phil Woods, Paul Chambers and Art Taylor. that´s really exiting music !

I agree to you, I don´t listen too often to those "Visa"/"Passport" sides. They are on "Jazz Perennial", one of the Charlie Parker Verve Albums. I remember when I heard it first, the trombone sounded funny to me. See, I´m only used to the more "cool, modern" trombone sounds of let´s say J.J., Winding, Curtis Fuller, Julian Priester etc. and somehow have difficulties to hear older trombone styles which Sound funny to me, more like the movie scored to some cartoon films…... But I also agree to you that he fit´s better into the JATP surroundings, just because of the "Sound" of those public jam sessions. Norman Granz was often critized for his choices of certain musicians for various sessions: Ross Russell compared the choice of Tommy Turk for the Charlie Parker Group like "adding a Tuba to a string quartet"...... Some writeres also criticized the choice of Buddy Rich for the 1950 "Bird and Diz" Album, the one with Monk on it. But Buddy Rich is also on "Celebrity" from "Jazz Perennial", I think…. Some of that stuff on "Perennial", like the quartet number "The Bird" and the string Thing "Repetition" was on the legendary compilation "THE JAZZ SCENE". That record is so often mentioned by Ira Gitler, and when I was Young, guys who were somewhat older than me, often remembered fondly that Album "Jazz Scene".

Now playing : Really an allstar setting. Both the jam session with Bird, Flips Phillips, Sonny Criss, Fats Navarro, Tommy Turk (who later was on some studio sides added by NG to the regular quintet) and the Quintet set Hawk with Fats.

@BillF Really nice antecdote ! Well if I think about it, with the exception that the bridge of Four Brothers is 8 bars, you can master it pretty well if you know the running changes of the bridge of Cherokee. I´m not at the piano right now, but later I´ll check it out. I played it once. About antecdotes related to Trombones: When I was in the last grade of high school, you know I was one of those long haired hipsters and I had a driving licence and since my school resultates were very good (in spite of my wild outfit, not the one of a model student) it was okay with my father that I could do what I want in my leisure time so I went out to the clubs to hear all those greats. One boy from a lower grade looked up to me as kind of a mentor and when I played some J.J Johnson for him (it was the Yokohama concert, brandnew then in 1977, he carved into his school bench "J.J. Johnson is the best". The next day, Kai Winding was in town, I went to see him and told the boy about it the next morning, and one day later he had carved "Kai Winding.....too!" Yes, the J.J. Johnson I posted is the Savoy Sessions from 1946/47. I bought it together with the Dexter Gordon Savoy session. From the late forties you have the sides he made with Fats Navarro.

That´s right ! Our Record Store Red Octopus had a lot of US and Japan Imports. The normal price for LP was 163 Schillings, and I remember there was some Japan-Import and the price was advertised with 350 Schillings and they added the word "Leider !" (Sorry). And yeah, as Bill said, Bird learning the tricky bridge of "Four Brothers". Now, my friends...... how about "some bones" ?

They must have some great talents. I remember in 1989 I was in Praque and there was a festival and it had a competition for young bands and the first price went to a Finnish Group called "Muhallus" or something like that. A young lady played flute.

Billy Harper is fantastic. I´ll never forget the first time I saw him in 1978 with the Max Roach Quartet, and "Peaceful Heart", his great tune.

Oh yes " This was the first Wayne Shorter I purchased and it remained a favourite of mine !

Those Alamac were quite expensive over her. At the then most famous Viennese Jazz Shop "Red Octopus" they had them both. I only purchased "Bird with the Herd" since I already had the Carnegie Concert on a Musidisc LP (all the tunes minus the last "Now is the Time", and I didn´t want to spend more then 200 șilingi only for one tune). The Spotlite albums were wonderful, I didn´t know they came out so early, I bought most of them in the late 70´s. Here is one we liked particularly: Listen how great Howard McGhee and Brew Moore are on this. We spinned this LP very much. I´d invite let´s say two other fans from High School or college, and would cook some improvised "South of the Border" dish, tiggered maybe be Ross Russell´s "Bird" from the first chapter where he describes the Mexican Dinner Bird ate. Well, in my case it was something that should have been "Huevos Rancheros", together with a lot of Beer and Tequila afterwards. That was the mood we were in when we listened to "Afro Cuban".

This is a wonderful 2 CD set of Bird as much with Strings as with a jazz combo setting. Some of the material was issued on the legendary "Bird is Free" LP from the early 70´s which was very much caught, many hipsters of my generation who were deeply into Free Jazz also listened to this, and everybody was aware that without Bird there wouldn´t be Ornette, Archie Shepp, and all of them.

The first half with Cootie Williams from 1944 would be OOT here, but fitting to the thread dig the All Star Session from Royal Roost from December 1948: Little Benny Harris (tp), J.J. Johnson (tb), Budd Johnson (ts), Buddy DeFranco (cl), Lee Konitz (as), Bud Powell (p), Chuck Wayne (g), Nelson Boyd (b) and Max Roach (dr). A picture of that session is in the book Ira Gitler "Jazz Masters of the 40´s", and I remember when I bought that book (in Switzerland !) we looked at that picture and said "if this event would have been recorded....", and decades later I got it on this CD Another All Star summit at Carnegie Hall one year later, Chrismas 1949. What a wealth of music here. Before I purchase this I only knew the Parker Set, it was on side B of a Musidisc of Parker "Broadcasts".......

Maybe I´ve forgotten where I read it. It could have been also on a Prestige twofer that had the "Dig" session on it. But good idea, Miles Davis: This was brandnew in 1977 when I became interested in late forties bop (odd enough, I got to listen to Parker through Eric Dolphy, via "Parkeriana" (Mingus 1964). My third Bop LP (after Parker´s "Savoy Mastertakes" and the Bellaphone "Jazztracks" also Parker) was THIS ONE. This is really a treasure: Miles playing fast and in high register equal to Diz or Fats, and interesting the very modern stuff of James Moody, almost ahead of his time. My favourite tenor player during that time was Dave Liebman and when I heard some really freakish phrases by James Moody I said "almost like Dave !". The first moment of listening was a shock Moment for me !!!!!! I began to spin the LP and heard a voice in french tellin´ something about gothic cathedrals, Bach and Mozard and thought they have packed the wrong LP in the cover !!!!!!!! This three LPs with those covers were my "ticket" to late 40´s bop. I must say I love and listen much to the styles that came after that , Hardbop, Free, Electric Jazz, but Always had some Point where I returned to vintage bop…..

The Incredible Thing About a then semi obscure Don Lanphere I read on some liner notes from a Miles Davis Album, that one fan was lucky to meet a quite talkative Miles Davis for some nice informal conversation at the bar of a club. Miles was not rude as usual and they talked About Sports, cars, women and so on and when Miles asked the fan from where he is and he said "Wenatchee" (the town where Don Lanphere lived and run a record store or something like that) , Miles , who had an Incredible Memory just said "Say hello to Don Lanphere" ! But the last Studio session was just the end of the Story. Fats together with Don Lanphere played on a 1948 Dial session with Earl Coleman, which is just Wonderful. Besides the fact that I love the voice of Coleman and like very much the Instrumentation behind him, it was that Incredible "Move" in two takes. It was told that Fats and Max Roach just wanted to test the bloodyoung and white Don Lanphere who really hold his own on it. Here, on this Xanadu LP is the whole session: Move in two takes, and the Earl Coleman tunes "As Time Goes By", "Guilty" etc. ….., just Wonderful !

Influenced by the thread About Bird (the Whitney Balliet article from 1976) , here is the second record of Bird I bought. The first was the Savoy double Album in White with that small canvas picture in the middle. The second record I found was this. A strange brown cover, and the Music is quite a Collection. An almost complete "Bird and Diz at Carnegie Hall 1947", a lot of sides from the later Dial Recordings Bird made in late 1947 in NY, some also adding J.J. Johnson on trombone to the regular quintet. And the last three tracks is Maybe the latest live recording Bird ever made: Autumn 1954 , at Carnegie Hall with John Lewis, Percy Heath and Kenny Clark, playing "Cool Blues", "My Funny Valentine" (I never heard another Version of it done by Bird), and "The Song is You". Maybe Bird is not as brilliant on those sides as he was 7 years before, but they have an outright moving quality.

Great to read ! And the time it was written I was starting to dig jazz and one of my first efforts was to find as much as I can About Charlie Parker. But my start of a life Long admiration for Bird was a strange one: I read the Name for the first time on the Mingus 1964 3 fer LP "The Great Concert of Mingus" and there is a tune called "Parkeriana" which is formed out of many themes Bird wrote or played. And after Hearing that "Parkeriana" something happened with me: I read that "Parker was one of Mingus´ teachers" and I thought, if that´s the man who "invented all that great stuff on Parkeriana" I must hear him ! My first double LP of Parker was exactly, what is discussed in this Essay: The Savoy Sides . I still have this double LP Charlie Parker Savoy Master Takes . And Maybe some of the fans of my Generation will remember that LP with the White Bird on the Cover "Bird is Free". This sold very well among the more radical Avantgarde fans. Don´t Forget the early 70´s was such a time, many dug Ornette Coleman and the late stuff Trane did, and "free" was en vogue. So that title "Bird is Free" attracted a lot of modernists. And Bird was a hero for all those People. As it´s written in this Essay, you still hear him, and you could hear his message in all the Avantgarde stuff too ! That was and still is Bird for me .

I also have this. But I know the Broadcasts still from the LP era, they were presented on Musidisc and Spotlite. Really fine Allstar Setting and yes, their comping behind the soloists is very interesting. And also behind Sarah Vaughan on that one track "Everything I have is yours".

Me too !

Now I came to the CD Nr. 4, the last one. Oh, all that Music, and the great Thing is you hear the whole tunes, not only Bird, but all the fine solos done by Kenny Dorham, Al Haig, and two guests Lucky Thompson and Milt Jackson. Maybe that´s why I hadn´t purchased the Dean Benedetti stuff, because I prefer to hear the whole tunes, starting with Bird and than with the great musicians who played with him. So this is among the very best Bird live stuff I ever heard…….,

Great ! I bought this in 1978 with another cover and it became a "hit" among my Friends. We all hummed those catchy tunes "The Squirrel" "Good Bait", "Our Delight", and don´t forget Allen Eager, he is great on those sides. But we were mis-lead by the wrong cover notes of our Musidisc LP, it said it was done in 1949 at Birdland. Later I found out it was made at the Roost.

So great ! Sometimes I can´t get enough of Red Garlands light and happy approach to the piano and above all his chord voicings. Actually Red Garland was about the first pianists I noticed since about my first jazz Album was Miles Davis´ "Steamin´". I had it on cassete only and after those piano solos on "Fringe on Top" and "Diane" and his chordings on "When I fall in Love" I´d run the tape back to the start of the solo, until I knew them. If I spin that CD mostly for nostalgical reasons I still hum along with Garland´s lines……. I admire those who can listen to old style jazz as much as to so called "modern". In my case, I have difficulties with pre 1940 styles, somehow it´s the Approach to the Instruments that puzzles me. Let´s take trombone for example. It´s very hard for me to listen to old styled trombone, it sound´s funny to me, when I heard Bill Harris on that WNEW Saturday Nightsession along with some modernits, I Always had to laugh it sounded so funny to me. Once I read somewhere, that most fans in Japan have the same "Problem". They dig the stuff from bop beyond, but have difficulties with let´s say Dixieland..... But I borrowed one thing from Eddie Condon: Once he played a poorly attended concert and greeted his audience with "Lady and Gentleman". I used that on my own gigs: As a local you always struggle to get a full house and if I get at least some guys who come down and listen, then I´d say "that even more famous musicians greeted their audience with Lady and Gentleman and I´m pleased that I this night I can say "Ladies and Gentlemen"...……..

Really interesting, thank´s for Posting.

The "Let´s Freedom Ring" is really one of my favourites of Jackie McLean. I remember, that around 1980 I had a lot of musical discussions with Austrian free jazz pioneer the late Fritz Novotny (Reform Art Unit) and he pulled my coat to more advanced Things, and recommended as a startet this Album and the next one "One Step Beyond". He was pleased that I dig Ornette Coleman also and later played for me his own stuff which was great. I saw Jackie McLean with Herbie Lewis and Billy Higgins who are on this record, but without Water Davis, but with Bobby Hutcherson, who would have been on "One Step Beyond". So I saw a live Group which was a combination of "Freedom Ring" and "Step Beyond".....