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Which alto player sounded the most like Bird?

Hardbopjazz

By Hardbopjazz
in Miscellaneous Music

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Which alto player sounded like the bird the Charlie Parker?  

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John L Collaborator

John L

Posted
Posted

Stitt could sound quite a lot like Bird when he wanted to.

I remember hearing him live once when he played nothing but Bird the whole night, and in almost the exact manner of Bird. I kept thinking, "OK this tribute has got to end some time during this concert." But it never did.

Stitt could also sound a bit like Lester Young when he wanted to.

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king ubu Rookie

king ubu

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Posted

First vote for "other"... want to bring Eric Dolphy into this discussion. I'm aware he didn't exactly - as a whole - sound all that close to Bird, but: I think he captured the essence of much of what Bird did way more and way deeper than guys like Lou Donaldson or Phil Woods (who are great musicians, but not all that original, I suppose). Maybe I look at Dolphy as sort of an extension of Bird, starting where Bird left off. What I mean to say is that an important part of Bird was his explorative mind (sure, he had his pet licks, too, but...), and musicians like Woods or Donaldson or Stitt lack that (while being highly competent players in their own right, but confined to some sort of "style").

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AllenLowe Rising Star

AllenLowe

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Posted (edited)

Dizzy Gillespie votes for Dave Schildkraut:

"Dave was the only alto player to capture the rhythmic essence of Bird." (I know I'm a Schildkraut maniac, but Dizzy said this to me in the early 1980s) -

also, there's a famous blindfold test in which Mingus mistook Davey for Bird (he was listening to Case Ace, from the album Handyland) -

interestingly enough I don't think Dave was an imitator, but he did absorb a lot of Bird's ideas and make them very personal (I actually think he was even more eccentric, rhythmically) - one thing Dave told me he got from Bird was the ability to phrase ahead - that he was sometimes looking at the harmony 3-4 bars ahead of where the rhythm section was - this created a very Bird-like tension - another interesting thing is that Dave said he'd had some conversations with Coltrane about the "upper register" - Dave had a mystical-like attachment to the sax's altissimo range and always felt he had been the first to go there, and that he had influenced Trane in this respect - impossible to verify, but Dave was never one for self-promotion and was quite credible in all other respects (another great story is Lester Young coming to hear Dave at a strip show on 52nd Street and inviting him to sit in with him at Birdland - Dave declined and Prez, disappointed, said "this ain't the Downbeat Awards...") -

Edited by AllenLowe
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Alexander Hawkins Apprentice

Alexander Hawkins

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Posted

king ubu Posted on Mar 22 2005, 09:48 AM 

First vote for "other"... want to bring Eric Dolphy into this discussion. I'm aware he didn't exactly - as a whole - sound all that close to Bird, but: I think he captured the essence of much of what Bird did way more and way deeper than guys like Lou Donaldson or Phil Woods (who are great musicians, but not all that original, I suppose). Maybe I look at Dolphy as sort of an extension of Bird, starting where Bird left off. What I mean to say is that an important part of Bird was his explorative mind (sure, he had his pet licks, too, but...), and musicians like Woods or Donaldson or Stitt lack that (while being highly competent players in their own right, but confined to some sort of "style"). 

My thoughts almost precisely on reading this thread. And as Dolphy is to Bird, so I hear Braxton is to Dolphy (although maybe Ornette should feature in the aetiology too).

But back to the thread of the question, I've never heard Schildkraut, but am now certainly curious!

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Dave James Newbie

Dave James

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Does Forest Whitaker count? Seriously though, I gotta go with Stitt. I've never heard Davy Schildkraut, so I'll have to check to the power on that one.

Another guy who had a fair amount of Bird in his sound, at least early on, is Anthony Ortega. I've got a Bethlehem CD called "Jazz for Young Moderns" where he's all over the horn. It's a Japanese release, so I can't tell when it was recorded. I'd guess in the late '50's.

Up over and out.

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AllenLowe Rising Star

AllenLowe

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Posted

A quick breakdown of LPs/CDs that Davey is on:

Last Date (a CD I put out, recorded 1978 in person, I can sell for $6.50 shipped - plug plug)

Handyland: George Handy LP initally, was a Fresh Sound CD and LP -

Handy By George - George Handy LP -

Studio 5 - Ralph Burns date, LP, now a Japanese CD -

Johnny Richards - going blank on title, something like, Run Wild...etc -

Buddy Arnold - reissue LP

Sam Most - Dave plays tenor, reissue LP

Eddie Bert - LP (So Cool, or something like that, Hank Jones, piano, Dave plays tenor) -

Several Stan Kenton dates, one with Bill Holman arrangements, another with Bill Russo arrangements -

sorry about the inexact titles, I'm not where I can look over my collection right now.

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