Night in Tunisia

[mhatta]

Since Sarah Vaughan’s Continental recording (as “Interlude”) was made on December 31, 1944, this one might be slightly earlier. Dizzy is also featured on it. It appears Boyd Raeburn first performed it during a live show in New York on January 17, 1945, and Dizzy was there as well. Tristano recorded “Interlude” in New York in October 1946, which was quite early in its adoption. It’s unclear where Tristano first heard “Interlude”—perhaps he heard Raeburn in NY, or maybe he was already friends with Dizzy at the time.
Interestingly, Stan Kenton was performing a song titled “Interlude” around the same time. However, when I listened to the March 1947 recording included in the Mosaic box set, it turned out to be a different song with the same title, unrelated to “A Night In Tunisia.” This might be a distant reason why Dizzy changed the song’s title and, in later years, didn’t have very favorable things to say about Kenton.

[medjuck]

1 hour ago, Chuck Nessa said:

January 26,1945

So the Sarah Vaughn was the month before. (December 31st, 1944. At least that's what it says on the Smithsonian double Lp "Dizzy Gillespie: the Development of an American Artist, 1940-1946". 

[JSngry]

However, this one is given as 12-31-1944:

 

[JSngry]

1 hour ago, medjuck said:

So the Sarah Vaughn was the month before. (December 31st, 1944. At least that's what it says on the Smithsonian double Lp "Dizzy Gillespie: the Development of an American Artist, 1940-1946". 

I look at it like the Sarah was the be but of the song and the Raeburn was the debut of the full composition. Dizzy was present for both,fwiw 

Perhaps overlooked today is what a hustler Dizzy was in those very early days of bebop.