Of all the live recordings of Charlie Parker discovered over the years

[papsrus]

just want to note that Massey Hall is brilliant - AND - if you can, hunt down the version in which Mingus did not overdub his base (it's in the Debut box; there's also a Euro release of same) - it so much better, one wonders what Mingus was thinking - sonically it's like listening to a different concert -

Been meaning to get this 'complete' version without the Mingus overdubbing. You get the additional Bud Powell trio material as well. Done. Thanks for the reminder.

Bird was at his zenith in 47' and 48'. I have the recordings from the Onyx club, which are from either April or September. Not sure of the actual month. I've seen both months listed. But I believe this is the only recording either studio or live from 48'. I think there may have been a musician's strike around this time, but despite the poor sound, Bird is brilliant on all these sets. The takes on the live music, albeit not much longer in length then a studio take, exhibits why other musicians saw him as their prophet.

Looks like the Definitive releaseis the only way to get this?

But ... stumbled across another Definitive, "Giant Among Giants-Complete," which are live recordings from the Pershing Hotel Ballroom in Chicago in 1950, and include among the band Von Freeman. Anyone familiar?

New copies from cdimports are fairly inexpensive.

I believe that all of the 1948 Onyx material is on the Mosaic Benedetti box. Bird on 52nd street on Fantasy is also Onyx material. There is also an excellent earlier 1948 concert from the Three Deuces on that box.

The Perishing Hotel concert from 1950 is fantastic. Part of that concert has been around for a long time as "An Evening at Home with the Bird," and later as "One Night in Chicago" on Savoy. The rest of the recordings are only heads and Bird solos, but some of them are extraordinary, and the sound quality is not bad for the vintage. I highly recommend this one. The saxophone player is most likely Claude McLin, not Von Freeman.

As was discussed on another Bird thread not long ago - one of the greatest more recent discoveries of Bird is the Open Door from 1953. Those are also only heads and Bird solos, but they are just incredible.

Thanks John. The Benedetti is something I'm waiting (and waiting) for Mosaic to make available again.

[Denis]

My God, there are so many.

I think you said your "...favorites" so it is ok to give more than one

I love all of Bird's radio broadcasts from Birdland.

There is one from Cafe Society May-July 1950 playing "Moose The Mooche" with among others Tony Scott, Kenny Dorham, Mundell Lowe, Dick Hyman

Of course "An Evening at Home with The Bird" -- very relaxed jam session

Finally "The Happy Bird" live from Christy's in Boston. Wardell Gray, Walter Bishop, Mingus, Dick Twardzik are some of the personnel.

I think I could find lots more.

Denis

[AllenLowe]

well, thinking about Dick Katz, who just died; one night he said "every time Bird coughed somebody recorded it and put it out."

[Chuck Nessa]

I think I know someone with one of those coughs on a napkin!

[jeffcrom]

All of the above! But two of my favorites haven't been mentioned:

1) The "Bird With the Herd" session - Bird sitting in with Woody Herman's band in 1951. Parker is not always at his best here, but I love hearing him learn the bridge of "Four Brothers" on the fly. He's totally lost on his first chorus, but gets more of the changes every time it comes around, until he's just wailing on it.

2) February 14, 1950, from Birdland - with Red Rodney, Al Haig, Tommy Potter, Roy Haynes, and J.J. Johnson. This session doesn't seem to be very well known, but Bird is stunning. I have a brutally edited EPM CD, but I think a more complete version has come out on Philology.

[medjuck]

2) February 14, 1950, from Birdland - with Red Rodney, Al Haig, Tommy Potter, Roy Haynes, and J.J. Johnson. This session doesn't seem to be very well known, but Bird is stunning. I have a brutally edited EPM CD, but I think a more complete version has come out on Philology.

It's on the Ember "Complete Bird at Birdland Vol 1" 4 disc set but it's edited to feature only the heads and Bird's solos.

[marcello]

One of my favorites:

Track 1 & 2:

Miles Davis (tp) Charlie Parker (as) Al Haig (p) Tommy Potter (b) Max Roach (d)

"Royal Roost", NYC, September 4, 1948

Tracks 2-8:

Kenny Dorham (tp) replaces Davis

"Royal Roost", NYC, January 1, 1949

Track Listing

1. 52nd Street Theme

2. Ko-Ko

3. Be-Bop

4. On A Slow Boat To China

5. Ornithology

6. Groovin' High

7. East Of The Sun

8. Cheryl

[jazzbo]

Those Royal Roost ones are excellent. . . they may in fact be my favorite.

[papsrus]

2) February 14, 1950, from Birdland - with Red Rodney, Al Haig, Tommy Potter, Roy Haynes, and J.J. Johnson. This session doesn't seem to be very well known, but Bird is stunning. I have a brutally edited EPM CD, but I think a more complete version has come out on Philology.

It's on the Ember "Complete Bird at Birdland Vol 1" 4 disc set but it's edited to feature only the heads and Bird's solos.

I have the 4-disc "Complete Birdland" Ember set, but also a 2-disc "Vol. 1" that contains the Feb. 14, 1950 and May 15-16 1950 recordings, if anyone is interested in it. It's duplicate material for me, so I'd trade it for something reasonably interesting. Just throwing that out there. Hate to have it sit idly on a shelf here when someone could be enjoying it.

[papsrus]

One of my favorites:

Track 1 & 2:

Miles Davis (tp) Charlie Parker (as) Al Haig (p) Tommy Potter (b) Max Roach (d)

"Royal Roost", NYC, September 4, 1948

Tracks 2-8:

Kenny Dorham (tp) replaces Davis

"Royal Roost", NYC, January 1, 1949

Track Listing

1. 52nd Street Theme

2. Ko-Ko

3. Be-Bop

4. On A Slow Boat To China

5. Ornithology

6. Groovin' High

7. East Of The Sun

8. Cheryl

The "Complete Live Performances on Savoy" box lists different personnel for the Sept 4, 1948 tracks: Miles; Parker; Tadd Dameron, p; Curley Russell, b; Max Roach, d

On the Jan. 1 1949 tracks it lists, as your's does, Dorham, t; Parker, as; Haig, d; Potter, b; Roach, d.

Edited December 19, 2009 by papsrus

[BillF]

1) The "Bird With the Herd" session - Bird sitting in with Woody Herman's band in 1951. Parker is not always at his best here, but I love hearing him learn the bridge of "Four Brothers" on the fly. He's totally lost on his first chorus, but gets more of the changes every time it comes around, until he's just wailing on it.

Completely agree with you about that! Bird learning those changes as he goes along is a truly fascinating moment in recorded jazz!

[John L]

February 14, 1950, from Birdland - with Red Rodney, Al Haig, Tommy Potter, Roy Haynes, and J.J. Johnson. This session doesn't seem to be very well known, but Bird is stunning. I have a brutally edited EPM CD, but I think a more complete version has come out on Philology.

Indeed, Bird is on fire on this one. If the sound quality were better, or if more complete performances existed, I think that this concert would be cited much more often. As far as I know, the tape that you refer to is the only one that exists, and I have the philology discs.

Edited December 19, 2009 by John L

[AllenLowe]

by the way, as corroboration for Fats Navarro on those 1950 Birdland dates - Kenny Frederickson, I think it is, a bebop pianist, wrote a series of pieces for the Jazz Institute of Chicago in which he talks about seeing Fats at Birdland right around that time -

[papsrus]

Bird was at his zenith in 47' and 48'. I have the recordings from the Onyx club, which are from either April or September. Not sure of the actual month. I've seen both months listed. But I believe this is the only recording either studio or live from 48'. I think there may have been a musician's strike around this time, but despite the poor sound, Bird is brilliant on all these sets. The takes on the live music, albeit not much longer in length then a studio take, exhibits why other musicians saw him as their prophet.

Looks like the Definitive releaseis the only way to get this?

But ... stumbled across another Definitive, "Giant Among Giants-Complete," which are live recordings from the Pershing Hotel Ballroom in Chicago in 1950, and include among the band Von Freeman. Anyone familiar?

New copies from cdimports are fairly inexpensive.

I believe that all of the 1948 Onyx material is on the Mosaic Benedetti box. Bird on 52nd street on Fantasy is also Onyx material. There is also an excellent earlier 1948 concert from the Three Deuces on that box.

The Perishing Hotel concert from 1950 is fantastic. Part of that concert has been around for a long time as "An Evening at Home with the Bird," and later as "One Night in Chicago" on Savoy. The rest of the recordings are only heads and Bird solos, but some of them are extraordinary, and the sound quality is not bad for the vintage. I highly recommend this one. The saxophone player is most likely Claude McLin, not Von Freeman.

As was discussed on another Bird thread not long ago - one of the greatest more recent discoveries of Bird is the Open Door from 1953. Those are also only heads and Bird solos, but they are just incredible.

The Definitive (which arrived today) I now see is comprised of material recorded at the Onyx between July 6-11, 1948, not the same dates that Hardbopjazz was referring to above. The 2-CD set starts off extremely rough but improves noticeably as it goes along.

The Pershing Club recordings (also arrived today) are indeed very nice, and were recorded much more clearly than the July Onyx.

Edited December 23, 2009 by papsrus

[DukeCity]

1) The "Bird With the Herd" session - Bird sitting in with Woody Herman's band in 1951. Parker is not always at his best here, but I love hearing him learn the bridge of "Four Brothers" on the fly. He's totally lost on his first chorus, but gets more of the changes every time it comes around, until he's just wailing on it.

Completely agree with you about that! Bird learning those changes as he goes along is a truly fascinating moment in recorded jazz!

+1

[marcello]

by the way, as corroboration for Fats Navarro on those 1950 Birdland dates - Kenny Frederickson, I think it is, a bebop pianist, wrote a series of pieces for the Jazz Institute of Chicago in which he talks about seeing Fats at Birdland right around that time -

Here it is: My Time with Al Haig

[Brad]

What a great article. Thanks for posting that.

[jazmaan]

this is my favorite bird ever prob

June-July 1950Café Society Downtown, New York NYPrivate recording (Tape)Charlie Parker Quintet

Charlie Parker (as); Kenny Dorham (tpt); Milton "Brew" Moore (ts); Tony Scott (cl); Mundell Lowe (g); Al Haig (p); Dick Hyman (p); Tommy Potter (b); Leonard Gaskin (b); Roy Haynes (d); Ed Shaughnessy (d)

Lover Come Back to Me (S. Romberg-O. Hammerstein) 18:08

Yes, this is also one of my faves. It's the featured attraction on the "Bird's Perch" lp that's been discussed recently in another thread. Its also available on the "Charlie Parker at Cafe Society" CD on the "Rare Live Recordings" label.

[ghost of miles]

Birdland with Fats Navarro and Bud Powell. (There's controversy about the date-- probably May 1950.)

Me as well.

[danasgoodstuff]

No one's mentioned my fav - 1950, Bird, Diz, Bud, some bassist & Roy Haynes - Anthropology, Round Midnight, Blue n' Boogie(?) and Night In Tunisia. 20 minutes of jazz heaven to me.

[JSngry]

Tommy Potter, iirc.

[Tom in RI]

This thread has got me grabbing for some oldies but goodies. Playing Charlie Parker Montreal 1953 on Uptown right now. Some of this was released on Jazz Showcase in the 70's, now there were some awful pressings. Going to have to grab the Open Door 1953 stuff mentioned above.

[Eric B]

Shaking off 13 years of dust from this thread…I finally saw the light regarding Charles Christopher Parker and I have been exploring his live oeuvre with the aid of this and a couple other old Organissimo threads. 
 

My present live Bird faves would have to be:

1. Complete Savoy Live 4-CD set (duh). Bebop chapter and verse right here I suppose. Great that it’s available on streaming, but also v happy to have found the CDs for $12 on eBay.

2. Town Hall 1945 on Uptown. Sadly *not* on streaming, but the the CDs are out there and damn if it ain’t worth it. I often listen to music whilst dozing at night, and a couple weeks ago “Bebop” — and particularly Max Roach’s bass drum — woke me from my slumber. Chills. I have listened a bunch since then and if I had to pick a single live Bird track this would be it — the audience erupting when Bird walks onto the stage mid tune, his solo, the ambience is just incredible. Fire. 

3. Summit Meeting at Birdland. The first set with Roy Haynes, Dizzy, Bud, and…and… (lol Symphony Sid) Tommy Potter is dope. Roy Haynes absolutely kills on this. The second set with the John Lewis-Klook ensemble is sadly not recorded as well, but as far as I can make out this is the only live recording of Klook and Bird playing together, and it’s wonderful to hear those geniuses in action together. Kind of genteel overall, especially John Lewis, but if you listen close you can hear Klook dropping some shit. 

4. Boston 1952 on Uptown — the Twarzik set. Bird slays, and the rest of the band is right there with him. And the audio quality is fantastic. 

5. The Open Door 2-disc set on Ember. Bird’s playing on here is just different from a lot of the other stuff I’ve heard. Slower and mellower tone and I guess just “weirder” maybe. Not as firey. I love it. And I love Arthur Taylor. 
 

Thanks to you all and hello to any newbies who may stumble upon this in future. I will end this with the Yeats quote used in the Open Door liner notes: 

“Thou wast not born for death immortal Bird.”

He will never die. 

Edited September 22, 2023 by Eric B

[Teasing the Korean]

Those Everest LPs had some great stuff on them.

And The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever, a.k.a. Jazz at Massey Hall.

[danasgoodstuff]

57 minutes ago, Eric B said:

Summit Meeting at Birdland. The first set with Roy Haynes, Dizzy, Bud, and…and… (lol Symphony Sid) Tommy Potter is dope. Roy Haynes absolutely kills on this.

Totally agree, that's what I was talking about upthread.