NPR & Crouch and Bird and WTF!?

[medjuck]

This morning on Weekend Edition there was an interview with Stanley Crouch about his new Bird bio. He read a section describing Bird with the McShann band at the Savoy in Feb 1942 while they played music underneath what he was saying. Only unless I'm nuts (always a possibility) what they played wasn't from the only extant recordings of that show

and worse, the 2nd solo is not by Bird but by a tenor player. You can hear it here.

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=2&t=1&islist=false&id=237040499&m=237570181

BTW I don't blame Crouch for this-- it's the producer's responsibility.

[Teasing the Korean]

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=2&t=1&islist=false&id=237040499&m=237570181

BTW I don't blame Crouch for this-- it's the producer's responsibility.

As a film score listener, I don't think that's really relevant, unless they described the music as being from that performance. They were probably looking for something that captured the mood of the passage. Could have been Bird or anyone else.

[paul secor]

Normally, I would say if the book is about Bird, they should play Bird as accompaniment. But since Crouch's book seems to be as much (or more) about the times and milieu as it is about Bird, I agree with you.

[medjuck]

But the music is available (perhaps with some effort). Bird's playing on "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" on that broadcast perfectly illustrates what Crouch is talking about.