With Bird’s centenary coming up in August this year I dug around some of my vinyl and unearthed a bootleg album by Charlie Parker with the Woody Herman Third Herd recorded in 1951 in Bird's home town of Kansas City.
The excellent book: Woody Herman - Chronicles of the Herds by William D. Clancy and Audree Coke Kenton*, provides some of the background to the concert.
Parker was a last minute addition to the event and wasn't even billed but he played with minimal if any rehearsal and, despite a few understandable glitches, blew up a storm.
Urbie Green, who was in the trombone section, recorded it on a reel to reel tape machine and gave a copy to tenor player Dick Hafer who loaned it to a less than scrupulous friend who issued it as a bootleg album.
Although the sound quality is about what you would expect under the circumstances it doesn't diminish Bird's magnificence as he soars over the ensembles. On the above Four Brothers he doesn't make the middle eight first time round but he's with it on the subsequent choruses.
Other tracks can be heard on YouTube or, better still, you can buy the album via Amazon.
A classic.
Lance.
You Go To My Head; Leo the Lion; Cuban Holiday; The Nearness of You; Lemon Drop; The Goof and I; Laura; Four Brothers; Leo the Lion (part 2).
*Woody Herman - Chronicles of the Herds by William D. Clancy and Audree Coke Kenton. Schirmer Books 1995 ISBN 0-02-870496-7.
*Woody Herman - Chronicles of the Herds by William D. Clancy and Audree Coke Kenton. Schirmer Books 1995 ISBN 0-02-870496-7.
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