This
is not a review, but merely a few recommended links to highlight some Charlie
Parker music around what was his 100th Birthday celebrations.
On
Thursday, August 27, at Ronnie Scott’s, Gilad Atzmon led a quartet accompanied
by strings, as a tribute to CP on what would have been his 100th Birthday
(2 days early!). Many of the tunes played come from the album Charlie Parker with Strings and is a
superb rendition of these, plus a few more besides. A great performance
despite the lockdown conditions. Link (music starts at 1:40)
On August 29
there was a live stream from the Ravello Festival with a great outdoor
performance by some Italian peeps (sorry no info, the announcements are all in
Italian) – a very much larger set-up than Gilad’s quartet + string quartet, but
again based around ‘CP with Strings’. Link.
The music
starts at 4:40 and the first set is based on Charlie Parker with
Strings. Post interval has the quintet playing jazz & blues etc. then
back into Charlie Parker with Strings. Finally, what looks like two encores - Summertime and (after further speeches) the
final closer. Quite a variety and quite a setting! As an
aside, I holidayed close to Ravello in 2005 and would recommend checking out
the daytime views of this performance area on the Ravello Festival site – the
backdrop is spectacular.
And
there’s more … thanks to a little Google browsing I randomly found two
interesting links: Firstly the studio recordings of ‘CP with
Strings’. Link (for those who don’t own an LP or CD of this recording). And
secondly some live sessions (half of which were recorded from the dressing room
speakers – be warned!). Link in which CP plays in a
large ensemble with for example Roy Haynes/Max Roach etc. Whilst the
audio quality is just ‘acceptable’ it really is an interesting listen. The
track lengths vary from 3½ mins to 40+ mins. The sound balance is
pro-Parker (and pro-Harp too!) but his playing comes through in spades despite
the poor audio quality.
Overall,
this collection of URLs makes for an extended listening session – but it
doesn’t have to take up a whole weekend – sample them at leisure!
Ken Drew
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