An interesting tribute to Charlie Parker coinciding with what would have been the great man's 101st birthday by a player who took advantage of the lockdowns to immerse himself in all of Bird's known recordings. In his own words, Sun said, "It was a way to de-stress and take a break from the pandemic reality. Parker was like the James Joyce of modern jazz."
Most of the tracks are contrafacts of various bebop compositions (mostly by Bird) which themselves began life as contrafacts.
A word of warning, anyone thinking they are going to hear updated versions of the originals are in for a shock - a not unpleasant one I hasten to add!
The spirit of the original hangs overhead but, at a distance and thus enabling the music to stand - or fall - on its own feet. By and large, it stands more often than it falls if indeed it actually does fall at any point.
Although Sun plays tenor, he gets a sound that's almost like an alto - him and Lester Young! Li, O'Farrell, and Light also have their moments in the sun (no pun intended).
It's an album that maybe suggests where Parker would have been had he lived to a ripe old age but, more than likely, it is an album that a younger jazz audience may latch on to irrespective of the inspiration. If that is the case then, hopefully, they will want to get their history books out. Lance
No comments :
Post a Comment