Charlie Parker devotees have to be interested when three previously unknown recordings become available 75 years after they were made! They are included in this two CD set BIRD IN L A (Verve 00602507 408459) which puts together various other material from Bird’s visits to the Los Angeles area.
The tracks come from a concert at the Shrine Auditorium on Monday November 22, 1948. Impresario Norman Granz had assembled a star-studded line-up for a gruelling tour of ‘one-nighters’ of which this was one - Bird, Coleman Hawkins, Howard McGhee, Sonny Criss, Flip Phillips, Tommy Turk, Kenny Hagood, and a rhythm team of Al Haig, Tommy Potter and J C Heard.
On
the day of the concert, Charlie had disappeared and couldn’t be located.
Frantic, Norman Granz sent out tenor saxist Teddy Edwards who knew the local ‘scene’
and who found Bird passed-out (he had been married two days before to Doris
Sydnor and I’m sure some celebrations had taken place!) Drastic measures were
taken to sober-up Charlie including putting his head under a cold-water faucet.
Eventually, Granz shoved Parker onto the stage at the end of a typically
raucous JATP session and the Quartet performed the three pieces which were panned by Downbeat magazine in their review. “Bird Lays An Egg” and “Charlie Parker
blew virtually nothing but clinkers and meaningless disconnected passages
almost completely alien to the architectural structure of the compositions
attempted”
It’s
true to say Charlie’s playing was not at its most fluent and nor up to his
usual high standard, but bearing in mind the situation, its well worth hearing
and studying. Ornithology is taken at a steady tempo
and guided by Haig’s reliable comping, Charlie plays a good solo with new ideas
incorporating Show me the way to go home, I’m tired and I want to go to bed which, given the circumstances may well have been more than a mere quote. Following
Haig’s neat, flowing solo, Bird returns for “fours” with Heard and an out
chorus where he briefly goes “outside” à la Ornette – a stunning moment showing
he was striving for something else he could hear even in 1948. Dizzy Atmosphere is where it all falls
apart. Played at a ‘murderous’
tempo, Charlie is unable to cope and his solo is fragmentary but there are
moments of brilliance. Haig, Potter and Heard are excellent here holding
together the performance in a professional manner.
Lastly,
we hear Out Of Nowhere at a relaxed
tempo giving Charlie time to put together an emotional solo including more
interpolations, even going ‘outside’ again with his favourite Kerry Dancers quote in a completely different key (perhaps
Bird taking the p*** out of Norman Granz!) and probably what the Downbeat reviewer would call a clinker!
All in all then, the capture of moments in time in the life of this troubled
genius of our music in extraordinary circumstances.
The other material on these 2 CDs has long been available – broadcasts from 1945/46 with Gillespie, another featuring legendary pianist Joe Albany and finally music from the notorious party held at the Zorthian Ranch in 1952. Dave Brownlow.
No comments :
Post a Comment