Charlie Parker's Reboppers, November, 26, 1945, WOR Studios, New York.
Charlie Parker (alto sax); "Dizzy" Gillespie (trumpet); Sadik Hakim or Dizzy Gillespie (p); Dillon
"Curley" Russell (bass); Max Roach (drums)
There is still controversy on who plays piano and who plays trumpet. The general consensus is that Dizzy plays piano AND trumpet here. But some people contest it and say it's Miles Davis on Trumpet and either Sadik or Dizzy on Piano. I don't pretend to know (or actually care: this is the stuff of legends).
Let it be said, however, that Miles himself said that it's Dizzy who plays trumpet here. And Dizzy agrees. So who knows why the controversy.
These are two bad pictures I took 10 years ago on a disposable camera (as a premonition or augur on my way to Rochester, the very home of Kodak), of Parker's grave. But he is not actually there as he is not really dead, that much we know, for remember:
"The Cubans, we came here and changed your American music from the bottom up! And nobody knows this! He is shouting. 'AND NOBODY WRITES ABOUT THIS!'" Mario Bauzá, quoted by Robert Palmer
Soon after the September 1948 sessions, his last for Savoy Records, Charlie Parker is already working with Verve/Clef and recording with the wonderful Machito's Afro-Cubans. This
would be the first attempt by producer Norman Grantz (founder of Verve Records) to record Parker
with different settings (from here would later come albums like "Parker
with Strings" or "South of the Border").
Parker records three songs
with the Afro-Cubans, the top Latin orchestra of New York City and the most important and advanced unit of Latin music in the 1940s: Mango
Mangue and No Noise (Dec 20 1948), and Okiedoke (somewhere in January
1949):
Mango Mangue:
Okiedoke:
No Noise
(the first sax solo is by Flip Phillips, Parker starts at 3:01)
This was one of the foundational moments of Latin Jazz. Parker and Machito's orchestra would go on to record the Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite of Chico O'Farrill in December 1950:
Machito and his
partner, arranger and orchestra director Mario Bauzá commented with awe
on Parker's musical genius: how he was humble enough not to want to
record the world-famous "Manisero" (Peanut Vendor) because he wasn't
comfortable with the rhythm; and how he had not heard the songs before
the session but he would hear them just once and then be perfectly and
completely ready to record them on the next take.
FromPeter Losin's chronology of Parker's recording sessions:
Referring
to this session between numbers at the Roost several days later
(January 1, 1949), [Club M.C.] Symphony Sid Torin says, "That new thing
that you did with Machito
was really one of the most sensational things yet... One of the
most sensational
things, recorded for Mercury on the bop series, it's received a
lot of wonderful
kicks... It more or less puts bop in a more or less commercial
sort of a groove,
don't you think?" Parker laconically answers, "Well, if you
wanna take it that
way, but I mean, 'bop' is just a title, I mean, it's all still
music to me..."
The other foundational moment in the birth of Latin Jazz (then called Afro Cuban Jazz is prior to this, but related also to Machito's Afro-Cubans: It's all due to Mario Bauzá, the musical director of the Afro-Cubans (and Machito's brother-in-law), who introduces Gillespie to conguero Chano Pozo.
It's not the first huge favor, a career-changer in fact, that Bauzá does for his friend Dizzy: he had already gotten the trumpeter his first important gig in Cab Calloway's Orchestra about 10 years before! Thanks to Bauzá, Gillespie will become more and more interested in Latin music, an interest that bears a first clear fruit in his classic "A Night in Tunisia" (published 1942 and recorded in 1944). A whole new area is opening in jazz (or rather takes it back to its origins, since as Jelly Roll Morton used to say, jazz don't mean a thing if it ain't got 'the Latin tinge'). For a good analysis of what "A Night in Tunisia" means in music, this is a great piece on NPR).
Here's a recording of "A Night in Tunisia" by Parker with Miles Davis from 1946, featuring what's called the "Famous Alto Break", one of Parker's most celebrated moments (starting at 1:17):
Charlie Parker (alto sax), Miles Davis (trumpet), Lucky Thompson (tenor
sax), Dodo Marmarosa (piano), Arv Garrison (guitar), Vic MicMillan
(bass), Roy Porter (drums).
Recorded at Radio Recorders Studios, Hollywood, on March 28, 1946.
Then, in the late 40s, Gillespie asks Bauzá about a conguero. He wants to try something new on that vein. Bauzá recommends Chano Pozo. Pozo does not speak English, Gillespie does not speak Spanish, "but we both spoke music", remembers Gillespie. It's a brave thing Chano and Gillespie co-write and record "Manteca" and "Tin Tin Deo," and a whole new genre explodes.
"Manteca" is recorded by the Dizzy Gillespie band, including Pozo on congas, on December 22, 1947:
If you want to know more about this fascinating song, this is an excellent article about it:
And we come to the end of the miraculous September 18, 1948 session of the Charlie Parker All-Stars with the fourth of the songs they recorded for a total of 28 unbelievable minutes of music (that's counting every alternate take): "Constellation."
All in all, it's 4 Parker originals recorded in this order:
1. Barbados (3 full takes)
2. Ah-Leu-Cha (1 take)
3. Constellation (3 full takes)
4. Parker's Mood (2 full takes)
(Plus a few aborted or incomplete takes).
The personnel, as in the other 3 songs (except for Parker's Mood, where Miles Davis does not play), is:
Charlie Parker (as); Miles Davis (tpt); John Lewis (p); Dillon "Curley" Russell (b); Max Roach (d)
Here's "Constellation":
Interestingly, 2 out of the 4 songs in the session share the same source material: "I Got Rhythm" by George Gershwin (see previous entries for more information): "Ah-Leu-Cha" and "Constellation" are all 'reworkings' or 'contrafacts' (a song based on a previous song) of that song. In fact, these are only 2 instances out of a staggering minimum of 11 songs which Parker derives from the Gershwin original, others being "Anthropology" (aka "Thrivin' from a Riff"), "Chasin' the Bird," "Celerity," "Dexterity, "Moose the Mooche," "Steeplechase," "Red Cross," "An Oscar for Treadwell" and "Passport".
George and Ira wrote many hits, but
this song stands apart from the rest for its influence on jazz history
and musicians in the 1930s, 40s, 50s and beyond. “I Got Rhythm” has
become a part of a larger tradition of music making in jazz and
influenced notions of musical creativity and innovation.
If you look at a list of "Jazz Contrafacts", that is, jazz songs based on other songs, you'll find that "I Got Rhythm" is the most common source song with well over 30 jazz songs based on it: Sydney Bechet, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis or Ornette Coleman or are just a few of the jazzmen that write tunes based on the Gershwin song.
Since this is a blog about Charlie Parker, I don't want to do an entry based on all the different reinterpretations of "I Got Rhythm" but I'll leave you with this excellent NPR tribute to the song and its transformations and with one particular example, the incredible "Rhythm-A-Ning" by Thelonious Monk:
"Well, if you wanna take it that
way, but I mean, 'bop' is just a title, I mean, it's all still music to me..." (Charlie Parker)
The first tune recorded by the charlie Parker All Stars on the fateful session of September 18, 1948 was the mambo-blues "Barbados", a Parker composition with an infectious Latin rhythm and a wonderful soulful solo by Parker plus a playful one by Davis to a more straightforward swing beat.
They did 3 complete takes on it and an aborted one, last one (track 4) was the published song.
Charlie Parker (as); Miles Davis (tpt); John Lewis (p); Dillon "Curley" Russell (b); Max Roach (d)
There is also a live version recorded at the Royal Roost Club (see previous entries) where Parker's band was playing regularly. This one was recorded a few months later, on February 12, 1949, and the band that night apparently included bongosero Carlos Vidal of the Machito and His Afro-Cubans orchestra (it's difficult to hear). Vidal was actually a conguero with Machito, and in fact is one of the first congueros to record in the United States. Here's a photo of him on congas (right) with Mangual on bongós and Machito on Maracas:
Once again, the song is a testimony to how much Parker could improvise on the solos and do a different song each time and to go to many different places with his solos:
Full personnel: Charlie Parker (as); Kenny Dorham (tpt); Al Haig
(p); Tommy Potter (b); Max Roach (d); Leonard Hawkins (tpt); Ted Kelly
(tb); Sahib Shihab [Edmund Gregory] (as); Benjamin Lundy (ts); Cecil
Payne (bs); Tadd Dameron (p); John Collins (g); Dillon "Curley" Russell
(b); Kenny Clarke (d); Carlos Vidal (bgo); Symphony Sid Torin (ann)
In the solo here, around the minute mark and on, Parker appears to quote to Gillespie's "Black and Blue":
By the time of this live recording at the Roost, Parker had already joined Verve/Clef and had recorded with Machito's Afro-Cubans. This would be the first attempt by producer Norman Grantz to record Parker with different settings (from here would later come albums like "Parker with Strings" or "South of the Border"). Parker recorded three songs with the Afro-Cubans, the top Latin orchestra of New York City: Mango Mangue and No Noise (Dec 20 1948), and Okiedoke (somewhere in January 1949):
Mango Mangue:
Okiedoke:
No Noise
(the first sax solo is by Flip Phillips, Parker starts at 3:01)
This was one of the foundational moments of Latin Jazz. Parker and Machito's orchestra would go on to record the Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite of Chico O'Farrill in December 1950:
Machito and his partner, arranger and orchestra director Mario Bauzá commented with awe on Parker's musical genius: how he was humble enough not to want to record the world-famous "Manisero" (Peanut Vendor) because he wasn't comfortable with the rhythm; and how he had not heard the songs before the session but he would hear them just once and then be perfectly and completely ready to record them on the next take.
FromPeter Losin's chronology of Parker's recording sessions:
Referring to this session between numbers at the Roost several days later (January 1, 1949), [Club M.C.] Symphony Sid Torin says, "That new thing that you did with Machito
was really one of the most sensational things yet... One of the most sensational
things, recorded for Mercury on the bop series, it's received a lot of wonderful
kicks... It more or less puts bop in a more or less commercial sort of a groove,
don't you think?" Parker laconically answers, "Well, if you wanna take it that
way, but I mean, 'bop' is just a title, I mean, it's all still music to me..."
What can be said about some of the best three minutes ever recorded in the history of music?
First, just play the song:
Then, maybe just give some context. From the previous entry:
After his release from a six-month stay at the Camarillo Mental Institution in early 1947, Charlie Parker
was in the best health he would ever be: not drinking so much and going
on what he called a "health kick", that is, eating at regular hours and
not doing anything stronger, for stimulants, than beer and benzedrine.
Well, and heroin, of course.
But soon Bird was back in New York and he seemed stronger than ever. In
fact, 1947 and 1948 mark what for many is the peak of his recording
career. In 1947 he records quite a number of classics: "Klactoveedsedstene", "Chasin' the Bird", "Scrapple from the Apple"...
Then comes another recording ban by the American Federation of
Musicians. And so for 10 months Parker does not record, instead playing
regularly in clubs in NYC (specially the Royal Roost on Broadway) and
elsewhere with a classic band that includes Miles Davis and Max Roach.
The Roost was an new type of jazz club. Its innovations included a
75-cent cover charge (the first one in the city) and a milk bar for the
underage.
In this club Parker finds singer Babs Gonzales, who reportedly
berates him for his heroin use, to which Bird allegedly replies: "Wait
until everybody gets rich off your style and you don't have any bread,
then lecture me about drugs."
But in September 1948 —clandestinely since the recording ban is
still in effect—Parker finally records again after 10 months away from a
studio, doing what will in fact be his 2 last sessions for Savoy,
before going on to Verve and a modicum of final recognition and fame
before his early death. It happens at Harry Smith Studios in NYC (2 West
46th Street in New York City), with Harry Smith as engineer. There was only one microphone.
The band is called the Charlie Parker All Stars. The session from
September 18th, 1948 is absolutely mesmerizing. It includes only 4
songs, 3 of which are, to my ears, absolute masterpieces: "Ah-Leu-Cha", "Barbados" and, of course, "Parker's Mood", one of the key moments in jazz history.
Parker's Mood is just a 'simple' 12-bar blues —with a wonderful intro and coda— that becomes in Parker's hands and mind a mesmerizing performance, a miracle of beauty, warmth and groove. There were two full takes of the song recorded on that date. 5 takes total, 3 being little most than a few seconds before Parker calls to "hold it!" (take 1 bearing the distinction of being the shortest take by Charlie Parker ever: 5 seconds, two notes). Both are recorded by Charlie Parker (alto sax), John Lewis (piano), Curley Russell (bass) and Max Roach (drums). Miles Davis was present on the take above, the commercially released one, which was take 5 in the session, but did not play in it. He was a busy man and arrived late to witness take 2, the 'alternative' complete take of the song.
Much is made of how Parker's solos varied so much from take to take as to warrant commercial release, and thus there are editions like The Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Recordings, with every single take, including the 0:05 one, put together. It gets to be annoying to hear five false starts or minute-aborted versions in a row, but a case like this alternative version of Parker's Mood justifies the effort, makes the pain worth it and provides a wonderful occasion to confirm how, indeed, Parker's genius changed things around enough to be equally wonderful in a different way. There are those, in fact, who prefer this alternative take, so here's Parker's Mood, take 2:
Now I really should tell you a sad ironic story about Parker's tomb in Kansas City and how much Bird hated one particular version of Parker's Mood —how a thing of such incredible beauty could become ugly to his soul—, but that will have to be the next entry.
"It's just music. It's playing clean and looking for the pretty notes." Charlie Parker
After his release from a six-month stay at the Camarillo Mental Institution in early 1947, Charlie Parker was in the best health he would ever be: not drinking so much and going on what he called a "health kick", that is, eating at regular hours and not doing anything stronger, for stimulants, than beer and benzedrine. Well, and heroin, of course.
But soon Bird was back in New York and he seemed stronger than ever. In fact, 1947 and 1948 mark what for many is the peak of his recording career. In 1947 he records quite a number of classics: "Klactoveedsedstene", "Chasin' the Bird", "Scrapple from the Apple"...
Then comes another recording ban by the American Federation of Musicians. And so for 10 months Parker does not record, instead playing regularly in clubs in NYC (specially the Royal Roost on Broadway) and elsewhere with a classic band that includes Miles Davis and Max Roach.
The Roost was an new type of jazz club. Its innovations included a 75-cent cover charge (the first one in the city) and a milk bar for the underage.
In this club Parker finds singer Babs Gonzales, who reportedly berates him for his heroin use, to which Bird allegedly replies: "Wait until everybody gets rich off your style and you don't have any bread, then lecture me about drugs."
But in September 1948 —clandestinely since the recording ban is still in effect—Parker finally records again after 10 months away from a studio, doing what will in fact be his 2 last sessions for Savoy, before going on to Verve and a modicum of final recognition and fame before his early death. It happens at Harry Smith Studios in NYC (2 West 46th Street in New York City), with Harry Smith as engineer. There was only one microphone.
The band is called the Charlie Parker All Stars. The session from September 18th, 1948 is absolutely mesmerizing. It includes only 4 songs, 3 of which are, to my ears, absolute masterpieces: "Ah-Leu-Cha", "Barbados" and, of course, "Parker's Mood", one of the key moments in jazz history.
We'll talk about Parker's Mood in the next entry. Let's focus for today on that wonderful song that is "Ah-Leu-Cha".
It is one of two songs in which Charlie Parker composes using counterpoint (which you can quickly distinguish as to melodies stacked on top of each other or playing against each other). Both are reworkings of George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" (if you reworked it and recorded it under a new name you would avoid paying royalties!). The other one is "Chasin' the Bird". The funny thing about Ah-Leu-Cha (apart from its name, which to me is a play on "Allellujah" but I have no source for this. Parker used to not name his tunes and let the engineers name them, unless they were playful titles such as this one, which would be his) is that it's a reworking not only of "I Got Rhythm" but also of "Honeysuckle Rose". Let's compare them:
Here's Ah-Leu-Cha, recorded by Charlie Parker (alto sax), Miles Davis (trumpet), John Lewis (piano), Curley Russell (bass) and Max Roach (drums), The Charlie Parker All Stars:
Here's a movie version of "Honeysuckle Rose" by its great composer, Mr. Fats Waller (with lyrics by his usual partner Andy Razaf):
And here's "I Got Rhythm":
And just for comparison's sake, here's "Chasin' the Bird":
"Ah-Leu-Cha" has been recorded by many of the best. Miles Davis and John Coltrane do it a little too fast for my taste but it's a nice rendition (recorded on September 10, 1956):
But if that was fast, they did it even faster, to the point of nonsense, live in Newport (1958):
Here's drummer Roy Haynes (2001):
And here's a version by saxophonist Archie Shepp live in Germany in 1976, oddly and fascinatingly divested of the contrapuntal elements:
Here's trumpetist Art Farmer, in 1981:
And there's an interesting rendition on guitars by Ed Bickert and Lorne Lorfsky, I could post it here but I'd rather direct you to this excellent post by Mr. Steven Cerra:
"His favorite composer was Stravinsky, and his favorite work was Le Sacre du Printemps"
"Charlie Parker, his sound, his music... When I first heard him, the first time... it was the Pied Piper of Hamelin... I would have followed anywhere, you know... Over the cliff, wherever!
"I was working on 52nd street, with different people, Ben Webster, Coleman Hawkins ... And this guy walks down, he's got one green shoe, one blue shoe, rumbled, he's got his horn in a paper bag with rubber bands and cellophane on it... There he is, Charlie Parker..."
Jazz History Lesson: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie
:format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-7993397-1472658095-4758.jpeg.jpg)
%2C_and_Ubaldo_Nieto%2C_Glen_Island_Casino%2C_New_York%2C_N.Y.%2C_ca._July_1947)_(LOC)_(5395853232).jpg/800px-(Portrait_of_Mario_Bouza%2C_Jose_Mangual%2C_Carlos_Vidal(%3F)%2C_and_Ubaldo_Nieto%2C_Glen_Island_Casino%2C_New_York%2C_N.Y.%2C_ca._July_1947)_(LOC)_(5395853232).jpg)
