THE DAY BIRD FLEW AWAY: DIZZY GILLESPIE MEETS *THE* ORCHESTRA — WASHINGTON, MARCH 13, 1955

Posted on March 13, 2015 by Brew

DizzyGillespie_Washington_1955Beside the lengthy “Afro Suite” on side 1, there is this wonderful version of “TIN TIN DEO” on the pictured LP.

If Dizzy, or anyone else had known what had happened the night before, in Pannonica de Koenigswarter’s apartment, on March 12, 1955, that Charlie Parker had left this planet for good, their program would have looked differently.CharlieParker_Obituary_MelodyMaker_March-19-1955

On the other hand, we had not the pleasure to listen to this wonderful music:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyGH73kWWGw&w=370&h=265]

As a little addition to Doug Ramsey’s blog entry, re: Bird’s death, I’m posting the master take of “EMBRACEABLE YOU”, as played by the Charlie Parker Quintet on October 28, 1947 … which I can’t post at the moment because … ah, forget it!

One_Night_In_Washington

— Blog owner’s update: Mr. Ramsey has posted the 1st take of Bird’s “EMBRACEABLE YOU”, alas, the uploader of that “video” was obviously unable to find a non-reverbed version of this lovely track.

That’s why I looked a bit harder, and found the above; although my LP-transfer sounds much better (and not so loud), you will have to listen to the above.

Personnel, location & date: Miles Davis (tp) Charlie Parker (as) Duke Jordan (p) Tommy Potter (b) Max Roach (d) – WOR Studios, NYC, October 28, 1947.

Here’s “BIRD OF PARADISE” from the very same session; it’s a masterful variation of Jerome Kern’s “ALL THE THINGS YOU ARE”.

bird_lives

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2 Responses to THE DAY BIRD FLEW AWAY: DIZZY GILLESPIE MEETS *THE* ORCHESTRA — WASHINGTON, MARCH 13, 1955

  1. chicohamilton says:
    March 14, 2015 at 18:48

    Not Parker’s best performance for several reasons, but certainly history.

  2. Brew says:
    March 14, 2015 at 20:10

    Yep, Sir, great history of playing a jazz ballad. — The 1st take is a drag, compared to this here which is slightly faster. Bird rarely had the chance to record ballads with a small band; “Meandering”, recorded for Savoy on November 26, 1945, is also a paraphrase on “EMBRACEABLE YOU” … but not as stringent as the above since it was only meant as a warm-up for Ko-Ko, the definitive bebop masterpiece of all times. — Dizzy Gillespie (p) Curly Russell (b) Max Roach (d):

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXIFO167Aq0&w=370&h=265]

    — Learn here more about this famous recording session with CHARLIE PARKER’s REBOPPERS.

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