Discovering previously unheard music is a
consistent hope for serious jazz fans. Finding unreleased music from legends,
especially those who departed far too early with their legacies incomplete, is
a true joy; one of those legends whose every note leads to an adventure of
innovation is the immortal Charlie "Bird" Parker. On July 1,
Verve/UMe brings a thrill to jazz lovers worldwide with the release of Unheard
Bird: The Unissued Takes, a comprehensive two-disc set featuring a cornucopia
of previously unknown music - 58 never listed studio takes from Charlie Parker.
The set was co-produced by Phil Schaap, the eminent jazz historian who is
currently Curator at Jazz At Lincoln Center and the foremost expert on
Ornithology.
"These
previously unknown takes are a blockbuster," Schaap says, "providing
heretofore-unheard Bird improvisations, and in high fidelity." Discovered in
a cache of materials owned by a former associate of Norman Granz, the founder
of Verve Records and visionary producer of these sessions, the newly discovered
takes allow the listener inside the private domain between Parker and Granz as
they developed some of the most important music in jazz. In his highly detailed
liner notes, Schaap provides overview, session-by-session history and
track-by-track analysis, further illuminating the creative process of Bird's
genius.
Originally
issued on Mercury and Clef, but ultimately housed on Verve, the Parker/Granz
studio collaborations were well-designed and thoughtfully conceived to display
Bird's unparalleled talents in a variety of contexts. These included Parker's
four to six piece ensembles (both working and pick-up groups); Latin Jazz
efforts, some of which were labeled "South of the Border;" the
orchestral Charlie Parker including his masterpieces with strings; standard Big
Band; and Parker's prescient view of the Third Stream. Unheard Bird touches on
all of these, including a couple of brief false starts on "If I Should
Lose You" that were not included in the remarkable 2015 companion set,
Charlie Parker With Strings: Deluxe Edition.
From the
Latin side, there are five tracks with Parker as the featured soloist with
Machito and his Orchestra; and 13 "South of the Border" tracks that
feature a rhythm section of Walter Bishop, Teddy Kotick and Roy Haynes or Max
Roach, along with Jose Mangual and Luis Miranda on bongos and congas,
respectively, and joined on a pair by trumpeter Benny Harris. As a bonus we
hear snippets of studio chatter, including Bird discussing tempo; on "Tico
Tico" he asks studio guests to quiet down lest they ruin the session.
There is a
fascinating set of ten tracks from a Cole Porter project that was never
completed due to Bird's illness and untimely passing. Featuring a Big Band that
included such heavyweights as Oscar Peterson, Freddie Green, Flip Phillips and
Ray Brown, Bird digs into three Porter classics - "Night and Day,"
"What Is This Thing Called Love" and "Almost Like Being in
Love," with brilliant results.
More than
half of the package features Bird in the small group hardcore bop settings for
which he was best known. This features a reuniting of Parker's quintet,
referred to as The Golden Era BeBop Five, the only Granz-produced recordings by
this ensemble. These 14 tracks feature Kenny Dorham, Al Haig, Tommy Potter and
Max Roach. They are joined for four more by trombonist Tommy Turk and Carlos
Vidal on conga.
Dizzy
Gillespie - Bird's co-conspirator in the Bebop movement - joins Bird for ten
tracks, along with Thelonious Monk, Curley Russell and Buddy Rich. The
all-Parker program includes complete run-throughs of "An Oscar for
Treadwell," "Bloomdido" and "Mohawk." A quartet setting
brings Hank Jones, Ray Brown and Buddy Rich to the bandstand for explorations
of the beautiful Raye/DePaul gem "Star Eyes" and Bird's "Blues
(Fast)."
To round out
the new, 69-track set, included are the songs' master takes. (The mismatched
math - 58 unreleased takes plus 20 master takes somehow equaling 69 - is due to
the producers combining some of the shorter takes for this release.)
Spanning the
years 1949-1952, Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes displays the immortal master
of the alto saxophone Charlie Parker at the peak maturity of his prodigious
talents. Accompanied by so many of the era's giants, and allowed the time,
space and support to produce art at its highest level, this set is a monumental
addition to a legacy of artistry that is breathtaking in its scope and majesty.
With Phil Schaap's erudite and perceptive delineation of the ways and means by
which this artistry was achieved, and his portrait of the era in which it all
took place, Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes is an essential addition to the
library of all serious fans of jazz.
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