In early 1945, saxophonist Hal McKusick found himself in Los Angeles sharing a hotel room with arranger and pianist George Handy. Weeks earlier, Hal and Handy had been in Boston with Boyd Raeburn's band. But just before Christmas 1944, they quit in protest. Raeburn was handing solos meant for tenor saxophonist Al Cohn's to alto saxophonist Johnny Bothwell, a move they felt made little musical sense. In a burst of bravado, Hal and Handy decided to fly to the West Coast shortly after touching down in New York from Boston. When they arrived in California, they lived at a hotel briefly, taking on playing and writing jobs in L.A. and San Francisco. By the end of 1945, Hal was rooming in Los Angeles with pianist Joe Albany's family.
Hal [pictured below] picks up the story:
"Joe's real last name was Albani. His family was from Italy. They were lovely people, and the food was fantastic. Joe was originally an accordion player, and he had recently started playing piano, which was ideal for me because we could play a lot together at his house.
"When I moved in, I brought along a double-breasted striped suit that a gifted Chinese tailor had made for me in San Francisco. I bought it while I was working up there with Ziggy Elman's big band at the San Francisco Theater.
"In December 1946, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie came to L.A. to play at Billy Berg's in Hollywood. Joe and I had heard about him so we went to see him and Dizzy, who I already knew from Boyd's band. At Billy Berg's, Bird and Dizzy were amazing.
"A day or two later I went to the closet to get my suit, but it was gone. When I asked Joe if he had seen it, he said matter-of-factly, 'I gave it to Bird.' Joe wanted to give Parker a welcome gift. In Joe's state of mind, he found it easy to lift my special attire from the closet with no thought that I would mind.
"Strangely, though, he was right. I was happy to hear Bird, and never mentioned it to Joe or Bird. We were so happy to be able to hear Parker in person. That seems to have been the most important thing. I was honored that he was wearing my suit at Billy Berg's." [Photo of Charlie Parker and Howard McGhee on the West Coast]
When saxophonist Benny Golson and trumpeter Art Farmer decided to form a sextet in late 1959 with trombonist Curtis Fuller, they were stuck for a name. So Benny asked Fuller if they could use "Jazztet," a name the trombonist had come up with for a Savoy album date he led in August. Fuller agreed, and the first album the group recorded in February 1960 was Meet the Jazztet, a powerful outing that included Benny's I Remember Clifford, Blues March, Park Avenue Petite and Killer Joe.
The album remains such a strong, all-chips-in outing that the group's second album, Big City Sounds, often is overlooked, left hiding in the first album's large shadow. Recorded in September 1960, Big City Sounds was in fact a stunning followup that requires a careful re-listen.
Benny and Fuller were formerly of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, but the Jazztet concept that Benny and Farmer had in mind wasn't quite hard bop. There was a new sophistication and lighter feel to the Jazztet's approach. Benny's writing and arranging had a greater finesse and sophistication than the beat-heavy hard bop groups of the time. Benny's melody lines and harmonies were more refined, influenced to some extent by the delicate and poetic stylings of Tadd Dameron.
The Jazztet's first album was a tough act to follow. Killer Joe was a big jukebox hit, and the Jazztet was named best new small band in the Down Beat Critics' Poll. But after the first album gained speed, Fuller decided to leave the group, largely over financial issues related to the pay of sidemen. Both Benny and Farmer had been making sizable incomes before forming the Jazztet—Benny with his writing and Farmer with his prolific sideman dates. Both needed the bulk of the Jazztet's income to sustain their focus and participation. Bassist Addison Farmer and drummer Lex Humphries also decided to depart, along with McCoy Tyner, who joined John Coltrane.
So Benny needed to hire four replacements. The new Jazztet featured Tom McIntosh on trombone and Cedar Walton on piano, Tommy Williams on bass and Albert "Tootie" Heath on drums. The tracks were The Cool One, Blues on Down, Hi-Fly, My Funny Valentine, Wonder Why, Con Alma, Lament, Bean Bag and Five Spot After Dark.
Four of the tracks were Benny's compositions—The Cool One, Blues on Down, Bean Bag and Five Spot After Dark. Each is different from the other, but all exemplify the cooler, sculptured sound Benny was striving for with the Jazztet. In addition to the music and orchestral arrangements, the sound of Farmer's Melba-toast tone against Benny's serpentine lines and breathy phrasing makes for a rich result.
The Cool One has a Killer Joe feel and pace but it is a tad lighter. Blues on Down is given a funk feel. Bean Bag, an up-tempo tune, features voicings that lead you to think there are many more instruments playing. And the sly Five Spot After Dark has a drive that never feels heavy. Of the remaining tunes, Randy Weston's Hi-Fly and Dizzy Gillespie's Con Alma are particularly precious. And Farmer's reading of My Funny Valentine is a showcase for the trumpeter's sterling technique.
Benny and Farmer would record separately for their next two Argo dates in 1960—Benny with Take a Number from 1 to 10 and Farmer with Art backed by a quartet. The Jazztet reunited in January 1961 with John Lewis. As the Big City Sounds clearly illustrates, the concept was too good not to pursue. [Photo of Art Farmer and Benny Golson by Don Schlitten]
JazzWax tracks. You'll find Big City Sounds as a download at iTunes or here. The album also was included as part of Mosaic's The Complete Argo/Mercury Art Famer/Benny Golson/Jazztet Sessions, now out of print and selling for around $350.
JazzWax clip: Here'sThe Cool One from Big City Sounds. Dig how Benny colorizes his solo, soaring one moment and zigzagging the next. Farmer follows with an absolutely lovely series of round, taut statements. This was a magical group...
Every great story has turning points, and the life of Charlie Parker is no exception. Among the many events that helped shape the direction of Parker and jazz in the late 1940s was the departure of Miles Davis from Parker's quintet in December 1948 and Parker's recording of Charlie Parker With Strings in November 1949.
After Davis gave notice, his replacement, trumpeter Kenny Dorham, became a force and Davis' experimentation and influence on jazz in the early 1950s expanded. As for the strings album, Parker's jazz-classical fusion became a formula used repeatedly by jazz musicians to express a more relaxed, pop side and extend the music's reach.
Today, Phil and I discuss these two events:
JazzWax: In December 1948, Miles Davis decided to leave the Charlie Parker All Stars. Why? Phil Schaap: The straw that broke the camel’s back was Parker’s selection of pianist Al Haig [pictured] to replace Duke Jordan.
JW: Who did Davis want? PS: Miles wanted John Lewis, and he told Parker. Bird said, “If you want John Lewis to be the piano player, get your own band.” Miles had already made headway toward forming his own band with his nonet, which had played the Royal Roost and was due to record the so-called Birth of the Cool session for Capitol in January. Of course, John Lewis was on piano.
JW: What did Parker have against John Lewis? PS: Nothing. Look, if you’re going to choose one piano player, does that mean every other piano player sucks? It doesn’t.
JW: But it does mean that you hear something special in one pianist over another. PS: Bird had heard Al Haig before. Haig had recorded with Bird as early as May 1945. He and Dizzy went nightclubbing often and heard him many times. Haig also is in California at Billy Berg’s with Bird and Dizzy. Haig is who Bird likes and wants, so he hires who he wants. [Photo: Al Haig and Miles Davis]
JW: Was there ever any hard feelings by Lewis toward Bird over his selection? PS: None whatsoever. I interviewed John Lewis about Charlie Parker fairly frequently. John said he would have accepted the job, but there was no ill will. If you were to bear a grudge against every leader who didn’t hire you, every sideman in the world would hate 98% of the leaders.
JW: Does the Charlie Parker with Strings session in November 1949 successfully link modern jazz and pop? PS: It has a lasting effect in this specific sense: the concept that Parker envisions becomes a door-opening device that allows jazz improvisers to this day to seek a lush background texture. The albums these artists create are then considered pop records by the marketplace. Stan Getz, Johnny Hodges, Chet Baker, Harry Carney, Clifford Brown, Wynton Marsalis and many others recorded albums with the same concept Bird pioneered.
JW: What does Charlie Parker With Strings do for jazz-pop? PS: It's the creation of a new slice of the jazz pie. The result becomes an offshoot of the pop field at a time when jazz was no longer the center of the pop idiom.
JW: Did the Charlie Parker with Strings concept originate as something of an accident? PS: How so?
JW: In December 1947, Bird’s recording of Repetition with Neal Hefti is really the basis for Charlie Parker With Strings, PS: I don’t think so. I think Bird tells us in interviews that it’s not. Repetition was an opportunity for Bird to come in the back door on making a record he tells us he had already envisioned. When he hears Hefti conducting his orchestra on Repetition, he hears his concept and wants in.
JW: And Charlie Parker With Strings? PS: It’s a great album because Bird wants it to be that way. Remember, the album is his concept. Later, other jazz artists piggyback on his invention.
JW: Such as Clifford Brown with Strings in January 1955? PS:Clifford Brown With Strings is among the most profoundly beautiful jazz music ever played. But Brownie is locked into a concept on there. With Bird, since it’s his vision, there’s much less limitation on what he wants to try on what is ostensibly a bebop record with strings.
JW: So does Repetition in 1947 have absolutely nothing to do with Charlie Parker With Strings? PS: That's correct. It’s an early outcropping of Bird's desire to make a strings album.
JW: But Parker wandered onto the main stage in Carnegie Hall, heard Hefti and asked to play a solo over Hefti's orchestral chart. PS: Bird asked in and joined Hefti’s concept. It was an opportunity to express himself by joining Hefti’s record date. He does so because he can envision the possibility.
JW: But isn’t he hearing the effect that his alto and the strings are having together? PS: Yes he is. He understands what the merger is going to sound like. But he didn’t get the idea by lucking into a guest appearance with Hefti. He already had the vision, which perhaps grows over the next two years. For Bird, Repetition may indeed be the first example of the experience.
JW: So Repetition for Parker is the first experience of hearing his alto against strings. PS: Yes. But producer Norman Granz didn’t want to record Charlie Parker With Strings in 1949.
JW: Why not? PS: Why would anyone want to spend extra money on something that might not work? And that it did work is the genius of it all and why the concept continues to be repeated to this day.
JazzWax tracks: Miles Davis recorded with Charlie Parker in New York in November 1945 and in February and March 1946 in Los Angeles. Davis became part of Parker's working quintet in May 1947 and remained with the group through December 1948. Between 1949 and 1953, Davis recorded occasionally with Parker.
The Parker-Davis recordings can be found on The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes (Savoy) at iTunes or here. But for those who prefer a more in-depth listen, The Complete Savoy and Dial Recordings: 1944-1948 (Savoy) features eight discs and includes all of the master takes, alternate takes and false starts. Liner notes are by James Patrick, Bill Kirchner, Ira Gitler and Orrin Keepnews. The box set can be found here.
Charlie Parker with Strings, recorded in November 1949, is available on Charlie Parker With Strings: The Master Takes at iTunes or here. Or you'll find it on Charlie Parker: The Complete Verve Master Takeshere. Both include the additional studio strings sessions of July 1950 and January 1952. Parker also was recorded live with strings on multiple occasions during the early 1950s at clubs and in concert.
JazzWax notes: WKCR's Lester Young and Charlie Parker Birthday Broadcasts starts today (as you are reading this) and runs through Sunday. To listen live from anywhere in the world on your computer, go here... If you're in New York this weekend, the annual Charlie Parker Festival will be held on Sunday at Tompkins Square Park starting at 3 p.m. For more information, go here.
JazzWax clip: Everyone has their favorite Charlie Parker with strings recording. My favorite is the Jimmy Carroll arrangement of Everything Happens to Me. Listen to the drama Carroll creates with the orchestra—from the opening pizzicato, to the harp glissandi to the tick-tock ending. All of this frames Parker, who delivers a beautiful and joyful rendition of the standard...
Had he lived, Charlie Parker would have been 90 years old on August 29. In celebration of the alto saxophonist's music and upcoming birthday, I chose a handful of key moments in Parker's recording career and asked Phil Schaap to reflect on them. For those not in the know, Phil is the on-air host of the 27-year-old Bird Flight, a radio show on WKCR in New York that can be heard worldwide here from 8:20 to about 9:40 a.m. (EDT) each weekday.
In earlier parts of this series, Phil and I covered the sessions surrounding Ko-Ko, Lover Man,Milestones and Parker's Mood. Today, Phil and I discuss Parker's live recordings captured at New York's Royal Roost between December 1948 and March 1949. These recordings not only provide listeners with a vivid sense of what it was like to hear Parker in a club setting but also document what could be heard on the radio back then if you had gumption to stay up late:
JazzWax: What do Charlie Parker's live Royal Roost recordings tell us about him as an artist? Phil Schaap: The first consideration is whether one likes Charlie Parker better in a live setting or a recording studio. A lot of people prefer Parker live, for the spontaneity and energy. But there's more to these particular live sessions. With the Roost recordings, you're getting a great quantity of music featuring Bird with his working band, not Bird in jam sessions. Some Roost performances are more raggedy than others, but you’re hearing a working band on the gig.
JW: Why is a working band so important? PS: You really don't have many other previous examples of Parker recording with the same band he played gigs with every night. The big exception is the Dean Benedetti field recordings, which only captured Bird's solos. What's more, the Roost radio broadcasts capture an exciting audio quality.
JW: Who recorded them? PS: I believe they were recorded by WMCA's technicians rather than as pure air checks. The reason I feel strongly about this is that when you hear WMCA announcer Bob Garrity back at the studio doing the commercial breaks, he sounds very dull. From a fidelity standpoint, he should be at least be equal in sound quality to what’s being recorded at the club. Instead, his voice gets very dull.
JW: So what do we have here? PS: I believe you’re hearing an air check when Garrity is on doing ads back at the studio but a professionally miked field-location recording when you hear Parker and his band.
JW: What else makes the Roost recordings remarkable? PS: The fact that this radio show was on weekly is unbelievable. In essence, you have an appointment to hear Bird live once a week for four months. Wow. That is distinctive.
JW: What are we hearing in the development of Parker as an artist? PS: He’s clearly in a comfort zone. I always have high expectations for Bird, and on these recordings he fulfills them. I expect Bird to play at an optimum during this period with his working band. He’s a nightclub creature and he’s in a club. He carefully picked the band and you’re hearing him with that band. They’re working nightly so they’re going to be more cohesive. So my expectations are set by those parameters. [Photo: Charlie Parker and Kenny Dorham on stage at the Royal Roost]
JW: Yet he sounds pretty good on every recording. PS: Of course. If you threw Charlie Parker in with anybody, he’s going to sound great. But if you let him pick the setting and an all-star team of musicians, he should sound even better. And he does on these Roost recordings.
JW: So this is Bird in the wild. PS: Well, he’s certainly playing longer solos than on studio recordings. He's in his habitat, which is probably more accurate than "in the wild."
JW: But doesn't he become a greater miracle through these recordings? PS: I’m kind of one-universe kind of guy. To me, Bird is the miracle, regardless of the setting. I understand the importance of the Roost recordings but I don’t have to use them as part of a rating system against the Savoy studio recordings or anything else. They are what they are. I’m not putting any negative aspect on your enthusiasm. But my enthusiasm is expressed by my esthetic and my judgment. [Photo of Charlie Parker at the Royal Roost courtesy of Evette Dorham, daughter of Kenny Dorham]
JW: Let me rephrase: When you hear Parker at the Roost, does his playing become something more special for you? PS: We’d be much less informed if we didn't have those recordings. But I’m going by a different group of identifying factors than perhaps your questions are probing. I want to hear a working band. On most of his previous studio dates as a leader, he’s not leading a working band.
JW: So the fact that these recordings capture Parker with the band he gigged with night after night make them extra special. PS: Yes, in that regard they are very special.
Tomorrow, Phil Schaap talks about the reason for Miles Davis' departure from the Charlie Parker All Stars and the recording of Charlie Parker with Strings in 1949.
JazzWax note:Technically, Parker is captured on the live Royal Roost recordings with two working bands. In November and for much of December 1948, we hear him with Miles Davis (tp) Al Haig (p) Tommy Potter (b) and Max Roach (d). When Miles Davis decides to leave the quintet in late December, he is replaced by Kenny Dorham starting on December 25.
JazzWax tracks: The live Royal Roost recordings can be found on The Complete Live Performances on Savoy: Sept. 29, 1947-Oct. 25, 1950 at iTunes or here.
The other major live set is The Complete Dean Benedetti Recordings of Charlie Parker (Mosaic). Benedetti was a saxophonist who became so enamored of Parker's playing that he recorded him on rudimentary disc and tape machines. But without sufficient blank discs and tape to record entire sets, Benedetti economized by capturing only Parker's solos. The result is a fascinating document of Parker's playing in different venues in Los Angeles and New York between March 1947 and July 1948. This extensive set is the only record of Parker in these clubs during this crucial period of bebop's development and emerging popularity.
Mosaic's 7-CD box set features only Parker solos and includes a superb 48-page booklet and discography authored by Phil Schaap, Bop Porter, Jim Patrick, Charlie Lourie and Michael Cuscuna. You'll find this box here.
JazzWax clip:Here's Charlie Parker on Christmas morning 1948 with Kenny Dorham playing White Christmas at the Royal Roost. We tend to take this recording for granted today, treating it as a tongue-in-cheek interpretation of a holiday standard. But it's actually much more. Listen carefully as Parker and Dorham ingeniously and lovingly give the seasonal pop tune the bebop treatment...
When Parker's imposed stay at Camarillo State Mental Hospital near Los Angeles ended at the bottom of January 1947, he returned to the West Coast jazz scene briefly, recording for Dial in February and performing at the Hi-Di-Ho Club in March. Upon his return to New York in April, he recorded for Savoy in May. But in August, a strange thing happened: Parker was suddenly a sideman playing tenor sax on a record session led by Miles Davis. For the back story, I turned to Phil Schaap, a Charlie Parker authority and host of Bird Flight, the longest-running weekday radio show on WKCR that's devoted to Parker's music.
This week, in the days leading up to Parker's 90th birthday on August 29, I asked Phil questions about several major events and recordings in Parker's career. Today, Phil talks about the Milestones recording session of August 1947 and Parker's Mood of September 1948:
JazzWax: How did Miles Davis wind up being the leader on the modernist Milestones session of August 14, 1947? Phil Schaap: It’s a confluence of several things: If you’re Herman Lubinsky at Savoy Records and you’re going to record Miles as a leader with Bird on the date, you have to change the way the records sound from those Miles recorded as a sideman with Bird. Even more important, by August 1947, Dial Records’ owner and producer Ross Russell had arrived in New York and told Lubinsky that he was going to sue him. Herman had recorded Bird on Donna Lee, Chasing the Bird, Cheryl and Buzzy, which Russell contended was a breach of his exclusive contract with Parker.
JW: How does the threat of a suit play into Davis recording with Bird as the leader? PS: If you look at when the earlier Savoy records were issued, Lubinsky releases two of them and then waits a long time before issuing the other two. He’s genuinely afraid of being sued and losing. So hiding Bird by having him switch to tenor sax and making him a sideman to Miles does the trick. As for the music itself, it’s Miles’ music and has a completely different flavor from what he was playing with Bird previously. JW: Was Bird resistant to Miles adapting Gil Evans’ cooler approach? PS: Actually you may have the cart and horse reversed.
JW: How so? PS: Bird was hanging out at Gil Evans’ West 55th St. apartment before Miles. I’m not saying that Miles wasn’t there. But Gil [pictured] certainly already knew Bird personally and may have known Miles at the time as well. Gil told me that Bird was at his apartment early on. Of course, what are now known as the so-called Birth of the Cool sessions were still off in the distance in the summer of 1947—they're a year and a half away.
JW: So what’s the significance of the Milestones session? PS: It’s ultimately Miles’ music and direction. It’s also one of the first times earlier take numbers were chosen as the masters. Previously, producers tended to choose later takes for obvious reasons: They were more perfect, which is why additional takes were requested in the first place. Here, Miles picked the early takes. Vernon Davis, Miles’ brother, confirmed that for me. Miles felt earlier takes had the right energy and excitement and that later takes only polished the edge off what made the recordings special.
JW: And yet the Milestones session has a cooler, fresher feel. PS: Yes, Miles is already coming up with an antithesis to bebop’s thesis just at the moment the music was new. That approach is part of Miles’ chameleon-like stripe. On the other hand, perception is in the ears of the listener.
JW: Meaning? PS: That the music is what it is. I can play the songs recorded on the Milestones session in my Juilliard class 1,000 times and no one would discern what’s bebop and what’s not quite bebop. It all would sound like one thing. Students would probably just wonder who the tenor player was.
JW: But the material clearly is cooler sounding. Are you saying it isn’t? PS: Oh, no. The tracks certainly are the zygote of cool and clearly embryonic to what’s coming. But it’s a bebop record date, too. This is what Miles and pianist John Lewis were about at this point in time. Their thinking was, “Let’s do bebop but with Lester Young’s phrasing.” JW: Speaking of phrasing, what’s the story behind Parker’s Mood recorded in September 1948? And how does Parker come to deliver one of the greatest sax solos of all time? PS: Well…
JW: I know, I know you’re probably going to argue with that, but… PS: Well, no. Parker’s Mood is one of the definitive masterpieces in the history of music. But if we’re talking about Charlie Parker, I would expect him occasionally to hit it out of the park every once in a while. Wouldn’t you? If he's as great as we believe him to be, you'd have to assume there would be moments of astonishing brilliance.
JW: Why the word “mood?” PS: Using the word mood was a big Savoy Records thing then. It’s one of the ways in which record companies attempted hipness. That Bird is going to play a blues on the date makes sense. Why it takes on the dirge quality is simply the feeling the musicians had at that moment.
JW: Was it supposed to be a quartet recording? PS: Not intentionally. Miles Davis was there earlier on September 18 with Bird recording Barbados, Ah-Leu-Cha and Constellation. But then he had to leave. Miles was wrapping up his gig at the Royal Roost at the time with the first performances of his Birth of the Cool nonet and probably had to get ready.
JW: Was Parker put off by King Pleasure’s version in December 1953 of Parker’s Mood, which featured lyrics that seemed to foreshadow Parker’s death? PS: I don’t know—and I don’t know if it has even been documented. King Pleasure’s recording was made at the end of 1953 and became a hit in 1954. When Bird dies in March 1955, that’s when the double meaning of the lyrics was noticed. While Parker is alive, the lyrics were simply a sad story being narrated by a singer, similar in many ways to the lyrics to the St. James Infirmary.
Tomorrow, Phil talks about Charlie Parker's live Royal Roost recordings in late 1948 and early 1949 and Charlie Parker with Strings in November 1949.
Radio note. WKCR's Lester Young and Charlie Parker around-the-clock joint-birthday broadcast will begin on August 27 and run through August 29. Go here to listen live on those dates.
JazzWax tracks: For the Miles Davis-led Milestones session (Milestones, Little Willie Leaps, Half Nelson and Sippin' at Bell's), with Charlie Parker on tenor sax, you can find the tracks on The Complete Savoy and Dial Master Takes at iTunes or here. You'll find Parker's Mood on the same set.
As for King Pleasure's Parker's Mood, you'll find the track on King Pleasure Sings/Annie Ross Sings at iTunes or here.
JazzWax note: For more on Phil Schaap, there are two excellent profiles. One is by David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, here. The other is by Paul Hond in Columbia Magazine, which is published by Columbia University, here.
JazzWax clip: Here's Charlie Parker in September 1948 playing what has become one of the most remarkable saxophone solos in jazz history for its blues passion, lyrical improvisational statements and fluid ideas...
Phil Schaap is much more than a Charlie Parker chatterbox. In addition to hosting the most informative and detailed weekday radio show on Parker on WCKR in New York, Phil is a Grammy-winning jazz archivist and record producer, liner-notes writer and educator at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York.
In celebration of Parker's 90th birthday on August 29 and WKCR's Charlie Parker broadcast special on August 28 and 29, I asked Phil about several major phases of Parker's brief career. Yesterday we discussed the recording of Ko-Ko. Today, we look at Parker's West Coast period from December 1945 to April 1947:
JazzWax: Do we know what impact Charlie Parker had on West Coast jazz musicians during his California trip? Phil Schaap: Parker travels out to Los Angeles in December 1945 with Dizzy Gillespie to play at Billy Berg's club in Hollywood. But when Gillespie and the band return as scheduled in January, Parker remains behind in California. During his months on the scene in 1946, Parker is having the most impact on musicians who are grasping his breakthrough and have access to him displaying it. But that’s a relatively small crew. A lot of bebop's popularization is being done outside of what Parker is doing on the West Coast.
JW: For example? PS: Dizzy Gillespie is continuing to play and gain acclaim on 52nd Street. In addition, Dizzy and his orchestra record for RCA Victor on February 22, 1946. That's a major session Bird would have been on had he returned to New York as planned. The recording occurs only 15 days after Dizzy leaves the West Coast without Parker and with largely the same group that was on the West Coast.
JW: So Parker remaining on the West Coast plays a minor role in the advancement of bebop out there? PS: For the most part, yes. Bird's stay in Hollywood is eventful in that other musicians out there are exposed to him. But it's not significant, and the period has its own set of ups and downs, ending with Parker's unfortunate downward health spiral, reaching bottom with the Lover Man session for Dial Records in July. During that recording session, he's completely out of it, and when he returns to his hotel room, he sets fire to the curtains, is arrested and ultimately sentenced to spend time at the Camarillo State Mental Hospital.
JW: Have West Coast jazz musicians been translating and adapting what Parker was doing up until that point? PS: That's tough to say. He's having an influence on some but not on others. So, if you’re Howard McGhee, you’re already playing bebop and now you’re playing it with the music’s creator. If you’re Willie Smith, your style may be changing a little but probably not at all. If you’re Lu Watters, you're not having anything to do with bebop whatsoever. [Photo of Miles Davis and Howard McGhee by William P. Gottlieb]
JW: So Bird is struggling out there in 1946. PS: That's fair to say. If Bird had been really popular in 1946, he would have had a home, he would have had money and he would have had drugs instead of getting sick. He has none of those things. Remember, in California in 1946, he's largely a sideman.
JW: So it’s not until after his release from Camarillo in late January 1947 that he has the most impact. PS: Right. He’s anxious to leave the West Coast after his release at the end of January 1947. He leaves on April 5, so he's there for two months and a week after his release. Bebop during this time is catching on steadily. But very few things in any art happen in 24 hours. Dizzy’s career is advancing the music, and other primary bebop players are emerging. The general grappling of this new musical concept is making bebop better known. But its development requires lead time to advance and mature.
JW: So bebop on the West Coast doesn't die out as a result of Bird being off the scene incarcerated in a hospital. PS: Exactly. In fact, Bird reaps some of the bounty of bebop's development during his absence. He returns to the scene at a time when bebop's inventiveness is more widely recognized. It's not until 1948 and 1949 that Bird becomes truly big. Charlie Parker with Strings, recorded in November 1949, is just the commercial cherry on the sundae. By then he has established himself here and in Europe as the dominant force. Remember, Birdland opens in New York in December 1949. The largest club in New York wouldn't have been named for Parker if he had been a nobody at that point.
JW: Backing up a bit, is much known about Parker’s period at Camarillo in 1946-47? PS: Pianist Joe Albany got busted at about the same time and was there with Bird for a while. But Albany broke out because the facility didn't have tight security where they were housed. Bird actually thought Albany was silly for not using the benefit of the recuperation period. JW: Did Parker practice while at Camarillo? PS: Psychiatrists thought Bird should not be allowed to play and that working on a gardening detail would be more productive. He wasn’t allowed to play until the very end of his stay, when he was on work-release. JW: He seems to have effortlessly kicked the habit for a while at Camarillo. PS: At Camarillo, he went cold turkey. He was kept off drugs for a half year in 1946 and early 1947.
JW: Does Gillespie avoid re-teaming with Parker because Parker becomes re-addicted to drugs? PS: I don't know. I think the reason had more to do with Dizzy's own vision of what he wanted to do at that point with a big band and Bird's way of life. Dizzy could see that Parker wasn’t going to change and that he would remain largely unpredictable and irresponsible from an employer's standpoint, which to Dizzy was a liability, despite Bird's musical genius. [Photo of Dizzy Gillespie by Herman Leonard/CTSImages.com]
JW: How does Bird view his time in Camarillo? PS: He views it as incarceration. He doesn’t really see its proactive element. I think Howard McGhee put it best when he said that the only reason why Parker didn't die in 1946 is because of his stay at Camarillo.
JW: Did anyone ever anyone speak to the doctors there about Parker? PS: I don't know. I know that Bird's primary doctor committed suicide soon afterward. Psychiatrists were impressed with Parker's talent and intelligence, but by the time he got to them, he was clean in terms of drug use. So he was just another patient they were tasked with trying to help.
JW: Was there a difference in his playing after Camarillo? PS: I would say so, but it had little to do with the rest or care at the facility. Camarillo definitely recharged his batteries. Had he not been interned there, Lover Man more than likely would have been his last session.
JW: How does he grow musically? PS: If you're 25 years old and you’re a creative genius, you’re supposed to grow. One would expect someone at age 26 to be better than they were at age 25. Camarillo protected Parker from himself and let him recharge. It's a convalescence and an essential one to his existence. [Photo of Charlie Parker and Miles Davis by William P. Gottlieb]
JW: What was the reason for his frying out during the Lover Man session? PS: I did a lot of research on this. Doris Parker, Bird's wife at the time, insisted he had a nervous breakdown and was clinically depressed. Based on the drug use and need for psychiatric care, Bird clearly was unhappy, and the emotional setback at the Lover Man session was devastating. Whatever Parker suffered from, it wasn't easily fixed by a drug-withdrawal regimen or gardening program. While this experience cleans him up, it doesn’t resolve whatever long-term mental issues he was facing. [Photo: Charlie Parker, producer Ross Russell, Earl Coleman and Shifty Henry at a post-Camarillo session for Dial in February 1947]
JazzWax tracks: The Lover Man session was recorded on July 29, 1946. The tracks recorded were Max Is Making Wax, Lover Man and The Gypsy. Charlie Parker is clearly in poor physical condition that day at Dial's Hollywood studio. And yet the genius of the artist pushes through, despite the near-tragic events that would take place after the date's conclusion. You can find these tracks on The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes at iTunes or here.
JazzWax clip: Here's an ailing Charlie Parker recording Lover Man for Dial in July 1946...
And here's the same track as portrayed in Bird (1988) by Forest Whitaker...
Like a Nathan's hot dog or Carvel ice-cream cone, Phil Schaap is a New York original. For the uninitiated, Phil, 59, is best known as the host of Bird Flight, a radio show on WKCR that's devoted to Charlie Parker. But that isn't really what's remarkable. What's special is Phil's unrivaled passion for the subject, his nitty-gritty knowledge, and the fact that the show has been on the air every weekday from 8:20 to 9:40 a.m. since 1983. Many people who know about Charlie Parker and his music gained their smarts and appreciation through Phil's show.
In honor of Parker's 90th birthday on August 29 and WKCR's "Charlie Parker Birthday Broadcast" on the August 28 and 29, I decided to pose five Parker questions to Phil. In today's post, we focus on the famed Ko-Ko session of November 26, 1945:
JazzWax: What’s the major artistic achievement of Parker’s Ko-Ko? Phil Schaap: For Charlie Parker, he is in the studio for his first session as a leader. He also is mapping out for you precisely what came to him while playing over Cherokee's chord changes. It’s a eureka moment for him in terms of where jazz might be going. He’s returning to a piece that was so essential to his development. Through the music, Parker is returning to Cherokee and telling you how the new music—bebop—came to him. [Photo by William P. Gottlieb, Library of Congress]
JW: Returning to Cherokee? PS: At the time in November 1945, very few people would have been aware that Bird had played Cherokee regularly as far back as 1939. They also wouldn't know that it’s through this song that Parker saw the door open for what would become bebop. Ko-Ko is the pinnacle of what this new form of expression is all about.
JW: How so? PS: Parker is being explicit and inventive about something listeners understood—the reinvention of a popular standard. He is specifically saying through his playing that Ko-Ko is the same as Cherokee but also quite different. During the recording, he also hits the three emphasis points of bebop.
JW: What are they? PS: The exhibition of unbelievable amounts of technique almost casually displayed. The incredible wisdom in deep harmony that is effectively displayed through improvisation. And the unleashing of a new rhythmic arc through phrasing, meaning the music now has a completely different feel and sound than swing, which preceded it. The last of the three emphasis points—the rhythmic arc and phrasing—actually is bebop's biggest innovation.
JW: Yet there’s also enormous urgency and a mysterious feel to what Parker plays on the intro and outro to Ko-Ko. PS: Not as much as you think. Yes, there's a radical quality to Ko-Ko that comes from the new rhythmic line. And the song’s initial minor key is telling you the music has a different flavor. But that’s not what makes this song special. That’s just the employing of a fetching component of music’s making. The rhythmic line—independent of key or anything else—is an incredibly new way of making music. It’s the definitive element of breakthrough, and it’s why virtually anyone even casually familiar with jazz can hear that something new is going on in the music. [Photo of Charlie Parker by Herman Leonard/CTSImages.com]
JW: Then what is Parker saying here? PS: The music we hear on the record is more important than any hidden meaning Parker may have had. What’s most interesting about this session, in some ways, is that Bird had no intention of recording Ko-Ko at the outset.
JW: What do you mean? PS: This was his first session as a leader, which meant he was responsible for the song choices and choosing the band members. He originally planned to record two blues—Now’s the Time and Billie's Bounce, both in F concert—a ballad based on Embraceable You and a tune based on I Got Rhythm’s chord changes, which we now know as Anthropology.
JW: What changed? PS: On a break early in the recording session, Parker went downstairs to pick up his instrument from the repair shop. When he returned, before recording again, he tested the repair by playing the most ambitious piece in his repertoire in terms of technique—Cherokee.
JW: How did this exercise become a recorded song? PS: Oddly enough, Savoy owner Herman Lubinsky [pictured], who for the most part was non-artistically oriented, heard what Parker was doing and said, “Hey, man, that’s what we should record!” Bird agreed and the group recorded Warming Up a Riff and Ko-Ko, both of which were based on Cherokee. They scrapped the I Got Rhythm tune and dropped Embraceable You at the end to make room for Ko-Ko.
JW: Why cut one of the songs? PS: According to the rules of the musicians’ union at the time, you could only record four tracks in one session. This rule was put in place to keep record companies from overworking musicians. When Parker and the musicians pick up Ko-Ko, Dizzy had to play the trumpet part. Miles wasn’t going to be able to play that difficult passage at the beginning of the song in 1945.
JW: What happens at the session? PS: The group recorded three takes of Billie’s Bounce. Then they took a break to let Bird go to the repair shop to pick up his alto saxophone. When he comes back, they record Warming Up a Riff, which is based on Cherokee. They also record takes No. 4 and 5 of Billie’s Bounce, followed by four takes of Now’s the Time and three takes of Thriving From a Riff. There’s only take of Embraceable You, known as Meandering. But eventually the last song is dropped for Ko-Ko, the fifth title recorded that day.
JW: Is KoKo an extension of anything the group had played earlier? PS: Yes, Ko-Ko actually is rooted in the astounding display of harmony Parker executed earlier on Warming Up a Riff, on which he takes a three chorus solo.
JW: Is Parker's opening line for Ko-Ko coming off the top of his head or did he have it already down? PS: It’s an arrangement they already had worked out to Cherokee. But instead of playing Cherokee straight, Parker let the arrangement become the melody.
Tomorrow, Phil talks about Parker's trip to the West Coast, the impact he has on California jazz, and his stay at Camarillo State Hospital near Los Angeles between August 1946 and late January 1947.
JazzWax tracks: The five songs recorded during the Ko-Ko session can be found on the Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes at iTunes or here. You'll find the five tunes recorded in November 1945 on the first disc.
JazzWax clip: Here's Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie playing Ko-Ko, with Gillespie on trumpet and piano...
Last Friday, I assembled a band based on the beefy names of artists. This week, I offer a new ensemble featuring musicians with mini monikers or slight of height names. For those adding Comments, this list is about the names only, not whether they were truly big or small:
Whenever a jazz artist is packaged on an album as joining, meeting or leading a "sax section," I'm instantly hooked. In every case, the result is exciting, since no one in his right mind would be paired with a sax section unless the results and collective talent were sterling. Examples of this approach that come to mind include Al Cohn and the Sax Section (1956), Coleman Hawkins Meets the Saxophone Section (1958) and That's Right: Nat Adderley and the Big Sax Section (1960). Then, of course, there was Supersax, starting in 1972, playing dense-packed arrangements of Charlie Parker solos. I recently discovered another album in this category that, like the other sax summit efforts, is terrific: Bud Shank and the Sax Section (1968). [Black-and-white photos of Bud Shank above and below by William Claxton]
Using the phrase "the sax section" in an album title carries major connotations and responsibilities. The implications always are that the reeds separately and together are all muscle, that the tracks on the album are shrewdly chosen and that the arrangements are tight and adventurous to the ear. All are certainly the case with this Bud Shank album.
The West Coast band assembled for the Pacific Jazz date featured Bud Shank and Bill Perkins (alto saxes), Bob Hardaway and Bob Cooper (tenor saxes), Jack Nimitz and John Lowe (baritone and bass saxes), Dennis Budimir (guitar), Ray Brown (bass) and Larry Bunker (drums). Bob Florence [pictured] handled the arrangements and conducted the band.
Bud Shank had a split musical personality during the 1960s. On the one hand he could tear your heart out with edgy playing on ballads and up-tempo pieces. But Bud also could lay back and surf melodies beautifully. He recorded this album in the middle of a highly commercial period for Pacific Jazz. At the time he was recording bossa nova albums (Brasil! Brasil! Brasil!) and LPs that tried to capitalize on the surging rock trend (A Spoonful of Jazz and Magical Mystery). Some were more successful than others and all had heart.
Tracks on The Sax Section include Summer Samba, On a Clear Day, the Sidewinder and And I Love Her. As you can see, the material was all over the lot hoping to appeal to everyone. And yet the album works, largely because of Bob Florence's arrangements and the shrewd doubling of the baritone and bass sax parts, which give the charts heft at the bottom. Florence also had the good sense to widen out the voicings and extend the counterpoint—making the section sound like a full band rather than one instrument. The overall sound remains wonderfully reedy and flighty. Interestingly, Jack Nimitz was the sole member of this sax section who wound up as a member of Supersax.
JazzWax tracks: Unfortunately Bud Shank and the Sax Section album isn't available on CD. Blue Note, which owns the Pacific Jazz catalog, should really consider re-issuing it. In fact, since we're on the subject, a box of Bud's 1960s World Pacific albums is in order. The album is available on eBay and Amazon from independent sellers as a vinyl LP.
A special JazzWax thanks David Langner and Wen Mew.
Back in January, I posted about baritone saxophonist Gil Melle and his Blue Note and Prestige sessions. For the post, I spoke with Hal McKusick, who played with him, and Raymond De Felitta, who grew up down the block from the Melle house in Hollywood. Both Hal and Raymond shed light on the visionary saxophonist, composer, artist, designer and inventor. In fact, all of the Blue Note album covers in this post were designed by Melle.
Last week, I received a lovely email from Denny Melle, wife of the late Gil Melle:
"[Director] Raymond De Felitta sent me a copy of the wonderful article you wrote about Gil. Too bad tributes always start appearing after an artist has died. But at least it's gratifying to know that jazz lovers like yourself won't allow them to be forgotten or their contribution to this unique American art form left un-acknowledged. Hal McKusick's recollections as well as those of Raymond's were heart-warming as well.
"You really did your research on Gil, and there were facts I didn't even know, even though I was married to him for close to 40 years. One thing that really stood out in your article—and you got this one so right—was 'his complete lack of fear about what others thought.' This attribute is what gave him the freedom and daring to explore beyond what was accepted as the norm.
"Although many in the jazz world felt Gil had abandoned his jazz roots when he came to Hollywood to write for film, jazz was always his first and foremost love, and he would always try and find a way to weave in an element of it in his film and television scores.
"Gil often liked to tell a story about Blue Note's Alfred Lion and Gil's early association with engineer Rudy van Gelder at the start of the 1950s. Gil said that when he first told Alfred about Rudy and how blown away he was by the new form of recording Rudy was using called 'tape,' he wanted Alfred to come over right away to Rudy's studio to take a listen.
"Alfred, with that thick German accent of his said, "Vas ist tape?" Of course, the rest is history.
Marc Myers writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal and is author of "Anatomy of 55 More Songs," "Anatomy of a Song," "Rock Concert: An Oral History" and "Why Jazz Happened." Founded in 2007, JazzWax has won three Jazz Journalists Association awards.
lovely people, and the food was fantastic. Joe was originally an accordion player, and he had recently started playing piano, which was ideal for me because we could play a lot together at his house.
came to L.A. to play at Billy Berg's in Hollywood. Joe and I had heard about him so we went to see him and Dizzy, who I already knew from Boyd's band. At Billy Berg's, Bird and Dizzy were amazing.
wanted to give Parker a welcome gift. In Joe's state of mind, he found it easy to lift my special attire from the closet with no thought that I would mind.
was happy to hear Bird, and never mentioned it to Joe or Bird. We were so happy to be able to hear Parker in person. That seems to have been the most important thing. I was honored that he was wearing my suit at Billy Berg's." [Photo of Charlie Parker and Howard McGhee on the West Coast]
