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Home , Bird and Diz, Chris Albertson, Earl Hines, Flip Phillips, Gene Orloff, Pres and Teddy

The Verve years

-YEARS (1948-50') ul U

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el-lielti Orchestra Parker you once read or heard, it is because Ruffing, and fathered a child: he was all of later, so did Parker. Tatum went to play on band, and Kenny Clark such heroes became exactly what their fifteen years old. Soon he was spending the West Coast, Parker to his first New dropped by to hear him. "He was playing creators want them to be—and the legend more time at the Reno Club, listening to York gig, grinding out tired music for twice as fast as Lester, but using harmonil of is essentially an up-date , the important new tired feet at the Parisien Ballroom on Lester hadn't even touched," recalled of the legend of Bix. But, although groups saxophonist, than he was at home. Broadway in the Times Square area. After- Clarke. "He was running the same way w( of Beiderbecke's admirers still gather— When Parker's domestic situation hours, Parker continued to sit in with were, but he was way ahead of us." Monk almost half a century after his death—for became intolerable, he pawned his sax and more compatible musicians at such Harlem and Clarke persuaded Parker to join then an annual rally, firm in their belief that made his way to New York by way of spots as Clark Monroe's Uptown House and at Minton's, and so strong was their desir "Bix lives," hero-worshippers in are a , where heard him Dan Wall's Chili House; both were to have him play there that they paid him dying breed. Even the graffiti that once so play. "He blew the bell off that thing... he eminently suitable for nurturing the seeds out of their own pocket when manager widely proclaimed "Bird lives" has been Tatum, Young, and others had planted Teddy Hill refused to add him to the all but washed away as a waning Coltrane in Parker's musically fertile mind. payroll. With former Teddy Hill band cult forms the last vestige of romantic It was at the latter place, while rendering member a frequent visitor attachment to jazz heroes; new generations "Cherokee," that Parker is said to have to Minton's, the addition of Charlie Parke of cultists focus their attention on such "hit upon a new way to go." to the group was comparable to finding latter-day saints as Jimi Hendrix and That new way, using an eighth note as the final jigsaw-puzzle piece. Janis Joplin. the basis for melodic rhythm, helped to But, as it all began to come together While tales of Charlie Parker's escapades, chart a course jazz would soon be taking. professionally, Parker's personal life bega his bouts with drugs, his social or But it is a fallacy to claim that Wall's to fall apart: heavy drinking and increase , anti-social behavior, and the number of customers that night witnessed the indulgence in drugs had made him a shell hamburgers he ate at some given point will arker's dishwashing spontaneous birth of be-bop; by a strange of himself. He had divorced his first wife undoubtedly continue to see print in job at Jimmy's Chicken Shack coincidence, Dizzy Gillespie—then and married a second, but he continued t versions of diverse magnification, his P somewhere in transition between the Teddy live the life of a gypsy, moving from recordings remain a constant; untouched was made bearable by the Hill and Cab Calloway bands—was develop- rooming house to rooming house. by human imagination ( except Parker's fact that the place ing his own harmonic concepts that would Concerned about Parker's deteriorating own, of course), they comprise the only prove to be the salt for Bird's egg. condition, trumpeter tangible evidence of his artistry and its featured the music of Before anyone really paid attention to managed to get him a regular job with the development, at the same time giving us a pianist .. . his music, Parker was called back to band, replacing , traceable—if vague—chart of the man's Kansas City by the death of his father; on tenor. Though Hines was the product emotional ups and downs. Briefly, lest prior to returning to New York, he spent another era in jazz (that of Louis Hollywood should one day tell you five weeks as a member of Harlan Leonard's Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven, otherwise, the Charlie Parker story begins blew so much he upset everybody in the Rockets, followed by a more successful stomping flappers, and scorching bathtul in Kansas City, Kansas, on August 29, joint," Eckstine told Parker biographer stay with a new band led by pianist Jay gin), his musical thinking had advanced 1920. His father, failing to make it as a . But, despite the enthusiasm McShann. In November of 1940 the with the times; this is probably the reaso song-and-dance man, worked as a Pullman ( or perhaps because of it ), Parker soon touring McShann band stopped in Wichita that young revolutionaries such as chef, leaving the home altogether in 1931 moved to New York, where he stayed in the where eight of its members—including Gillespie, Parker, and trombonist Benny to take up a life of pimping and gambling. apartment of , one of his Parker—recorded some transcriptions for Green—the avant-garde of the early 40s- Charlie's mother, Addie, employed as a early Kansas City mentors. radio station KFBI. Recently unearthed, domestic, encouraged his education and Musically, Harlem was jumping in those they represent. Parker's earliest recordings saved money in the hope of one day days: the great bands had resident blacks and give us an interesting glimpse of enrolling him in medical school. When it and visiting whites stomping at the Savoy Charlie Parker on the threshold of his seemed obvious that her wishes would and truckin' down the aisles of the Apollo; genius—a glimpse that, frankly, would not come to naught and that her boy's only house bands throbbed with infectious be terribly interesting had it all ended real interest was music, Mrs. Parker, rhythm in numerous little clubs, priming there. But it didn't end there; Parker was unhappy at the sight of her son marching the customers for the late-hour jam still with McShann when the band came to in the Lincoln High School band with a sessions to come. It was a time when one New York in 1942 to record a few sides for cumbersome tuba coiled around him, could hear the greats, the near-greats, and Decca."When I look back," spent $45 of the money she had saved up the ne'er-greats side by side, slashing the told Jazz Review in 1960, "it seems to me s the 40s for his education to buy him the smoke with riffs and imagination. Parker, that Bird was at that time so advanced in pressed toward the 50s, Parker aforementioned first alto saxophone, an new to the Big Apple, made the rounds, jazz that I do not think we realized to what instrument dating back to 1898 and said to listened, and sat in here and there, but he degree his ideas had become perfected." continued to breathe new have been be in such poor condition that it failed to stir up a job offer (at least, the When the McShann records were released life into American took an even larger sum of money to paying, playing kind ). He did find (the band also had recorded in Dallas and make it function at all. "The instrument employment as dishwasher and general pot Chicago the year before), and the band music, but he was slowly and wasn't fit for the worst kind of amateur cleaner at Jimmy's Chicken Shack, a began coast-to-coast broadcasts from the painfully taking his own. band," recalled bass player Gene Ramey, popular restaurant on St. Nicholas Avenue Savoy, musicians began to notice Parker's who had recently moved to Kansas City where prominent black performers and playing, but few knew his name, as it was when Parker, "a chubby, happy-go-lucky sports figures congregated in the pre-dawn rarely if ever mentioned. kid," joined just such a band, Lawrence hours for a bit of food and fresh gossip. In the summer of 1942, when McShann so easily managed to infiltrate the Earl "88" Keyes' Deans of Swing. It was a Parker's job was made bearable by the fact took his men back to Kansas City, Parker Hines Orchestra. Due to the American third-rate dance band, but, being his first that the place also featured the music of was the only one who stayed in New York. Federation of Musicians' recording ban a job, it represented a major step for Parker pianist Art Tatum, whose eloquent style— Living off his share of the kitty, Parker this time, there is a two-year gap in the and took absolute precedence over any incorporating clever musical quotations became a regular at Monroe's. It beat chronology of jazz recordings; one of the interest he might have had in school. into impressive cascades of sound—made washing dishes, but the kitty seldom most unfortunate consequences of the ba By 1935, Parker had dropped out of Parker think of the speed with which one yielded a decent amount, and Parker's is that this particular Hines Orchestra— school, joined the professional ranks as a could produce notes on the saxophone, and normally plump figure is said to have the cradle of be-bop—lives on only in the member of American Federation of in general influenced his musical concepts. dwindled down to pathetic proportions by ebbing memories of a diminishing rank of Musicians Local 627, married one Rebecca When Tatum left Jimmy's three months the time two members of Minton's house people who saw it in live performance. Those who did hear the band as it toured ludicrous accompaniment: for example, JUST FRIENDS extensively on the theater circuit were the opening track, "Repetition," a (Lewis/ Klenner) (319-5) 3:26 ASCAP SIDE becoming aware for the first time of a orchestral arrangement Recorded in , November 30, 1949. remarkable pair called . written without a soloist in mind. The Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Mitch Miller (oboe), Although the band placed Parker in Hollywood-style arrangement is in such Bornislaw Gimpel, Max Hollander, Milt Lomask (violin), excellent company, and the arrangements contrast to Parker's creative outpouring Frank Briett (viola), Frank Miller (Cello), Meyer Rosen REPETITION (harp), Stan Freeman (), (bass), gave him some room within which to work, (Hefti) (2071-5) 2:55 ASCAP that some critics are convinced it is an (drums), Jimmy Carroll (arranger, conductor) Parker began to find it too restrictive, overdub (which almost certainly is not the calling it a "jail" on more than one case). As chronology would have it, this Recorded in New York City, Autumn, 1948. Charlie Parker (alto saxophone) with Al Porcine, occasion. He was happier in 1944 when— set also contains four quartet selections Ray Wetzel, Doug Mettome (); , back on the alto—he joined the more (from two different sessions) and two early Bart Varsalona ( trombone); Vincent Jacobs (French bop-oriented Billy Eckstine band, which also 1949 sessions with a quintet and septet horn); John LaPorta (clarinet); Murray Williams, featured Dizzy Gillespie and the singing including trumpeter Kenny Dorhap, who Sonny Salad (alto saxophone); , Pete of an Earl Hines discovery, . Mondello (tenor saxophone); Sam Caplan, Harry SIDE 3 —at 25—already was a veteran of several Katzman, Ziggy Smirnoff, Sid Harris, The year 1944 was an important one, not name bands. (The omission of "Diverse" Manny Fidler (violins); Joe Benaventi (Cello); only for Charlie Parker—who appeared for from these sessions is deliberate, it being (piano); Curly Russell (bass); Shelley Manne the first time on a commercial recording in actuality an inferior take of "Segment.") (drums); Diego lborra (congo, bongos); Neal Hefti STAR EYES featuring his mature style—but also for Side two features in its entirety Parker's (arranger, conductor) (Raye/ DePaul) (371-4 )3:26 ASCAP the music he represented. As more and celebrated 1949 session with strings THE BIRD more ears were getting accustomed to the (and Mitch Miller's oboe). Cries of (Fast) ( Parker) (2081-5 )4:40 BMI (Parker) (372-12 )2:42 BMI new sound, what had appeared "weird" "commercialism" were heard when these just a few months earlier now clearly sides first appeared, but recognition of Recorded in New York City, February, 1949. I'M IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), (piano), seemed to be the direction in which to go. Parker's uncompromising solos has long (McHugh/Fields) (373-2) 2:48 ASCAP Ray Brown (bass), Shelley McLane (drums) By the following year, Parker had begun a since silenced such accusations. Jazz series of extraordinary small band musicians often have been attracted to the Recorded in New York City March-April, 1950. CARDBOARD Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Hank Jones (piano), recordings under his own name; the new melodic, pretty backgrounds that strings (Parker) (292 )3:05 EMI Ray Brown (bass), Buddy Rich (drums) music had been christened "be-bop"; and can provide, and although Parker's string Dizzy Gillespie had become the most accompaniment may have raised the ire of VISA prominent exponent of the new style. some critics, it stimulated the desire of (Parker) (293)2:55 BMI (Parker) (410-4)3:21 BMI Gillespie's extroversion gained him such many of his fellow musicians to follow suit Recorded in New York City April 1949. AN OSCAR FOR TREADWELL publicity that he became well-known to and in fact started a veritable fad. Closing Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), (Parker) (411-3)3:17 BMI thousands of people who were not familiar this set is the highly-touted Bird and Diz (trumpet), (trombone), (piano), with the music he represented and "reunion" session, which also features (bass), (drums), Carlos Vidal (bongos) probably had never even heard of Charlie Thelonious Monk and the top bassist of Parker; on the other hand, serious the time, Curly Russell. Though one might SEGMENT listeners were often put off by Dizzy's wish that Granz had chosen a drummer (Parker) (294-3) 3:17 EMI clowning—to them, Parker, or "Bird" better-suited than Buddy Rich for such ("Yardbird") as he was then called, was the company, this session produced some of PASSPORT SIDE 4 true genius of the new movement. the finest Gillespie/Parker work on record. (Parker) (295) 2:56 BMI As the 40s pressed toward the 50s, With virtually unmatched rapport, the two Recorded in New York City May 5, 1949. Parker continued to breathe new life into giants create tremendous excitement and Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Kenny Dorham MOHAWK American music, but he was slowly and leave us with a taste of how it all began. (trumpet), Al Haig (piano), Tommy Patter (bass), (Parker) (412-3) 3:45 BMI painfully taking his own. The effect of Five years after these recordings were Max Roach (drums) MY MELANCHOLY BABY drugs and hard living is evident in some of made, Charlie Parker's life ended and his (Norton/ Burnett) (413-2 )3:21 ASCAP his recordings—particularly the ones made legend began. The romanticists and for the Savoy and Dial labels—but even on sensationalists would probably not have LEAP FROG the brink of collapse he never produced a bothered with Charles Parker, Jr., if his (Parker) (414-4)2:26 BMI sound that did not merit attention. life had been a so-called normal one, and In 1946, Parker appeared on the West LEAP FROG (alternate take) much less would have been written about (Parker) (414.6)1:58 BMI Coast, taking part in a Jazz at the him if he were still among us, a family man Philharmonic concert that marked the living in the suburbs. Charlie Parker is RELAXIN' WITH LEE beginning of a long and fruitful association indeed a legend, but not because he had to (Parker) (415-2)3:51 BMI with jazz impresario . suffer humilities, not because he fell prey SIDE 2 Parker's recorded performances with JATP, Recorded in New York City, June 6, 1950. to drugs, and not because he was a genius Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Dizzy Gillespie including a breathtaking rendition of "Lady relegated to a rooming house. He is a (trumpet), Thelonious Monk (piano), Curly Russell Be Good," will appear on future in legend because he was one of the foremost APRIL IN PARIS (bass), Burbly Rich (drums) this Verve series. The present set is creative artists America has ever produced, (Harburg/ Duke) (321.3) 3:03 ASCAP devoted to recordings made under Parker's a man whose influence on the music that leadership between the fall of 1948 and SUMMERTIME was his life has yet to be measured and (Gershwin/ Heyward) (322-2) 2:43 ASCAP June of 1950 for various Granz-owned probably never can be. If America ever labels. Arranged in chronological order, it learns to venerate its creative artists, IF I SHOULD LOSE YOU is the initial release in a series of Charlie Parker's name would not be out of (Robin/ Rainger) (324.3) 2•43 ASCAP which will contain all the Granz/Parker place on top of the list, but that will be the sessions up to and including Parker's last day they scrap the "Star-Spangled Banner." I DIDN'T KNOW Originally produced by Norman Granz appearance in a recording studio, just WHAT TIME IT WAS Reissue prepared by Robert Hurwitz (Rodgers/Hart) (323-3) 3:09 ASCAP Cover art: Stanislaw Zagorski three months before his death. is a contributing editor to Art direction: Beverly Parker (AGI) The settings are diverse, but Parker's Stereo Review and author of the book, Bessie, EVERYTHING HAPPENS TO ME design: Carl S. Bartle brilliance overcomes even the most a biography of blues singer . (Adair-Dennis ,) (320-3)3:13 ASCAP Reissue engineering: Ed Out water THE SELECTIONS: By Chris Albertson of this new music were beginning in earnest. The first book on the subject, REPETITION Robert Goffin's Aux Frontieres du Jazz, was Charlie Parker (alto saxophone) only five years old; down beat magazine was; with the Neal Heft Orchestra xceptional artistic talent, in its third year; swing—the latest a colorful yet somewhat outgrowth ofjazz —was well on its way to shrouded personal life, becoming America's most popular music, and a premature, tragic and some of the men who led those big THE BIRD death seem to be the bands were about to be subjected to Parker, Hank Jones (piano), Ray Brown (bass), essential ingredients idolization such as only Hollywood Shelley Manne (drums) that go into the making celebrities previously had seen. As the of a jazz legend. Two of legion of jazz fans grew throughout the the earliest such figures world, and the new breed known as the —Charles "Buddy" Bolden and Leon "Bix" record collector began scouring the CARDBOARD Beiderbecke—died in 1931, the year a country for rare jazz discs and colorful certain Mrs. Parker of Kansas City, anecdotes, there arose the inevitable need VISA Missouri, gave her son Charles his first for a romantic hero from the past. Bolden, Parker, Kenny Dorham (trumpet), alto saxophone. Bolden, a whose music and life style by then had Tommy Turk (trombone), Al Haig (piano), cornetist, became a mental patient in 1907 become, at best, somebody's thirty-year-old Tommy Potter (bass), Max Roach (drums), —before anyone thought of making jazz memory, was simply too mythical to fit the Carlos Vidal ( bongos) records; Beiderbecke, a Davenport-born bill, but Beiderbecke, besides being cornetist, died an alcoholic at age 28 — handsome and white, seemed tailor-made before anyone thought of becoming a jazz for the part: his lyrical style of playing- writer. The coincidence is worth noting well-documented on records — earmarked a SEGMENT because Charlie Parker, who made many person of high sensitivity; first-hand PASSPORT records in a time when there were many accounts of his life style were plentiful, jazz writers, became the most influential— revealing intriguing eccentricities Parker, Kenny Durham ( trumpet), Al Haig (piano), and perhaps the last—jazz legend of them ( imagine, he slept with his socks on! ); and, Tommy Potter (bass), Max Roach (drums) all, an object of the mass media penetrating being the truly misunderstood genius such the once-private lives and thoughts of figures ought to be, Bix drank himself to people in the public eye. death, drowning—so the story went—his As the 30s drew to a close—and Parker, artistic frustrations in alcohol, as Paul APRIL IN PARIS in his late teens, unwittingly prepared to Whiteman and a money-conscious society SUMMERTIME shape the future of jazz by absorbing every exploited his genius in their pursuit of nuance of Lester Young's solos on the first commercial success. IF I SHOULD LOSE YOU Count Basic records—the earliest attempts If it all sounds like a story of Charlie I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TIME IT WAS to chronicle the history and development (continued) VE-2-2501 EVERYTHING HAPPENS TO ME JUST FRIENDS Also available on Verve: Dizzy Gillespie: The / Sessions Charlie Parker and Strings The 1957 recordings with pianist , bassist Tommy Bryant and drummer Charlie Persip ( VE 2-2505 ) 2632-046 Lester Young: Pres and Teddy and Oscar 2367-212 /2367.213 Pres' small group recordings with (1952) : The First Verve Sessions Having as its source the vast library and (1956), released complete for the STAR EYES The 1952-54 recordings, featuring Oscar Peterson, Paul of music recorded by Norman Granz and others first time ( VE 2-2502) Quinichette, , Barney Kessel and Flip over a period of three decades, BLUES Phillips (VE 2-2503) the Verve Collection focuses on outstanding ( Fast) performances by some of America's : The Genius of Bud Powell : The Historic Recordings finest jazz artists. I'M IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE Powell's 1949-51 Verve sessions, including nine works The initial 1944 JATP concert with Nat "King" Cole, performed unaccompanied and group recordings with Les Paul, and others; and Billie Parker, Hank Jones (piano), Max Roach, Buddy Rich, Ray Brown and Curly Russell Holiday's legendary 1946 Los Angeles recital Ray Brown (bass), Buddy Rich (drums) ( VE 2-2506) ( VE 2-2504 ) All rights reserved...unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.

This record has been engineered BLOOMDIDO and manufactured in accordance with standards developed by the Recording Industry AN OSCAR FOR TREADWET Association of America, Inc., MOHAWK a non-profit organization dedicated to the betterment of recorded music and literature. MY MELANCHOLY BABY LEAP FROG LEAP FROG © 1976 POLYDOR INCORPORATED Manufactured and Distributed by (alternate take) Polydor Incorporated RELAXIN' WITH LEE 810 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10019 Printed in U.S.A. Parker, Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), Thelonious Monk (piano), Curly Russell (bass), Previously released on Verve Albums Buddy Rich (drums) V 8001, V8004, V8006 and V 8009