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Home , Au Privave, Blues for Alice, Charlie Parker, Pres and Teddy, Teddy Kotick

-- It had all started during the early tity, was the one who and there was no stopping it now. Dizzy- morning hours of a December day in laid down the new set of rules. ( had become the flamboyant 1939. Unwinding after a night of playing Gillespie had independently harbored "Clown Prince of Bop" —w itty and ex- bland fare in the Times Square taxi- certain related musical ideas, but b y his troverted. he was popular with the menu dance joint that earned him his living, own admission cannot recall playing hop and a non-iazz public. symbolizing the Parker was jamming at a Harlem chili changes prior to 1942.) new music with his beret, goatee. and house with a rhythm section led by an The early part of 1943 found Parker colorful be-hop terminology. obscure guitarist named Biddy Fleet. and. Gillespie working together in the Earl Parker. a quiet and self-effacing per- He frequently participated in after-hours Hines band and in the now legendary in- sonality, did not. partake Willingly in the sessions around Harlem, but although formal sessions at Milton's Playhouse; be-bop circus. While he always had the he enjoyed such informal get-togethers, the seed planted by Parker that De- highest regard for Dizzy, Whom he once he had grown weary of playing the usual cember morning in 1939 was about to referred to as - the other half of my chord changes and was convinced that reach fruition. By the mid-forties there heartbeat," he took a dim view Of Dizzy"; there had to be a different structure upon was officially something called be-bop; bopsploitat ion activities. "Some guys which improvisation could take place. the commercial exploitation had begun, said. 'Here's bop, " he told an inner- "I could hear it sometimes." he later re- sides had been chosen, and controversy viewer in 1949. "Wham! They said, called, "but I couldn't play it." However, raged. The age of modern had be- 'here's something we can make money that night at Dan Wall's Chili House gun, but there was more money to be on.' 'Wham! Here's a comedian.' Wham. on Seventh Avenue and 139th Street, made from selling be-bop glasses. be-bop 'Here's a guy who talks funny he suddenly could play "it." Running ties and other faddish paraphernalia than Parker, who had led a day-to-day exist- through Ray Noble's "Cherokee"—a from playing the inside. itself. Parker ence during Gillespie's ise, must surely popular hit that year—Parker formed began recording as a leader, first for have been hurt to see the scales so im- the melody line using a chord's higher Savoy, then for Dial; he was later to say of properly balanced: but if the public was intervals, and when Fleet added the per- two of the Dial recordings, "Lover Man' unaware of his role in the scheme of tinent changes, what Parker had been and "Bird Lore" ("Ornithology"), that things, musicians and other insiders rec inwardly hearing was suddenly no.longer they "should be stomped into the ground ()prized Parker as the true genius of a figment of his mind. ... I had to drink a quart of whisky to modern jazz. Soon after his return to Net That unceremonious event, the sig- make the date," but even his worst re- he formed a and opened at nificance of which is said to have eluded cordings came to be considered classics. the Three Deuces. After paying his the other musicians present, later came arker's personal life musicians—a group that included Miles to be regarded as the birth of bop; but ten at this point was, to Davis and —he was cleari ng years later, when a down beat interviewer put it bluntly, a mess. $280 a week. more money than he had suggested this to Parker, he modestly re- Drugs, alcohol, and ever made before, but hardly a salary plied. "I am accused of having been one the physical neglect commensurate with his stature. of the pioneers." 'Though he was prob- that accompanies y the end of 1947. ably jesting, Parker's use of the term them had long posed Parker was back on "accused" was not entirely inappropriate, problems, but in 1946. heroin, resuming the for even then many people—so-called while Parker was re- hazardous life style "jazz authorities" included—continued cording on the West Coast, his difficulties that had felled him in, to regard bop as a bastardized music. came to a head. "I don't know how California. His be- Parker did not see bop even as an exten- made it through those years." he later re- havior became in- sion of jazz. "Bop is no love-child of jazz, called. "I became bitter, hard, cold. I was creasingly eccentric. op is no love- he said, "bop is something entirely always on a panic—couldn't buy clothes but it was tolerated child (.)/liazz,". Parker said, separate and apart. It's just music. It's or a good place to live. Finally, on the because he was w hat he was—the most bop is something entirely trying to play dean and looking for the coast, I didn't have any place to stay. until extraordinarily gifted soloist on the jazz, pretty notes." somebody put me up in a converted ga- scene since . During di separate and apart. It's just If Parker meant that bop should not rage. The mental strain was getting last two years of the forties. Parker (Mall music, It's trying to play clean be judged in comparison with the music worse all the time. What made it worst of began to achieve a more proportionate and looking for the from which it had obviously evolved, all was that nobody understood our kind measure of recognition as an artist: he his point was well taken. We know, for of music out on the coast. I can't begin to won first place in a Metronome magazine pretty notes." example, that French marching music tell you how I yearned for . Fi- poll, he was invited to participate in the had a strong influence on New Orleans nally I broke down." When. Parker ar- 1949 International Paris Jazz Festival, jazz, but who would not think it folly to rived back in New Bark in the early part and he was signed by , regard the two musics as anything but of 1947, he was fresh out of Camarillo Whose record company (Clef in those separate idioms? The music of Parker State Hospital, a California mental in- days) was not the low-budget shoestring and Gillespie, like that of stitution that offered a rehabilitation affairs Dial and Savoy had been. Parker and , undeniably shares program for drug and alcohol addicts. was of the opinion that big bands and hi)] ancestral roots with the music of King During Parker's sixteen months in did not mix. but playing with strings wan Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton. but the fam- California, the scene had changed: another matter. -You can pull away some ily tree has dispai ate branches. The walls be-bop had attracted new exponents as of the harshness with the strings and go of style are thin when it comes to jazz—to well as audiences. people were becoming a variety of coloration, - he told an inter; use the general term—and while cross- "hipsters," their cult heroes "hoppers. - viewer in 1949. A few months later Ins ings from New Orleans to Chicago to listen and they crowded the clubs to horn was singing bop's song against Kansas City to Swing were easily made, rather than dance. The dissenters were lush background of strings Ulm pioneer- bop represented a veritable obstacle still there, fiercely clinging to the past, ing session is included oil the previous course to most musicians; it was a highly propping up half-dead New Orleans Parker set in this series). radical break with convention, and veterans and hoping that this new music On December 15, 1949, ten years after though it took a collective effort to give would somehow go away, but be-bop had "it" had finally emerged from Charlie be-bop its full form as a recognizable en- caught the imagination of the hucksters Parker 's horn in that Harlem chili house the biggest, most luxuriously furnished The year 1951 also saw Charlie Parker jazz club the world had ever seen opened trying to lend his life some respectability, SID H; 1 SIDE 3 at Broadway and 53rd Street—and it was but as his commercial success reached a named after Parker. Some writers have high, his health hit an all-time low; he had called "Birdland" the ultimate tribute to trouble with his heart, and his ulcer con- DANCING IN THE DARK Parker; but his nickname "Bird" (origi- tinued to act up. When doctors seemed to (Schuartz, Dietz) (0142-5) 3:10 ASCAP (Parker) (489-2) 2:42 BAH nally "Yardbird") had become well known be failing him, he cast himself deeper and LAURA SHE ROTE • by then, and the awe of his fellow musi- deeper into drugs; the New York State (Raksin, Mercer) (C443 -2) 2:56 ASCAP (Parker) (490-3) 3:10 BAH cians (combined with his own eccen- Liquor Authority revoked his cabaret tricities and no-doubt-magnified stories card (that ludicrous, now extinct license THEY CAN'T TAKE THAT AWAY K.C. of his exploits) had made Bird a cult without which a performer could not FROM ME (Parker) (491-1) 3:24 BMI (G. Gersh win, I. Gershwitt) 3:15 ASCAP figure—so more accurately the "tribute" work in a place that served liquor), STAR EYES was yet another example of exploitation. thereby prohibiting Bird from working OUT OF NOWHERE (Kaye, DePaul) (492-2) 3:38 ASCAP (Green, Heyman) (C443-2) 3:10 „4SC.41) As Parker entered the fifties and made even at Birdland. The August date which Recorded in : January IT, 1951 the recordings contained in this , ends side four included—with certain EAST OF THE SUN Charlie Parker (alto ). the music of Edgar Varese and Paul Hin- irony—"Lover Man," the very tune he (WEST OF THE MOON) (trumpet). Walter Bishop (piano), (bass), Max Roach (drums) demith had begun to intrigue him, and had been recording in 1946 just (Bowman) (C 445 -4) 3:30 "MAP he was hearing new ideas again. "They before his California.breakdown. His EASY TO LOVE MY LITTLE SUEDE SHOES teach you there's a boundary line to overall health was worse now than it had (Porter) (C147-4) 3:30 ASCAP (Parker) (540-6) 3:15 music, but, man, there's no boundary been in those days, and though most UN POQUITO DE TU AMOR line to art." he said, but time ran out for critics view the 1951 "Lover Man" as I'M IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (McHugh, Fields) (0448-2) 3:20 ASCAP (Gutierrez) (541-2) 2:46 P.D. Charlie Parker before he was able to take vastly inferior to the earlier one (because his music another step. it "lacks emotional intensity"), Charlie TICO TICO During the thirteen-month period cov- Parker never stopped insisting that (Olieveria, Abreu) (542-9) 2:41 BMI ered by this album, Parker continued liv- the celebrated Dial recording ought to FIESTA. ing high and, for the most part, staying be destroyed. (Masse)) (543-3) 2:56 BMI high while somehow managing to keep Bad as his health was in 1951, there up with a fairly hectic schedule of musi- was no repeat at that time of his 1946 SIDE 2 cal activity. The commercial success of breakdown. .A second collapse occurred his first string date prompted an encore in 1955, and this time it was final. (heard on side one of this set) and live per- I'LL REMEMBER APRIL . formances with strings at such places Chris Albertson is a contributing editor (Raye. DePaul, Johnston) (C449-2) 3:15 .4SCAP SIDE 4 as Birdland, Harlem's famous Apollo to Stereo Review and author of the book, Recorded in Neu , York City, July 5, 1950 Theatre and—as heard on side two— Bessie, a biography of blues singer Charlie Parker (), Edwin C. Brown Carnegie Hall. He also took a new quintet . (oboe), Sam Caplan, Howard Kay, Harry Meinikoff Sam Rand, Zelly Smirnoff(violins), WHY DO I LOVE YOU on a tour lssadore Zir (viola), Maurice Brown (cello), Verley (Kern, Hammerstein 11)(544-2) 3:01 ASCAP followed by a trip through the South. Mills (harp), ( piano), Towards the end of 1950, Parker made (bass), ( drams) Joe Lippman Recorded in New Yin* City, March 12, 1951 (arranger, conductor) Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Walter Bishop a short film for Norman Granz, flew (piano), Teddy Kotick (bass), (drums), to Scandinavia for a week's tour, and REPETITION Jose Mangu el (bongos), Luis Miranda (conga) topped it off with a wild, non-musical (Hefti) 2:44 ASC4P weekend in Paris. He had agreed to per- WHAT IS THIS THING (Parker) (609-4) 2:31 BAH form at a Paris concert on the following CALLED LOVE Si Si weekend, but severe stomach pains (Porter) 2:46 ASCAP made him cut short his stay; the diag- (Parker) (610-,I) 2:46 BMI nosis was acute peptic ulcers, and Parker APRIL IN PARIS (Harburg, Duke) 3:.12 ASCAP SWEDISH SCHNAPPS had to finish the year in the hospital. (Shavers) (611-3) 3:17 ASCAP Other than that, 1950—in terms of rec- EASY TO LOVE BACK HOME BLUES (Porten 2:20 ASCAP ognition and financial renumeration (Parker) (612-1) 2:45 BM —had proven to he his best year so far. ROCKER (Mulligan) .3:00 ASC.4P LOVER MAN Parker's 1951 recording activities were (Weill, Anderson) (613-2) 3:28 ASCAP limited to the three sessions appearing on Recorded live at Carnegie Hall, New York, Recorded in. New York City, August 8. 1951 sides three and four of this reissue. September 16, 1950 Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Timmy Mace Though some purists feel Parker used up (trumpet). (piano), Ray Brown (oboe), Sam Caplan, Ted Bloom, Stan karpenia his genius on the Savoy and Dial dates of (bass), (drums) ( violins), Dave 1 chitel (viola), Bill Bundy (cello). the forties, it is clear that he had by no Wallace McManua (harp), .41 Haig (piano), means expended his ability to develop &nary Potter (bass), Roe Haynes (drums) new musical ideas. Always a superb. ex- ponent of the blues—a specialty of the CELEBRITY old Jay McShann band—his "K. C. (Parker) 1:36 B Blues" finds him preaching as skillfully Recorded in New York City, October 19:30 as ever. and his torrential solo toward the Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), end of the "She Rote" (a Parker tune ( piano), Ray Brown ( bass), Buddy Rich (drums) based on the changes of "Out Of BALLADE Nowhere," a 1931 Tin Pan Alley hit) Originally produced by Norm an Grans (Parker, Hawkins) 2:54 BM! is Parker the virtuoso at his best. Both Reissue prepared by Robert Hurwitz Recorded in New York City, October 1950 selections are from the date with Miles Cover ad: John Collier Charlie Parker ( alto saxophone), Coleman Davis, their first together since 1948 Art direction: Beverly Parker Hawkins (), Hank Jones (piano), Reissue engineer: Edwin Outwater Ray Brown (bass), Buddy Rich (drums) and—as it turned out—their last. Mastering: Robert Ludwig (Masterdisk) THE SELECTIONS: By. Chris Albertson records was five years in the past; and—as things were to go—only five DANCING IN THE DARK years hence the sensation-seeking New LAURA York Daily Mirror would make him front his is the second THEY CAN'T TAKE THAT page news with the headline BOP KING album in a series of AWAY FROM ME DIES IN HEIBESS' FLAT. the complete Charlie As Charlie Parker faced the fillies, OUT OF NOWHERE Parker Verve record- he could look. back on ten years of trials, EAST OF THE SUN ings. The first set, tribulations, and triumphs. The past (WEST OF THE MOON) Charlie Parker: The decade had brought him the often ven- Verve Years 1948-50 omous attacks of critics whose ears re- EASY TO LOVE (VE-2-2501), takes us mained hopelessly tuned to the past, I'M IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE from the enigmatic but as one faction ridiculed he music, 1948 version of "Repetition," with Parker another hailed it the product of genius. I'LL .REMEMBER APRIL soaring above a busy arrange- As World War II drew to close. Charlie Charlie Parker (alto saxophone) and Strings ment, to his performances in the more Parker innocently became the central satisfying context of small bop units, figure in the battle of the styles, a ridicu- the first date with strings, and, finally, REPETITION lous hit of commercial exploitation jointly the celebrated "reunion" session with staged by critics on both sides of the WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED LOVE Dizzy Gillespie. Picking up the chronol- fence. "The ensuing polemic, much of it APRIL IN PARIS ogy, this album begins a month later with shamelessly scripted, lent an air of the second string date, July 5, 1950. novelty to the art of Charlie Parker and EASY TO LOVE Charlie Parker was approaching his thir- his colleagues, and it well may be that he ROCKER tieth birthday; ten years had passed since became better known at that time for the he had made his first recordings as a controversy --real and imagined—than Charlie Parker (alto saxophone) and Strings member of Jay McShann's Kansas City- for the music itself. Recorded September 15, 1950, at Carnegie Hall, based ; his debut as a leader on New lark (continued)

CELEBRITY Also available on Verve: Charlie ['rider: lime Verve Years 1948-50 Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Hank Jones Parker with strings: tin' Dizzy Gillespie/ (piano), Ray Brown (bass), Buddy Rich (drums) Norman Granz : The Charlie sides (PE 2-2501) Parker Sides With , Benny Carter, Ben Webster; BALLADE Pip Phillips, , Ray. Brown, Oscar Wes Montgomery: The Small Group Recordings Peterson lira/ J .0 . Heard (V E 2-2508) Half Note and studio performances with Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Wynton Kelly; , Jimmy Cobb and (tenor saxophone); Hank Jones (piano). Ray Brown : Pres and Teddy and Oscar Jimmy Smith (VE 2-2513) VE-2-2512 (bass), Buddy Rich (drums) Pres with pianists and Oscar Peterson (V E 2-2502) Masters of the Mader!? Piano AU PRIVAVE 's 1955 recordings; ; Mary Lou : The Cole Porter Songbook Williams at Newport; wit h Jimmy Giuffre; SHE ROTE Ella's brilliant performance of of Porter's greatest wpm), Kelly at the Half Note; at limn songs WE 2 -2511) Hall 11:E 2-2514) (2632 063i K.C. BLUES - 12367 277/ 2367 278 STAR EYES [loving as its source the vast library of music recorded by Norman Granz, Creed Taylor and Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Miles Davis (trum- others over a period of three decades, the 140 'e pet), Walter Bishop (piano), Teddy Kotick (bass), Collection focuses on outstanding performances Max Roach (drums) by some of America's finest jazz artists.

MY LITTLE SUEDE SHOES UN POQUITO DE TU _AMOR All rights reserved lauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws. TICO TICO et):; FIESTA This record has been engin eered and WHY DO I LOVE YOU manufactured in accordance with standards . Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Walter Bishop developed by the Recording Industry Association of America, Inc., a non-profit (piano), Teddy Kotick (bass), Roy Haynes (drums), Jose Manguel (bongos), Luis Miranda (conga) organization dedicated to the betterment. of recorded music and literature.

BLUES FOR ALICE

SI SI Cr 1976 POLYDOR 1NCOR PORATED anafactured and Distributed by SWEDISH SCHNAPPS Polydor Innoporated BACK HOME BLUES 810 Seventh Avenue, New lark, N.Y. 10019 Printer! in 1; .S . LOVER MAN Previously released OP Charlie Parker (alto saxophone), Red Rodney Verre albu ms V 6-8000, V6-8002, (trumpet), John Lewis (piano), Ray Brown (bass), V6-800.3, V6-8004,1/6-8008, Kenny Clarke (drums) V6-8010. V6-8126 and VO-8 .120