Billie's bounce

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Billie's Bounce is a jazz standard that Charlie Parker composed and recorded for the first time in 1945. Initially conceived as an instrumental title, both Eddie Jefferson and Jon Hendricks later wrote lyrics.

Identifier of the title

Billie's Bounce is a zwölftaktiger Blues in F, but at the same time "an abstract, modernist line full quart - and Quint jumps ". Its signal motif with the tone sequence f, d and f evokes the title of the piece, Billie's Bounce . The melody also seems to be composed in three- four time: "The signal motif (fdf) appears five times in the theme and marks the first, then the fourth, the third and finally the second beat with its first note" (it is an eighth before that).

It is unclear whether the piece, which is rhythmically reminiscent of a bounce , is actually dedicated to Billie Holiday ; it is also possible that it is about Parker's then agent Billy Shaw or even his secretary Billie Miller.

First shot

Billie's Bounce was created as part of the legendary " Koko Session " for Savoy Records , where a quintet was hastily put together that went into the studio on November 26, 1945. The quintet (which included Parker and Miles Davis , Dizzy Gillespie - as a pianist! - and Curley Russell and Max Roach ) took five attempts to record the piece with a metronome value of 165. After four bars of introduction, the theme was presented twice, followed by Parker's alto saxophone solo over four choruses; this was followed by a trumpet solo by Davis over two choruses before the theme was played twice. "Paker played one of his most melodic, memorable solos, a basic subject for generations of saxophone students."

In 2002 this induction was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame .

Later recordings

Billie's Bounce has also been recorded by other musicians since the 1950s. First Ben Webster played the piece with the Modern Jazz Quartet in 1953; versions by Shelly Manne ( The Three and the Two , 1954), Stan Getz and JJ Johnson (1957), Wes Montgomery (1957), Bud Powell (1958) and Red Garland followed . Swing greats like Count Basie also recorded the piece, as did Ella Fitzgerald and Betty Roche . Albert Ayler used the melody in 1963 for an early excursion into free jazz . The topic also later appealed to the avant-garde: the Vienna Art Orchestra played the topic as a counterpoint to two blues melodies by Thelonious Monk ; the String Trio of New York used it as a voice against Parker's Bloomdido . In 1987 Manfred Mann added a disco beat to the piece .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Billie's Bounce (portrait), Jazzstandards.com .
  2. ↑ a b c Hans-Jürgen Schaal Jazz Standards. Das Lexikon , pp. 61f.
  3. ^ Grammy Hall of Fame - Retrieved April 28, 2009.