Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes
| Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes | ||||
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| Charlie Parker's studio album | ||||
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| Label (s) | Verve Records | |||
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2 CD |
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Title (number) |
69 |
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running time |
02:37:01 |
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Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes is a jazz album by Charlie Parker . The material for this edition was created between 1949 and 1952 during Parker's studio sessions for Norman Granz . It was released on Verve Records on July 1, 2016 , a collection of previously unreleased tracks by Charlie Parker. The total of 69 tracks include master takes and several takes in various studio settings, including quartets, quintets, as a soloist with Machito and His Afro-Cuban, with strings and as a frontman with big bands. All sessions were produced by Norman Granz for his Clef and Norgran labels, which were finally released by his Verve label in 1956 at the beginning of the 12-inch LP era. The edition was co-produced by Phil Schaap, the jazz historian and curator at Jazz at Lincoln Center .
background
The recordings were discovered in a cache of materials belonging to a former employee of Norman Granz - the founder of Verve Records and the then producer of these sessions. The music dates from the time Parker was in touch with producer and impresario Norman Granz of the Verve label. Originally published by Mercury and Clef, and in later years by Verve, the Parker / Granz studio collaborations were carefully designed to showcase Bird's talents in a variety of contexts. This included Parker's four to six-member ensembles (both working bands and session musicians). Latin American jazz efforts ( South of the Border ), orchestral numbers that Charlie Parker presents including works with strings, standard big band recordings and Parker's careful approach to the third stream , writes Bobby Reed. In total, there are around 20 unreleased takes and a similar number of published master tracks and alternative tracks. The edition also contains around 30 incomplete takes, many of which contain complete solos. The recordings are mostly from different big band sessions (such as South of the Border and Charlie Parker Plays Cole Porter ), but there are also some previously unreleased Parker solos from some small combo sessions, including pieces from the recordings for the LP Bird and Diz in which the pianist Thelonious Monk was also involved.
The edition contains five tracks of the Latin sessions with Parker as soloist with Machito and his orchestra. In addition, there are 13 tracks from the sessions for South of the Border , which were created with a rhythm section consisting of Walter Bishop , Teddy Kotick and Roy Haynes or Max Roach as well as Jose Mangual and Luis Miranda on bongos or congas; added the trumpeter Benny Harris . Also documented are excerpts from the studio entertainment, such as Parker discussing the pace; on “Tico Tico” he asks the studio guests to calm down so that they don't ruin the session. According to Bobby Reed, the 10 tracks of the Cole Porter project are interesting for jazz historians , which was never completed due to Parker's illness and premature death. Parker plays three Porter classics, " Night and Day ," " What Is This Thing Called Love, " and "Almost Like Being in Love ," with a large band that included musicians like Oscar Peterson , Freddie Green , Flip Phillips, and Ray Brown ". More than half of the material goes into Parker's play in the small bop configurations for which he was best known. This is a reunion of Parker's Quintet, the only Granz-produced recordings by this ensemble. They are accompanied on the conga for four more by trombonists Tommy Turk and Carlos Vidal. Dizzy Gillespie accompanies Bird for ten tracks, together with Thelonious Monk, Curley Russell and Buddy Rich. Parker's program includes complete runs of An Oscar for Treadwell, Bloomdido and Mohawk. In a quartet line-up, Hank Jones , Ray Brown and Buddy Rich play in the interpretation of the standard " Star Eyes " and in Parker's "Blues (Fast)".
To round off the new 69-track set, the master takes of the songs are included. The odd math here - 58 unreleased takes plus 20 master takes that kind of equal 69 tracks - is because the producers combined some of the shorter takes for this release, according to the Down Beat writer.
Track list
- Charlie Parker: Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes (Verve Records - B0024802-02)
1-1 Okiedoke (Machito, Rene Hernandez) Incomplete 1:37
1-2 Okiedoke Alternate Take 3:17
1-3 Okiedoke Incomplete 1:52
1-4 Okiedoke Alternate Take 3:15
1-5 Okiedoke Released Master 3:05
1 -6 Visa (Parker) Incomplete 0:44
1-7 Visa Alternate Take 3:03
1-8 Visa False Start 0:16
1-9 Visa Released Master 3:01
1-10 Tune X (Parker) Incomplete & False Start 1 : 46
1-11 Tune X Alternate Take 3:20
1-12 Tune X Incomplete 1:17
1-13 Tune X, AKA "Diverse" Released Master 3:19
1-14 Tune X, AKA "Segment" Released Master 3: 23
1-15 Tune Y False Starts 0:30
1-16 Tune Y, AKA "passport" Released 'rare' Master 2:56
1-17 Tune Z False Start 0:07
1-18 Tune Z Alternate Take 2:56
1 -19 Tune Z False Starts 0:39
1-20 Tune Z Alternate Take 2:52
1-21 Tune Z False Starts 1:08
1-22 Tune Z Alternate Take 3:09
1-23 Tune Z, AKA "Passport" Released 'common' Master 3:03
1-24 If I Should Lose You ( Leo Robin , Ralph Rainger ) False Starts 0:28
1-25 If I Should Lose You Released Master 2:50
1-26 Star Eyes ( Don Raye , Gene De Paul ) Incomplete & False Start 1:10
1-27 Star Eyes Incomplete 2:05
1-28 Star Eyes Released Master 3:30
1-29 Blues (Parker) (almost) False Starts 1:06
1-30 Blues (almost) alternate take 2:50
1-31 Blues (fast) False Start 0:21
1-32 Blues (fast) Alternate Take 2:44
1-33 Blues (fast) Incomplete 0:42
1-34 Blues (fast) Alternate Take 2 : 50
1-35 Blues (fast) Abandoned Take, Studio Chatter 0:14
1-36 Blues (fast) Released Master 2:48
1-37 Bloomdido (Parker) False Starts 1:12
1-38 Bloomdido Released Master 3:25
2-1 An Oscar for Treadwell (Parker) Incomplete 1:54
2-2 An Oscar for Treadwell Incomplete 0:57
2-3 An Oscar for Treadwell Released Alternate Take 3:24
2-4 An Oscar for Treadwell Released Master 3:24
2-5 Mohawk (Parker) incomplete & false start 1:09
2-6 Mohawk Released Alternate Take 3:51
2-7 Mohawk False Start 1:53
2-8 Mohawk Released Master 3:40
2-9 My Little Suede Shoes ( Parker) Alternate Take W / False Start 3:03
2-10 My Little Suede Shoes Alternate Take 3:19
2-11 My Little Suede Shoes Alte rnate Take 3:09
2-12 My Little Suede Shoes Released Master 3:07
2-13 Tico Tico (Aloysio Oliveira, Zequinha Abreu) Alternate Take W / False Start 3:10
2-14 Tico Tico False Starts 1:24
2- 15 Tico Tico Alternate Take 2:48
2-16 Tico Tico False Starts 0:52
2-17 Tico Tico Released Master 2:46
2-18 Fiesta ( Cal Massey ) Alternate Take W / False Start 3:22
2-19 Fiesta Released Master 2:52
2-20 Mama Inez (Eliseo Grenet, L. Wolfe Gilbert) Alternate Take 3:02
2-21 Mama Inez Released Master 2:53
2-22 Night and Day (Cole Porter) Alternate Take 2:55
2- 23 Night and Day Alternate Take 3:02
2-24 Night and Day Released Master 2:53
2-25 Almost Like Being in Love (Porter) Alternate Take 2:32
2-26 Almost Like Being in Love False Start & Incomplete 1: 21
2-27 Almost Like Being in Love Released Master 2:38
2-28 What Is This Thing Called Love (Porter) Incomplete 1:18
2-29 What Is This Thing Called Love Alternate Take 2:16
2-30 What Is This Thing Called Love Incomplete 1:21
2-31 What Is This Thing Called Love Rele ased master 2:36
Sessions
- New York City, January 1949: Okiedoke. with Machito and His Orchestra
- New York City, May 4, 5, or 6, 1949: Visa (with Kenny Dorham, Al Haig, Tommy Turk) Tune X, Y, Z (excluding Turk).
- Mercury Studio, Nov. 30, 1949: If I Should Lose You. (with orchestra)
- New York City, late winter to early spring, 1950: Star Eyes, Blues - with Hank Jones (p), Ray Brown (b) and Buddy Rich (d).
- New York City, June 6, 1950: Bloomdido, An Oscar for Treadwell, Mohawk
- New York City, March 12, 1951: My Little Suede Shoes, Tico Tico, Fiesta
- New York City, January 23 or 28, 1952: Mama Inez
- March 25, 1952: Night and Day, Almost Like Being in Love, What Is This Thing Called Love
reception
According to Dick Baker, who reviewed the album on The Absolute Sound, Charlie Parker was “one of the greatest jazz musicians who ever lived, and any set that features previously unknown Parker recordings is important, especially when the material is from the studio Sessions that aren't compromised by the lo-fi audio that affects most of his live recordings. ”Certainly hardcore fans will love it, but equally sure, this is not where you have your own Charlie Parker collection should start, said the author. That would be advisable with his classic recordings for Dial and Savoy .
In Pop Matters, Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes , Will Layman wrote that it was particularly interesting because of the 58 previously unissued takes, although many of them are already known. In addition to improvisations, the studio talks are new; thus this recording would offer "an insight into the creative process behind Parker's extraordinary game". Parker was a great jazz musician and revolutionary who was central to reinventing the American jazz vocabulary, Layman said. “His improvisations were based simultaneously on the basic musical language of the blues and in complex extensions of the harmonic language of earlier jazz. By adding modified chords with more complicated intervals to the harmonic language of jazz, Parker raised the bar for creativity and made sure that jazz solos could never refer to just a few standard licks again. "
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As he (and his comrades) play with him, they gradually record the same melodies, immersing the listener in the breadth of creativity that Parker has mastered with the new harmonic vocabulary. With each melody or set of chord changes, Parker had a number of new options and it's exciting to hear him play in this amazing world. “If you take Bird and Diz 's 'Mohawk' blues, ” Layman continues, “Parker's last collaboration with his friend and musical collaborator Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk at the piano. Hearing the many 'wrong' starts might sound boring, but these aborted takes feature radically different four-bar piano intros by Monk, each of which is a little masterpiece. The last of the 'false starts' is great and long. Monk starts things off with a mix of intrigue and drama, a fine unison reading of Bird's melody and muted diz, and then two choruses from Parker that are improvised, ”Layman wrote.
“These takes are framed on the recording by the published takes (both original and alternate), on which you can hear the full performance that the musicians did not interrupt for any reason. As a result, Layman says, you learn that these takes are always better, but we also realize that the tightrope act of this type of improvised music contrasts with a normal human impulse. When you're 'recording' for posterity, the pros want to get it right. That makes sense and can be frustrating given the level of spontaneity. "
The incomplete version of "Star Eyes" we get here is absolutely delightful. When interpreting the melody, Bird is playful and rhythmically creative, and at one point lags behind the beat. He starts his solo with joy on the first chorus and then, on the second, he seems to try something different. It's curious, but you almost get the feeling that the master improviser has not gotten lost, but has gone in a direction that he no longer finds promising. And instead of working his way out of it like he would in a live performance, here he interrupts it. I wish he hadn't. I wish we'd heard the genius solved this problem. It must have happened often personally, but in the recording studio Bird was looking for something more design, more “right”.
It's not like we come to a set like this to hear the greats come to earth, said Will Layman, but it does help us remember what the records were like “in that moment”. These musicians recorded - even on big band tracks like "Almost Like Being in Love" - at the same time, no overdubs , in the same room together. A mistake by a musician or a section would ruin the entire take. We hear the tech say to Charlie Parker over the microphone, "Try again." Good reputation because when the band got it right it was magical. They know that band and studio time were expensive and opportunities for improvement were limited. Even for jazz musicians, the chance to polish the product is tempting. Charlie Parker still climbed relatively unattended. If you listen to the process, your respect for his talent and daring will grow even deeper, according to the author.
Marc Myers said in Jazzwax that Parker was particularly interesting in "Passport," which was known in the studio as Tune Y and Tune Z until May 6, 1949. “During the development of the song, we hear the musicians carefully approaching each other until they get used to the subtleties of the melody. You can also see how difficult Parker's original melody line was - even before he played solo. ”The Mohawk takes are also captivating:“ Here we hear Dizzy Gillespie striving to become familiar with the Parker melody, and Gillespie's mistakes are the reason for most false starts. ”The Okiedoke recordings with Machito and his Afro-Cubans were ahead of their time in Myers' opinion and remain glorious at the start of the mambo madness. Myers particularly highlights the “If I Should Lose You” session from November 1949 and his “Star Eyes” session in March and April 1950 with Hank Jones (p), Ray Brown (b) and Buddy Rich (d). “Rich's broom work was masterful, especially fitting with Parker's characters in the famous zigzag introduction. Blues (Fast) from the same session is perhaps the best example of Parker's attempt to figure out what he wanted to do in real studio time, even if it quickly gets annoying. ”Myers' favorites on the new release include the variations for“ Almost Like Being in love ”. The "Night and Day" tracks from the same big band session are knockouts too, with Parker being great at the top. Amazing how you can hear the false starts and how exactly the band's musicians read the arrangement.
While hearing the tracks of Unheard Bird , I came to several conclusions. First, Parker was even more talented than we realize in conceptualizing an idea and persistently executing it. Second, Norman Granz was a task master and had no problem driving anyone crazy in their quest for perfectionism. He certainly took Parker to a new level. Third, even the best jazz players struggled to grasp Parker's complex songs, but eventually they found them out, which only spruced up their flexibility and ingenuity.
The question is whether even the experienced listener really needs to hear this material more than once. The news value is thin, and what remains is a reference for audio research. On the other hand, you will learn a lot about music and Parker by studying his failed visionary endeavors. As we learn from this new set, even the trash in Parker's case was shiny.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Bobby Reed: Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes. Down Beat, May 26, 2017, accessed April 9, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c Dick Baker: Unheard Bird. The Absiolute Sound, January 19, 2017, accessed April 1, 2019 .
- ↑ Notes at Discogs
- ↑ a b c d e Will Layman: Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes. Pop Matters, August 14, 2016, accessed April 1, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c Marc Myers: Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes. Jazzwax, June 14, 2016, accessed April 9, 2019 .