Search - Charlie Parker :: Washington Concerts

One of the most important reissues of the year

JEAN-MARIE JUIF | BESANCON France | 11/25/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bird with The Orchestra. The first eight tunes of the CD were originally issued on LP in 1982 on the short-lived Elektra Musician label.Washington DC,February 22,1953,Club Kavakos: Bird meets The Orchestra, a band including Jack Nimitz,the Swope brothers and Jack Holliday.Bird,who missed an engagement in this town shortly before this date, also missed the rehearsals for this concert, and I'm sure the fifteen members of the band were afraid of the night to come. The result is amazing: maybe Charlie Parker's best live performance.Bill Potts,who wrote the arrangements for the show,and who was frightened too, remembers Bird appearing on the scene,carrying a plastic alto saxophone.And it was pure magic.Bird played at his highest level,all through the tunes,including some he maybe never played before.These eight tracks (1 to 8) have always been some of my favorite ones by Bird,since they were issued some twenty years ago.
But to complete this CD, we now can listen to 35 more minutes of unissued music by Bird.Tracks 9 to 14 come from other concerts in Washington: tracks 9 to 12 were recorded at the Howard Theater on March 8,1953, with a trio composed of Jack Holliday,Franklin Skeete and Max Roach,while tracks 13 and 14 were taped at the same place,October 18,1952,with among others,Don Lamond,Zoot Sims,Charlie Byrd,Kay Winding and Earl Swope.Bird's playing is absolutely crazy on the March 1953 date.This CD shows Bird in top form,playing like mad.The remastering of the music is great.This reissue is due to Blue Note Records,and I hope the remaining items of the Elektra Musician label will be reissued too, mostly the great Dizzy Gillespie concert with The Orchestra,recorded the day after Parker's death, or the outstanding Lennie Tristano's "New York improvisations",taped at Tristano's home."

Sound is just okay, but Bird is in amazing form!

BebopBoomer | Virginia | 02/11/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I can only add to the chorus of praise for this CD. Charlie Parker's live recordings differ from even his best studio work in a number of ways:1)obviously, the solos are longer, displaying his amazing fluency and inventiveness;2)he tended to take more risks than in the studio, which is not hard to understand;3)he gave free play to his musical sense of humor--for example, stringing together, in lightning succession and with total musical plausibility, quotes from "What Is This Thing Called Love", "You Don't Know What Love Is", and "Love for Sale".Also such delights as parodies of popular songs old and new, military marches, the "Looney Tunes" theme song, etc. etc. The man apparently had total recall of every piece of music he had ever heard, and was able to turn it to his purposes at will.

Turning to this recording in particular, it's true that at this stage in his career CP often relied pretty heavily on stringing together solos from his huge store of pet runs and personal cliches. But what pet runs,what cliches, and what stringing together! I have listened to a lot of Bird over the years, but I found myself gasping at the speed, drive, and diamond-perfect articulation of his playing. Just as a piece of saxophone playing, it is breathtaking. If one were to compare this with the recently discovered and issued 1945 concert with Dizzy Gillespie, the kindest thing one could say is that there IS no comparison. At the 1945 concert he appears to have been having an off night, while here he is in very rare form. The only thing to be said in favor of the older concert is that the sound is better, but he comes through pretty clearly on this CD--certainly clearly enough to amaze and delight anyone whose interest is primarily in the astounding music. This recording is a permanent treasure of American music."

Brilliant Jazz, Superb Sound Quality~Highly Recommended~

Kurt Leith | Vernon, CT | 10/06/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is the first CD featuring Charlie Parker that I've listened to where the sound quality of the recording is equal to the brilliance of Bird's playing. Thankfully, many of his performances have been released on CD where the source of the recordings is from a vinyl LP, cleaned up to sound as good as possible & I've enjoyed many of these...BUT, on this collection recorded live in 1952-53 the sound quality is SUPERB...as if the master was recorded in the 60's or later!!! As much as I've enjoyed the "Yardbird Suite: The Ultimate Collection" which I also recommend, this CD was a revelation to me as to just how brilliant and ahead of his time Bird was on the saxophone. Tracks 1-8 are gorgeous masterpieces that sound beautiful & are well recorded, and on tracks 9-14 Bird at times pushes the limits of the sax in a similar fashion to John Coltrane in his last few years(1965-67). Although John Coltrane would ultimately become the greatest saxophonist of all, truly, after listening to these Washington concerts Charlie Parker was indeed the original or first genius of the saxophone and I cannot recommend this disc more highly. Happy listening :-)"