{"id":100,"date":"2005-08-08T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-08T08:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/?p=100"},"modified":"2005-08-08T01:05:00","modified_gmt":"2005-08-08T08:05:00","slug":"an_amazing_discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2005\/08\/an_amazing_discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"An Amazing Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people alive are too young to have heard Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker when they were establishing bebop. Most, indeed, were not born. Observers have attempted to describe the excitement of hearing Gillespie and Parker together for the first time, but words cannot convey the abstract wonders of great music. Now, thanks to an astounding new CD, it is possible to hear the fountainheads of bop as World War Two was ending – when they were virtually unknown, when to all but a tiny minority of musicians and listeners, jazz meant the music of the big bands, when \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Night in Tunisia\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Salt Peanuts\u00e2\u20ac\u009d had not been drilled into the collective consciousness. Those pieces and others that became part of the bebop canon had been played for audiences only a few dozen times, if that many.
\nUntil Uptown Records released Dizzy Gillespie-Charlie Parker Town Hall, New York City, June 22, 1945<\/em><\/a> a few weeks ago, Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Gillespie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s partnership that year was known on records only within the three-minute limitation of 78 rpm technology. Someone\u00e2\u20ac\u201dit is unclear who\u00e2\u20ac\u201drecorded the concert in superb sound on twin acetate disc recorders, capturing complete performances in the seven-minutes range, with chorus after chorus of brilliant playing. Anyone who hears these recordings and doubts that Gillespie was at least Bird\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s equal as a creative artist will have to maintain an unreasonable degree of stubborness.
\nThroughout, Gillespie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s control, range, harmonic ingenuity, melodic inventiveness and time\u00e2\u20ac\u201dabove all, his time\u00e2\u20ac\u201dare breathtaking. In these performances, he and Parker give profound meaning to Dizzy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frequently-quoted description of Bird as, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the other half of my heartbeat.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The two were the most uncanny unison players ever, their intellectual and psychic connection absolute. Their togetherness, at a furious tempo, on the out-chorus of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bebop\u00e2\u20ac\u009d must be heard to be believed. The transition from Bird\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s solo to Dizzy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Groovin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 High\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is priceless, not because one repeats the other\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s phrase\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthat trick is as old as jazz improvisation, probably as old as music\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut because of the exquisite timing, the humor, what it says about their mutual respect and friendship. Gillespie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s solo on the piece is a statement of pure joy. And, everywhere, Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s virtuosity and heart match his boss\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. This was Dizzy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s band. Its concepts, and particularly its codification of the harmonic and much of the rhythmic language of the new music, came from Dizzy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leadership and teaching.
\nIn his liner notes, Ira Gitler describes pianist Al Haig\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s playing on the concert as stiff, but that might be true only in comparison with Bud Powell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most inspired work. Haig has long deserved a great deal more credit than he has received as a trailblazing pianist who inspired many of his successors. Those in debt to Haig include, as the researcher Allan Lowe has recently pointed out, Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan and Barry Harris. I would add Bill Evans to that list. Haig and drummer Max Roach had a relationship, also built on rhythm, that complemented and illuminated the one between Diz and Bird. Entertaining and swinging as Sid Catlett is in his guest appearance on one piece, Roach was clearly the perfect drummer for this band. As for Curley Russell, he kept great time and was one of the best bop bassists after Oscar Pettiford, but suffice it to say that bass playing was a few years away from catching up with Parker, Gillespie, Haig and Powell.
\nSymphony Sid Torin, the unctuous radio host who MCed the concert, was unquestionably an important part of the New York jazz scene, but including only his opening announcement might have been enough. Symphony Sid’s cutesy, self-referential, tune introductions do not detract from the music. Nothing could. But they are irritating on repeated hearings. And he mispronounces Dizzy’s last name as “Jillespie.”
\nI could go on about this remarkable recording, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll abide by the first paragraph\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s admonition concerning the inadequacy of words. I cannot imagine anyone serious about serious music not cherishing it. Robert Sunenblick of Uptown Records deserves adulation for recognizing the value of what he discovered on those acetates and for seeing that it became available to the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most people alive are too young to have heard Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker when they were establishing bebop. Most, indeed, were not born. Observers have attempted to describe the excitement of hearing Gillespie and Parker together for the first time, but words cannot convey the abstract wonders of great music. Now, thanks to an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}