He's human after all! (Sort of)

[softjazz]

This is a recording I hadn't heard before, and it's interesting because - well, Bird seems flummoxed by the bridge. He is human after all!

However, by the third pass he's well on the way to getting it. Quick!

Really interesting recording The learning process documented.

I suspect he didn't really know this tune and was called to sit in with little notice.

Well, all master was a learner. The only was to be good at something is to be bad at it the first time.

[grahambop]

... and yet despite this, his playing was still more compelling than what most of us can play when at our best ...

Absolutely, Parker was a superhuman genius of music as far as I’m concerned. I remember when I bought the Savoy master takes double LP and first put it on my record player, it was like finding the Dead Sea Scrolls or something!

I’m not really concerned about his personal vices, although of course you have to recognise that such people inevitably inflict pain on those around them. Same with Art Pepper, Chet Baker, Stan Getz etc. I have read all the awful details, but I still enjoy the music.

[Christian Miller]

Well, all master was a learner. The only was to be good at something is to be bad at it the first time.

notice how quick he becomes less bad….

[djg]

Same with Art Pepper, Chet Baker, Stan Getz etc. I have read all the awful details, but I still enjoy the music.

i make an exception for getz. to me his playing sounds like he's always lying

[Christian Miller]

i make an exception for getz. to me his playing sounds like he's always lying

haha I know what you mean. But they are such pretty pretty lies.

[sgosnell]

Perhaps he lost it. Perhaps he expected someone else to take the bridge. Many possibilities, but no way to tell exactly what caused the lapse. I wasn't there, and can't speculate. In any case, arguing about it seems rather inane.

[sgcim]

i make an exception for getz. to me his playing sounds like he's always lying

I knew a sax player who couldn't even listen to Getz, because he claimed he could tell Getz was a POS just from his playing.
We started going over different sax players, and he judged their playing on the personalities shown in their playing!
He was amazed that I liked Phil Woods. He said, "I can tell by your playing you're such a nice guy; how can you like someone like Phil Woods? He's a terrible man!"
I said, "Because I dig his playing!"
Years later I played with another sax player and asked him about about PW, and he said he used to see him drunk in bars, picking fights with people!
Then I thought about the first time I met PW- a friend of mine had been bugging him with stupid questions the whole gig, and Phil was in his makeshift dressing room drinking cans of beer. My idiot friend wanted to introduce me to PW, and he threw open the curtain, and barged in saying, "Phil I want you to meet my friend; he's the greatest jazz guitarist in the world! (we were still in HS!).
Phil just took the can of beer, and flung it in my direction and said, "Get the f--- out o here!"
, and I took off as fast as I could!

Maybe the first sax player I mentioned was right, you can tell a guy's personality by his playing!

[wintermoon]

a drummer friend was going to Berkley in the early 70s. him and a few friends went to see Getz @ a local club. my buddy said they had a rotating stage and there was a guy in the front row heckling Stan and imploring him to play Impanema all night. after too much of this my buddy said when the stage rotated again Stan spit a huge lugi that hit the guy square in the forehead. no more heckling....

[Christian Miller]

Tbh I’m finding Getz and PW a bit more relatable now lol….

[don_oz]

Charlie Parker With Quartet and Orchestra - Washington Concerts - FULL ALBUM - YouTube

One of my favorite records by bird just for the fact that he had no rehearsals and didn't know any of the arrangements but still sounded really out of this world.

[PMB]

Charlie Parker With Quartet and Orchestra - Washington Concerts - FULL ALBUM - YouTube

One of my favorite records by bird just for the fact that he had no rehearsals and didn't know any of the arrangements but still sounded really out of this world.

Neal Hefti's "Repetition" was initially recorded by a jazz big band at Carnegie Hall with the composer at the helm. Parker, who had been working in the same building, dropped in to Hefti's session at the request of producer Norman Granz. The lead violinist, Gene Orloff recalled many years later:

"It was the most phenomenal thing I ever saw. The lead sheet for him [Parker] or whatever he had to blow changes on was spread out, a sheet of about ten pages and he had it strewn out over the piano. He was like bending down then lifting his head up as the music passed by, reading it once or twice until he memorised those changes and then proceeded to become godly".

Here's the clip (Bird enters at 1'49" picking up on a phrase that later became a signature Wes Montgomery lick):

[Woody Sound]

I always thought Tommy Flanagan flopped on "Giant Steps." (Still one of the great boppers.)

Years later he played the s*** out of it.

Go to 30:20.

[mr. beaumont]

I always thought Tommy Flanagan flopped on "Giant Steps." (Still one of the great boppers.)

Years later he played the s*** out of it.

Go to 30:20.

Rumor has it not a lot of time to prepare, and no tempo indication on the sheet! Can you imagine the band's surprise when Trane counted it off?

I've seen a lot of cool kid music school types using Tommy's solo on the original as the butt of a joke. I hate that.