Wardell Gray - Central Avenue

A friend asked me to repost this lp. It was a perfect opportunity to revisit it as well and I thought it was so fantastic that I decided to revise my much earlier post and give it it's due right here.

 Wardell Gray came of age in that special time between swing and bop. It was the west coast and things were as far out as they were back east just yet. Gray's easy tone and swinging feel make this a delight to listen to. Too bad his early demise relegated him to obscurity to all but hardcore jazz fans.

Other than a couple of alt versions this lp was also released as Wardell Gray Memorial Album. With the additional tracks it will no longer fit on a snigle disc so....
The first disc worth of tracks are the same as the memorial lp, you can skip them if you have a copy.


1. Twisted
2. Southside
3. Sweet Lorraine
4. Scrapple from the Apple
5. Move
6. A Sinner Kissed An Angel
7. Blue Gray
8. Grayhound
9. Treadin'
10. April Skies
11. Bright Boy
12. Jackie
13. Farmer's Market
14. Sweet and Lovely
15. Lover Man
16. The Man I Love
17. Lavonne
18. So Long Broadway
19. Paul's Cause


This bonus disc is the bomb! The first 3 tracks are the unissued sessions from Central Ave. "The Great Lie" is from an IAJRC release. "Stoned" is on a Mainstream comp. The last track is actually Gray's first ever release.

1. Twisted (alt.)
2. Easy Living (alt.)
3. Southside (alt.)
4. The Great Lie
5. Stoned
6. The Chase - Dexter Gordon's All Stars
7. Relaxin' at Camarillo
8. Cheers
9. Carvin' The Bird
10.Stupendous
11. Easy Living



There ya go. The whole shebang! A much better post than the first time around.

Charlie Parker plays Cole Porter

 One of a set of Parker reissues from Verve in glorious mono. Also it was sadly reissued "electronically reprocessed for stereo". This is the shit boys and girls. Scraped right off the vinyl that is older than me.

The alternate take of "I Love Paris" is one of the sexiest songs ever recorded. Had I been aware it years ago, it would have ended up on one of those largely ineffectual seduction cassettes that lonely music geeks were known to make.
 Recorded in 1955, I believe this lp reissue is from 1968. At 44 years of age, this platter is starting to show a little wear. Never the less it still feels good to wrap around it once in awhile.

This post is somewhat cobbed from my sadly neglected Cole Porter blog.

the genius of Charlie Parker #5
Charlie Parker plays Cole Porter

1. I Get A Kick Out Of You*
2. I Get A Kick Out Of You (alt.)*
3. Just One Of Those Things*
4. My Heart Belongs To Daddy*
5. I've Got You Under My Skin*
6. Love For Sale+
7. Love For Sale (alt.)+
8. I Love Paris+
9. I Love Paris (alt.)+

Charlie Parker - alto
Roy Haynes - drums *
Art Taylor - drums +
Jerome Darr - guitar*
Billy Bauer - guitar +
Kenny Kotick - bass
Walter Bishop, Jr. - piano

MG V-8007

Bud Powell - Radio Broadcasts Summer 1953

Just wanted to get one last one in before the end of the month. I've had this ready to go for awhile. Wasn't really sure how much interest there would be in this. Enjoy...

Here's one I found as I was cleaning out some old cassettes. The sound quality isn't that great, but i suspect it wasn't on the original source as I was using a Nakamichi deck at the time I would have grabbed this. I probably grabbed this from a late night radio show. The fact that the sound is muffled is probably why the cassette languished in a box all these many years. Despite that I found myself enjoying the music once I decided to give it a quick listen before converting or trashing. I'm thinking that may even be Mingus on bass and then, what the hell that has to be Bird on a couple of tracks. So yeah, we're keeping it and even sharing it here.

*While researching before posting I see now that ESP was offering digital dls of this but physical product. What's this world coming to? Also their track listings appear to be different than what I have on tape. I'll try to do my best to reconcile the two, as I sometimes have problems recognizing even the most common songs, or rather recognizing the titles of such. They also supplied all the info as I had nothing but a cassette in a plastic case.

Bud Powell 

1953 Summer Broadcasts

1. I've Got You Under My Skin

2. Autumn In New York

3. I Want To Be Happy

4. Moose The Mooche

5. Cheryl

6. Budo

7. My Heart Stood Still

8. Dance Of The Infidels

9. Dance Of The Infidels

Bud Powell - piano

Charles Mingus - bass

Art Taylor - drums

add Bird (as) and Candido (cgs) to tracks 3 & 4

recorded at Birdland
1-5 - 5/30/53
6-8 - 6/20/53
9 - 7/11/53

here

Jam Session - ARS recording

From the Jazz Division of the American Recording Society. This one is billed as "Jam Session" - and How The Blues Began. A heady title to be sure. While there were many fine dates later released as "blowing sessions" nothing ever beat the JATP blowing sessions. They set the standard for many recordings to come.
I did some (very little) research and it appears these tracks were not included with the "official" release of these sessions. I would assume time constraints were a major factor.

As much as I tend to dismiss Oscar Peterson as a utilitarian pianist, he gets a pass here. He deserves more credit than I usually give him.

Somehow ARS had the vision to release these tracks so that we can now enjoy them. I decided to tack on an extra track from another similar recording just because it makes me happy.

From what I can tell, this is how it all goes down....

Jam Session

1. Jam Blues No.1
2. Funky Blues No. 2
3. Funky Blues No.2 (cont.)
4. Mail Order Blues

in order of appearance -
1 - Ensemble, Flip Phillips (ts), Benny Carter (as), Oscar Peterson (p), Charlie Parker (as), Barney Kessell (g), Johnny Hodges (as), Charlie Shavers (tpt). J.C. Heard - drums, Ray Brown - bass.
recorded Hollywood 6/52 culled from Norman Granz Jam Session #1

2/3 - Roy Eldridge (tpt), Flip Phillips (ts), Bill Harris (tb), Herb Ellis (g), Dizzy Gillespie (tpt), Oscar Peterson (p), Buddy DeFranco (cl), Roy (again - over chorus). Louis Bellson - drums, Ray Brown - bass
recorded 10/30/54, NYC, culled from Norman Granz Jam Session #9

and the bonus track...
4. Flip Phillips, Illinois Jacquet, Lester Young (ts); Roy Eldrige, Dizzy Gillespie (tpt); Buddy Rich (d); Ray Brown (b); Oscar Peterson (p); Herb Ellis (g)
recorded 10/2/55 Chicago Opera House

ARS G-404/416

Charlie Parker - Bird Of Paradise

No images for this were found online and the mindless zombies at Kinko's refused to scan it for me citing copyright concerns. Yeah, I'm sure there are no previous violations involved. Anyway, we have the next best technological invention - the cellphone photo.

The record itself contains no performance info whatsoever, other than the subtitle "Broadcasts of rare and Vitriolic Quality".

I grew up on Dylan and Kinks bootlegs. It never occurred to me what a labor of love some of them must have been. It took far more to get this stuff out there back then than it does now in this digital age.

Oh yeah.. the music itself... Well, Bird does not disappoint, but he rarely does. Highlights include this version of Star Eyes, and Cheryl, which I am not familiar with otherwise. Easy to Love is recorded with live with strings.

Hopefully some Bird aficionado can come along and tell us where these songs originated.

Charlie Parker
The Effervescent Indomitable Bird of Paradise

1. Cool Blues
2. Bernie's Tune
3. Don't Blame Me
4. Wahoo
5. Ornithology
6. Embraceable You
7. Star Eyes
8. Ornithology
9. Dynamo A
10. Embraceable You
11. Your Father's Moustache
12. Moose The Mooche
13. Cheryl
14. Easy To Love

This lp was "styled for Custer billings Jr. Fargo ND. I hope he enjoyed it.

Elysium 8008

Charlie Parker - The Happy Bird

I recently found myself on the wrong side of a discussion about Blue Note records. Everyone on the message board had been fawning over records that I had been listening to for years. Or rather, not been listening to for years because I felt over familiar with them.

Did this make them bad records? Of course not. But it also led me to thinking "Why don't I ever listen to those bebop records that turned me on so long ago?" I mean those records turned me on my ear at one time. I couldn't get enough of the slurred notes, that blistering pace, all the while sounding perfectly natural to me. Not a hint of anything "outside" no matter how wild they may have been in their time.

I have spent the last couple of weeks revisiting some of those records. I'm thinking I may like to share a few with you all.

And why not start with the master himself? A posthumous release on the label named after the man himself. I love the fact that this recording is less than perfect. I can only imagine what a live Parker performance must have been.

While those live performances have been documented extensively, unless you are a completest, there are plenty that slip by. Here's one I really like.

Charlie Parker
The Happy Bird

1. Happy Bird Blues
2. Scrapple From The Apple
3. I Remember April
4. I May Be Wrong

There are no liner credits on my lp, but I am sure someone will be along shortly to fill us in. And I mean that in the nicest way.


PLP-404

* a bit of research tells me this MAY have been recorded 4/12/51.

Bebop

Ok - a generic enough title - but not mine. Sill an opportunity for a generic post. No images found for this record. Another New World compilation and I think we all know where this one is headed. Some nice rare versions of songs on this though... all again in glorious mono.

And here is a link to the liner notes in a pdf file. All 22 pages!!!

www.dramonline.org/content/notes/nwr/80271.pdf




NW 271

1. Congo Blues - Red Norvo and his Selected Sextet
2. You're Not The Kind - Sarah Vaughn w/ Tadd Dameron's Orchestra
3. Shaw Nuff - Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Quintet
4. Parker's Mood - Charlie Parker All-Stars
5. Things To Come - Dizzy Gillespie and his Orchestra
6. Relaxin' At Camarillo - Charlie Parker's New Stars
7. Embracable You - Charlie Parker Quintet
8. Ko-Ko - Charlie Parker's Reboppers
9. Lemon Drop - Woody Herman and his Orchestra
10. Un Poco loco - Bud Powell Trio
11. Jahbero - Tadd Dameron Septet
12. Misterioso - Thelonious Monk Quartet
13. What Is This Thing Called Love - Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet
14. Stop Time - Horace Silver Quintet