Charlie Parker - Bird In L.A.

Unreleased and rare recordings from sax great Charlier Parker, in Los Angeles!

Comprehensive 4LP set includes rare live performances from clubs, parties and radio shows spanning seven years of Bird's time in Los Angeles, from 1945-1952!

Featuring performances by Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Ray Brown, Buddy Rich and more!

For the first-time ever, Charlie "Bird" Parker's prolific and historic first three trips to Los Angeles have been collected together as Bird In L.A., a 28-track collection of mostly unreleased and incredibly rare recordings that is being released here on 4LP black vinyl via Verve/UMe.

Throughout his brief but influential life and career, the jazz titan, one of the greatest saxophonists of all time, was one of the architect of modern jazz. Parker grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and spent much of his adult life in New York, but Los Angeles nonetheless looms large in his musical life as he spent more time in L.A. than anywhere outside of K.C. and N.Y..

From 1945-1954, Parker made half a dozen trips west to the City of Angels and recorded many of his greatest musical triumphs there. In December 1945, Parker and Dizzy Gillespie changed music forever by bringing the sound of bebop from the East Coast to the West Coast for a fabled two-month residency at Billy Berg's Supper Club in Hollywood billed as "Bebop Invades the West."

Entranced by the city, Parker would end up staying for an extended amount of time in which he gigged all around town, was recorded at a Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP) concert and made some pivotal recordings for the nascent Dial label before he was committed to Camarillo State Mental Hospital for a six-month stint for his heroin addiction, following a drug-fueled physical and mental collapse at the infamous July 29, 1946 "Lover Man" session. Shortly after being released in January 1947, Bird would stick around a few more months, which included a well-documented two-week engagement at the Hi-De-Ho Club, before heading back to NYC. He would return to L.A. four more times, briefly in November 1948 with JATP, for a three-month stay during the summer of 1952, and for shorter visits in 1953 and 1954.

Recorded between 1945 and 1952, the performances collected on Bird In L.A, and presented chronologically, are highlighted by the only known recordings from Billy Berg's on December 17, 1945, three previously unknown JATP recordings from the Shrine Auditorium on November 22, 1948 and the complete recordings of the legendary July 1952 party at Jirayr Zorthian's bohemian Altadena ranch. The collection includes comprehensive track info detailing recording dates and personnel and is rounded out with illuminating liner notes by the album's producer, John Burton, who provides an in-depth history of Bird's fruitful time in L.A. as well as the significance of these incredible recordings.

The first half of Bird In LA also includes recordings from Parker and Gillespie's performance for the Armed Forces Radio Service "Jubilee" show in December 1945; a compact arrangement of "Salt Peanuts" from NBC's nationally broadcast variety show "Drene Time," sponsored by Proctor and Gamble to promote Drene shampoo; five songs recorded at The Finale Club in Little Tokyo with the Charlie Parker Quintet, featuring Miles Davis and Joe Albany; a blistering version of "Cherokee" recorded for the AFRS "Jubilee" in March or April 1946 with accompaniment of the Nat "King" Cole Trio and Buddy Rich; and concludes with three previously unknown recordings of Bird at The Shrine with Jazz At The Philharmonic. While the performance has been widely panned for being substandard for Parker, it is included here for historical reasons or as Burton explains, "Because they are Bird. Every surviving fragment by this giant should be available for study. Off nights such as the Shrine help us appreciate and understand his greatest achievements all the better."

 

 

LP ONE

Side A

1. Intro Over I Waited For You Into How High The Moon (Incomplete)

2. Intro Dialogue With Gibson Into Handsome Harry The Hipster (Incomplete)

3. Cement Mixer Fragment Into Intro Blues (Fragment)

4. Dizzy Atmosphere (Fragment)

5. Fifty-Second Street Theme Into Closing Announcement

6. Groovin' High Into Announcement

Side B

1. Intro Dialogue With Gillespie Into Shaw Nuff Into Announcement

2. Intro Dialogue With Gillespie Into Dizzy Atmosphere Into Announcement

3. Intro Dialogue Between Valle & Gibson Into Salt Peanuts

LP TWO

Side C

1. Billie's Bounce

2. Ornithology

3. All The Things You Are

4. Blue 'n’ Boogie

Side D

1. Anthropology

2. Cherokee

3. Ornithology

4. Dizzy Atmosphere

5. Out Of Nowhere

LP THREE

Side E

1. Scrapple From the Apple (Incomplete)

2. Dance Of The Infidels

Side F

1. Night In Tunisia

2. Ornithology

3. Embraceable You

LP FOUR

Side G

1. Hot House

2.Cool Blues

Side H

1. March Noodling

2. Scrapple From The Apple

3. Au Privave

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