Search - Charlie Parker :: Complete Onyx Recordings

Phenomenal alto-sax musicianship, cohesive band, amazing

Pork Chop | Lisbon, Portugal | 01/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First off, I have to say some parts of this reminds me
a lot of the Miles Davis at the Plugged Nickel Box Set,
as there's quite often, a vocalist on 1/3 of the numbers
in fact, throughout the performance accompanying Bird and
Miles. There's some audience presence, and a few odd
cash registers and crowd noise, very low, though.This is a 2 CD release, increased from the original shorter,
vinyl album from decades ago, as the Benedetti recordings
resurfaced in the 1990's, or a few years prior to that.Therefore, the original tapes, the full tapes were recovered
that Benedetti recorded...no need to get the Mosaic box set,
as this 2CD is a critical piece of the Bird musical puzzle.Considering that this is the year 2000 and counting, new
technical, digital technology that is incredibly efficient
and magical in its removal of noise and defects greatly
improved these recordings, coupled with quite likely, manual
editing out of the worst defects, and just a major overhaul
of the listener experience.As a result of that, the sound is quite good in its own
right... the drums are very strong, the bass very strong,
the alto sax as played by Bird increasingly loud and strong
as the music progresses from CD1 to CD2, as well as Miles Davis'
own presence, felt throughout the music, to add that melodic,
heart-felt, soulful presence that balances out the more
dynamic elements of the other 3 band members.In sum, July 7, 10 and 11 of 1948 at the Onyx were performances
that are truely timeless, and are actually every bit as exciting,
enjoyable and incredibly human now, in 2003 (for example)
as they were back then.THis is a great live recording, although I'm sure some audiophiles
would have preferred the band getting recorded with a minidisc
and sterophonic microphones, with multitrack, etc.Sometimes, a better view is to focus on the performances in itself,
as opposed to a technological perspective of sound quality or whatis selling down at the store these days, in terms of recording
devices and paraphernalia.Good work, to those Spanish lads, to release this."

Marginal sound quality

Steve Frazier | Seattle | 10/21/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Doubtless it is a miracle that these recordings even exist, that they survived, and that heaps of re-mastering technology has been lavished on them to make them (barely) listenable. But these really are quite difficult to get through. I would suggest that these are appropriate only for Parker completists or musicians / historians interested in studying every nuance of Parker's playing and comparing various live versions of his recordings. I am a pretty serious jazz fan, with ears hardened by years of listening through surface noise on historic recordings, and I found it difficult to listen to this more than once. I'm glad I have this on the shelf but it's not on my frequently played list."