Search - Charlie Parker :: On Dial Complete Box (24bt)

THIS is your Jazz education ! ! !

Eddie Landsberg | Tokyo, Japan | 11/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Considering how cheap the digital version of this package is, there is only one thing I can say:

You have no choice - - get it.

This is Jazz...

Classical music had its Beethoven and Mozart...

The Jews Moses, the Christians Peter and Paul, the Buddhists... the Buddha guy...

We had CHARLIE PARKER...

what sets us apart from all others is that fact, that recording technology existed at the time our Saint walked the world...

and the miracles and substance of his legend were documented... HERE.... this is it:

This is history in the making.

Few people other than Ross Russell gave a good cahoot about the Bird... but Ross got some recording equipment together... did a surprisingly great job capturing Parker's sound (especially considering that this was before high fidelity and multi tracking) and documented the evolution of the music in its pivotal years.

It wouldn't be until 10 years later -- 1956, that a larger label would get around to recording Parker, and by then the bebop era was pretty much over...

but if you listen here, not only do you have access to the same SOURCE MATERIAL that the geniuses of Jazz who would follow would study, breakdown and learn note for note, but you have the ALT takes too... and trust me, nothing is better for getting into the mind of an improvisor than comparing three different takes of the same tune (suggested reading: Paul Berliner's THINKING IN JAZZ!)



Oh, and there's something even more amazing: We're going back well over 50 years ago... the engineering is interesting: Though some of the tracks sound scratchy, the sound is full and enjoyable, yet not digitally butchered and the music actually retains the fresh and cutting edge feel that it had even the first time I listened to it... I'm really serious... Its one thing to be edgy in your own time... but to still retain that feeling a half a century later really says something...

Furthermore though almost 90 tracks were collected for the production (including excerpts of a recording made at a private house party) all the recordings were made in the span of only a year and a half... Mar 28, 1946 and Dec 17, 1947 - - talk about being creatively vibrant and revolutionary...



Without going any further, let me just list some of the personnel and then make a final statement...



Melvin Broiles--Trumpet

Jimmy Bunn--Piano

Red Callender--Sax (Baritone)

Earl Coleman --Vocals

Miles Davis--Trumpet

Arnold Fishkind--Sax (Baritone)

Russ Freeman--Piano

Erroll Garner--Piano

Arv Garrison--Guitar (Electric)

Dizzy Gillespie--Trumpet

Wardell Gray Sax (Tenor)

George Hand--Piano

J.J. Johnson--Trombone

Duke Jordan--Piano

Barney Kessel--Guitar (Electric)

Bob "Dingbod" Kesterson--Sax (Baritone)

Don Lamond--Drums

Stan Levey--Drums

Dodo Marmarosa--Piano

Howard McGhee--Trumpet

Vic McMillan--Sax (Baritone)

Roy Porter--Drums

Tommy Potter--Sax (Baritone)

Jimmy Pratt--Piano

Max Roach--Drums

Shorty Rogers--Trumpet

Lucky Thompson--Sax (Tenor)



final statement: If you don't own this collection (or one similar to it... it has been in and out-of-print even on LP for years) and you don't find yourself HUNGRY to get it consider yourself LIGHT... This is the real deal - - get it ! ! !

And if you're some Berklee U. alto hot head of the moment wanna be, get out the pencil and manuscript paper and start scribbling away, this is the REAL source !"