Search - Roy Haynes :: Birds of a Feather: A Tribute to Charlie Parker

Terrific CD!

Gary Mayne | Colorado Springs, Colorado USA | 11/16/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After enjoying last year's "The Roy Haynes Trio" I was anxious to hear Roy's new work and it doesn't disappoint. Roy's drum playing is revelation throughout this session. Now in his mid-seventies, he seems to just keep getting better. The group- Kenny Garrett-sax, Roy Hargrove-trumpet, Dave Kikoski-piano and Dave Holland-bass, mesh beautifully together and successfully replicate the tight sound of Parker era bebop quintets. At times they sound like the classic Roach/Brown Quintet and seconds later segue into improv that sounds as modern as any group playing today. A fine outing and highly recommended to fans of bop and post bop."

Not just another tired Tribute album

Mark Diamond | Sydney, NSW Australia | 03/10/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Oh no, not another bloody tribute album. Don't American jazz musicians have anything original to say? Well actually they do and this CD is spectacularly original as well as being good to listen to. The arrangements are terrific, the musicians are inspired and there have been few better jazz CD's released in the last two years. Kenny Garrett's solo on the first track lifts you out of your seat and things never slacken thereafter. Don't be shy, just buy it!"

If You Thought Charlie Parker was Hot Back Then . . .

John Russon | Toronto, ON Canada | 03/15/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Roy Haynes assembled a quintet of the hottest contemporary jazz players to reinterpret classic bebop tunes recorded by Charlie Parker (and a couple of other standards that Parker and Dizzy Gillespie used to play). This is a hot album that is not simply a pointless attempt to do again what has already been done, but is rather the use of those old tunes to show off modern jazz sensibilities. "Ah-Leu-Cha" is incredible in its interweaving of horn voices in the opening head--hearing this you think, "ah yes, THAT's what Parker was after"--and "Yardbird Suite" has a driving force that it always deserved. In some ways, this album reminds me of the music in the film "Backbeat," in which top modern pop musicians reinterpreted early Beatles music in a way that reflected modern tastes but in so doing gave the modern listener a sense of what must have been the revolutionary force heard in the originals by the audiences who first heard it. This album is easy to listen to over and over again, and it also should provide modern musicians some guidance in thinking about how to reinterpret old tunes. It will never replace Bird's own recordings, but it's a valuable companion to them. It's a great album."