Listen to jazz of the 20s and 30s for a while, then check out this 1948 bebop disc by Charlie Parker. The non-stop deluge of angular notes that spill from Parker’s alto sax at escape velocity starting at 0:07 is revolutionary. For the next 50 seconds, it is relentless. Then the young twenty-two year-old Davis steps up and starts in with his own blistering contribution. While Davis was still racing to keep up with Parker’s galloping tempo, by the point he was matching his energy. When John Lewis finally gets his piano solo, it seems a moment of quiet repose and reflection, broken by the call-to-arms of Max Roach on drums.
While some early jazz fans dislike bebop, I can’t help but see it as a burst of fresh creative energy that gave jazz a new urgency and created momentum for a new generation of artists. I love it!
Miles Davis, in his autobiography, wrote of Charlie Parker: “Bird was such a great and inventive improviser that he would turn songs inside out. If you didn’t know music, you didn’t know where the f**k Bird was at when he was improvising… When Bird played, it was totally another ball game, totally something else, something different every time. Among the masters he was the master.”
0:00 Intro
0:07 alto sax solo (Parker)
0:58 trumpet solo (Davis)
1:23 piano solo (Lewis)
1:47 drum solo (Roach)
2:00 alto sax solo (Parker)
Recorded at Harry Smith Studios in New York City on September 24, 1948.
Released as Savoy 937
Credits:
Charlie Parker – alto sax
Miles Davis – trumpet
John Lewis – piano
Curley Russell – bass
Max Roach – drums
Sources:
Miles: The Autobiography, Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe, Simon & Schuster, 1989, p. 78
The Charlie Parker Discography: https://www.jazzdisco.org/charlie-parker/discography/
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