Charlie Parker on Dial: The Complete Sessions | ||||
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Box set by | ||||
Released | May 26, 1993 | |||
Recorded | Feb 5, 1946 – Dec 17, 1947 | |||
Genre | Jazz, bebop | |||
Label | Spotlite Jazz | |||
Charlie Parker chronology | ||||
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Charlie Parker on Dial: The Complete Sessions is a 1993 four-disc box set collecting jazz saxophonist and composer Charlie Parker's 1940s recordings for Dial Records. The box set, released by the English label Spotlite Records, assembled into a single package the multi-volume compilation albums the label had released by Spotlite on vinyl in the 1970s under the series title Charlie Parker on Dial. The box set has been critically well received. In 1996, a different box set collecting Parker's work with Dial was assembled by Jazz Classics and released as Complete Charlie Parker on Dial .
Recorded during Parker's tenure with Dial Records between March 28, 1946, and December 17, 1947, these 89 songs have been released multiple times. [1]
In addition to British Spotlite's release in Britain and the United States on vinyl, in the mid-1970s, separately, the collection was published by label Jazz Classics in 1996 as Complete Charlie Parker on Dial and by Stash Records in 2004 as Complete Dial Sessions. (The collection was also released as a limited edition LP box set on Warner Brother Records in 1977, and as a general release two-disc set in 1977.)
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [2] |
The producers have, according to jazz historian Scott Yanow, collected "every locatable alternate take and rejected excerpt, as well as eight sides privately recorded at a house party" and compiled them with more readily available material. [3] The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Jazz describes the Spotlite box set as "an essential aid in appreciating the scope of Parker's invention from take to take", concluding that "[t]his brilliant body of work is indispensable." [4] The Guardian also describes the recordings as "essential". [5] The UK publication selected the Spotlite box set to represent Parker in its 2007 series on "1000 albums to hear before you die", noting that "timeless themes..., inspired improvising and radical vision make these epochal episodes in modern music". [5] [6] In his review, Yanow notes several problems with the collection, including a "glaring" inaccuracy regarding Parker's medical history in the liner notes and "scratchy surface noise" on some of the tracks, but praises the collection for its informativeness and comprehensiveness, indicating that "those who truly love Charlie Parker will cherish these artifacts, warts and all." [3]
Except where otherwise noted, all songs composed by Charlie Parker.
Initially, Spotlite Records released the Dial recordings in a six-volume vinyl lp set in 1970. The subsequent release of two additional albums incorporated material from 1948, including a session with Tadd Dameron's Orchestra, featuring performances by tenor saxophonists Allen Eager and Wardell Gray. [7]
Charlie Parker on Dial, Vols. 1 – 8 | |
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Compilation album by Charlie Parker | |
Recorded | June 6, 1945 – September, 1948 |
Genre | Jazz, bebop |
Label | Spotlite Records |
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Volume 1: Allmusic | link |
Volume 2: Allmusic | link |
Volume 3: Allmusic | link |
Volume 4: Allmusic | link |
Volume 5: Allmusic | link |
Volume 6: Allmusic | link |
Volume 7: Allmusic | link |
Volume 8: Allmusic | link |
The first volume features several sessions. In one, Parker and Dizzy Gillespie perform "Diggin' Diz". [8] In another, described by Yanow as "superior", Parker and Miles Davis on trumpet lead a West Coast septet through several Parker standards, with variant takes. The final session on the album features Parker in performance with a Howard McGhee-led quintet where, according to Yanow, Parker's performance is seriously hampered by his poor physical condition.
This volume features the first session, including alternate takes, that Parker recorded following his hospitalization at Camarillo State Hospital in 1947. [9] He is accompanied by the Erroll Garner trio, with vocalist Earl Coleman.
The majority of the third volume features Parker in session with Red Callender on double bass, Gray on tenor saxophone, Barney Kessel on guitar, Don Lamond on drum, McGhee on trumpet, and Dodo Marmarosa on piano. [10] Although the rest of the album has more historical significance than sound quality, Yanow describes the volume as "excellent" and recommends it. [10]
The fourth volume presents Parker in performance with his 1947 quintet, featuring musicians Davis on trumpet, Duke Jordan on piano and Max Roach on drums. [11] The album features six classics and 10 alternative takes. In his review, Yanow indicates that "this influential bop music...is full of brilliant moments". [11]
Primarily from a session on November 4, 1947, the 5th volume again features Parker with his 1947 quintet. [12] Additionally, it includes tracks featuring vocals by Earl Coleman and a 1945 performance of "Hallelujah" with Parker and Gillespie in support of vibraphonist Red Norvo.
Concluding the original six-volume run, Parker's quintet became a sextet with the addition of J.J. Johnson on trombone. [13]
Spotlite LP107, [14] officially titled Lullaby in Rhythm Featuring Charlie Parker, [15] presents several Parker solos along with two radio sessions featuring Parker with Gillespie, Billy Bauer on guitar, Ray Brown on double bass, John LaPorta on clarinet, Roach on drums and Lennie Tristano on piano. [16]
The final volume of the series featured tracks taken primarily from a radio broadcast on November 8, 1947, where Parker played with Barry Ulanov and His All-Star Metronome Jazzmen. The group featured Bauer on guitar, Allen Eager on tenor saxophone, LaPorta on clarinet, Fats Navarro on trumpet, Tommy Potter on double bass, Buddy Rich on drums, Tristano on piano, and, singing on "Everything I Have Is Yours", Sarah Vaughan. [7] Additional material was taken from a set with Tadd Dameron's Orchestra, featuring performances by Eager and Gray.
Charles Parker Jr., nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuosic technique, and advanced harmonies. He was a virtuoso and introduced revolutionary rhythmic and harmonic ideas into jazz, including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords, and chord substitutions. Primarily a player of the alto saxophone, Parker's tone ranged from clean and penetrating to sweet and somber.
Theodore "Fats" Navarro was an American jazz trumpet player and a pioneer of the bebop style of jazz improvisation in the 1940s. A native of Key West, Florida, he toured with big bands before achieving fame as a bebop trumpeter in New York. Following a series of studio sessions with leading bebop figures including Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell, and Kenny Clarke, he became ill with tuberculosis and died at the age of 26. Despite the short duration of his career, he had a strong stylistic influence on trumpet players who rose to fame in later decades, including Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan.
Howard McGhee was one of the first American bebop jazz trumpeters, with Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and Idrees Sulieman. He was known for his fast fingering and high notes. He had an influence on younger bebop trumpeters such as Fats Navarro.
Irving Sidney "Duke" Jordan was an American jazz pianist.
Bird and Diz is a studio album by jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. It was recorded primarily on June 6, 1950, in New York City. Two tracks featured on the original pressing, "Passport" and "Visa", were recorded by Parker, without Gillespie and with different personnel than the other tracks, in March and May 1949. The album was originally issued in 1952 in 10" format as a collection of 78 rpm singles on the Verve subsidiary label Clef Records.
This is a list of recordings by American jazz alto saxophonist Charlie Parker ("Bird"). Parker primarily recorded for three labels: Savoy, Dial, and Verve. His work with these labels has been chronicled in box sets. Charlie Parker's Savoy and Dial Sessions have been issued on The Complete Savoy Sessions, Charlie Parker on Dial and Complete Charlie Parker on Dial and The Complete Savoy & Dial Master Takes. His Verve recordings are available on Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve and The Complete Verve Master Takes.
Cool Bird is a compilation album released by Magnum Collectors of recording sessions undertaken during October–December 1947 by Charlie Parker's 'classic quintet' for the Dial label featuring Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Jordan, Tommy Potter and Max Roach. They are joined by J. J. Johnson on six of the 22 tracks.
Donald Douglas Lamond Jr. was an American jazz drummer.
Complete Charlie Parker on Dial is a 1996 box set release of jazz saxophonist and composer Charlie Parker's 1946–47 recordings for Dial Records. The box set, released by Jazz Classics, features 89 songs, including alternate takes and notes composed by jazz historian and Parker biographer Ira Gitler. John Genarri, author of the book Blowin' Hot and Cool: Jazz and Its Critics singles out the recording of "Lover Man" on this album, noting that "[t]his wrenching, anguished version...has been called Parker's most poetic statement on record" though, says Gennari, Parker himself viewed it as substandard and threatened physical violence against Ross Russell, a Dial records producer, for including it. Gennari also indicates that other tracks included on this CD—"Relaxin' at Camarillo", "Cheers", "Stupendous" and "Carvin' the Bird"—"have struck many listeners as his most joyous and optimistic."
Jazz at the Philharmonic – Yoyogi National Stadium, Tokyo 1983: Return to Happiness is a live album that was released in 1983. The album includes Louie Bellson, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Ella Fitzgerald, Al Grey, J. J. Johnson, Joe Pass, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Oscar Peterson, Zoot Sims, and Clark Terry.
Appassionato is an album by American jazz guitarist Joe Pass that was released in 1991.
Bud Plays Bird is a studio album by the jazz pianist Bud Powell, recorded late 1957/early 1958 for Roulette, but unreleased until 1997, when it was rediscovered by Michael Cuscuna and released by Blue Note as part of The Blue Note Collection.
This article lists Charlie Parker's Savoy and Dial sessions as leader, which were recorded between 1945 and 1948.
The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz is a six-LP box set released in 1973 by the Smithsonian Institution. Compiled by jazz critic, scholar, and historian Martin Williams, the album included tracks from over a dozen record labels spanning several decades and genres of American jazz, from ragtime and big band to post-bop and free jazz.
"Relaxin' at Camarillo" is a composition by jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker. It is inspired by his six-month stay in Camarillo State Hospital in Ventura County, California, after serving a prison term for arson and resisting arrest. The tune is a blues in C major and has become a jazz standard.
Disorder at the Border is a live album by saxophonist Coleman Hawkins compiling tracks which were originally broadcast in 1952 and first released on LP in 1973 on the UK Spotlite label.
Bird Lives! is a live album by multi-instrumentalist Ira Sullivan which was recorded in Chicago in 1962 and released on the Vee-Jay label on LP before being reissued as a double CD with additional material in 1993.
Young at Heart is an album by trumpeter Howard McGhee and saxophonist Teddy Edwards recorded in 1979 and released on the Storyville label.
Rainbow Mist is an album by the American jazz saxophonist Coleman Hawkins compiling recordings from 1944 originally released by Apollo Records that was released by the Delmark label in 1992.
Relaxin' at Home is an album by jazz pianist Bud Powell, released in 1989 from material recorded by Powell, bassist Michel Gaudry, and Francis Paudras at Paudras' home in Paris between 1961 and 1964.