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Yardbird - The Savoy and Dial Recordings of Charlie Parker (1945 - 1948)
by Russell Perry
Emerging from the Jay McShann Orchestra in Kansas City and relentlessly curious about how to play the new music he heard in his head, Charlie Parker found sympathetic players in New York, especially Dizzy Gillespie. In November of 1945, Bird, as he was universally known, began to record with his own quintets and sextets in a legendary series of recordings for Dial in Hollywood and Savoy in Newark. By the end of 1948, when he began to record for Norman ...
Continue ReadingLast Song for Valentine, Part 1-4: Dancing in the Dark
by Jakob Baekgaard
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 It was at the end of the second set when Cory realized that he couldn't play. Nothing had really changed. He looked across the room in Jan's Supper Club and saw the same familiar faces and some new ones too. Valentine wasn't there. She would never be. He had tried to persuade her many times. “Look," he had said, “it's free. I'll write you on the guest ...
Continue ReadingCharlie Parker: Now's The Time
by Karl Ackermann
In the pantheon of jazz saxophonists, Charlie Parker has been among the most transformational of artists, despite not living nearly long enough to fulfill his potential. Parker's lifetime, as a principal architect of bebop, and a self-destructive force, has been documented ad nauseam but his music continues to significantly influence new generations. Since Parker's death in 1955, an unprecedented two-hundred albums of his music have been released, very few containing newly discovered material; it's a testament to his enduring legacy. ...
Continue ReadingRoland Dahinden: Talking with Charlie - An Imaginary Talk with Charlie Parker
by Glenn Astarita
There have been numerous Charlie Parker tributes over the years, which is to be expected, yet Swiss trombonist, composer Roland Dahinden is no stranger to thinking outside the box via his contemporary classical experience, performing pieces written for him by the likes of Anthony Braxton, John Cage and Daniel Wolf. He's also a jazz improviser and highly regarded 'idea man.' This album signifies the output of his compositions based on imaginary discussions with Parker, interpreted and executed by this multinational ...
Continue ReadingSavoy Records: From Newark To The World
by Jordan Levy
On June 26, 1942, James Petrillo, President of the American Federation of Musicians, the nations union for working musicians did the unthinkable and announced a recording ban on all major labels. The ban was set in place due to perceived uneven compensation for musicians. The AFM ban on recording occurred at a critical time, as it was right in the middle of radio's Golden Age. Independent labels rose to the challenge of accommodating the now-stranded artists and fought ...
Continue ReadingBop Apocalypse: Jazz, Race, the Beats, and Drugs by Martin Torgoff
by S.G Provizer
Bop Apocalypse: Jazz, Race, the Beats, and Drugs Martin Torgoff 448 pages ISBN: 0306824752 Da Capo Press 2017 The vilification and suppression of marijuana and narcotics in the U.S. was fueled in the 20th century by a campaign that whipped up fear of “the other"—Mexicans, Caribbean islanders, South Americans and African-Americans. Bop Apocalypse limns the history of this campaign and uses it to frame the story of how our own American “others"—(black and ...
Continue ReadingGodfather of the Music Business: Morris Levy by Richard Carlin
by C. Michael Bailey
Godfather of the Music Business: Morris Levy Richard Carlin 294 Pages ISBN: # 978-1496805706 University Press of Mississippi 2016 Well, I don't suppose it is an understatement to say that club owner and mid-20th Century music entrepreneur Morris Levi was a Son-of-a-bitch. That has been very well documented before Richard Carlin's in depth and informative biography, Godfather of the Music Business: Morris Levy. What Carlin has done is bring together ...
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