Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Bud Powell: Parisian Thoroughfares

220

Bud Powell: Parisian Thoroughfares

By

View read count
Bud Powell: Parisian Thoroughfares

Parisian Thoroughfares follows The Paris Sessions as the second installment in Pablo’s release of Bud Powell performances from the private archives of the late Francis Paudras, Powell’s French benefactor. As with The Paris Sessions, this set includes live performances from the Club Saint-Germain, the Radio Télévision Française Studios, and the Blue Note Café, all in Paris. These recordings were made between November 1957 and January 1961.



Performances include a pensive trio treatment of "Yesterdays" and a thorazine-stilted "Shaw ‘Nuff" with Kenny Clarke and Pierre Michelot, a loose and swinging "Pie Eye" with Clark Terry and "52nd Street Theme" with Barney Wilen on tenor saxophone. The barnburners of the set are 12-minute "Groovin’ High" and an 11-minute "Bud’s Blues/52nd Street Theme." While not Powell’s best playing, his rapport with fellow expatriate Kenny Clark is evident, and Powell is joined on both by Zoot Sims, whose tenor sound is really quite singular.



These are not great recordings. Powell is marginal at best, displaying brilliance by lightening flash. The sonics, in spite of the considerable remastering efforts of Joe Tarantino, are muddy, but that may very well add to the charm of these recordings. This music might best be considered a period piece of Europe against the backdrop of pre-Civil Rights America, where America’s best musicians sought refuge, not where they were merely accepted, but worshipped.



For more information, please see Fantasy Records .

Track Listing

Yesterdays; Omicon; Anthropology; John

Personnel

Bud Powell

Album information

Title: Parisian Thoroughfares | Year Released: 2003 | Record Label: Fantasy Jazz

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.