Bird & Diz: Live 1945!

 

Town Hall, New York City, June 22, 1945

DIZZY GILLESPIE - CHARLIE PARKER (June 22, 1945)
Dizzy Gillespie (tp); Charlie Parker (as); Don Byas (ts, 1-2); Al Haig (p); Curly Russell (b); Max Roach (d, 1-5); Sid Catlett (d, 6-7)
1. Intro
2. Bebop
3. A Night in Tunisia
4. Groovin’ High
5. Salt Peanuts
6. Hot House
7. 52nd Street Theme

 

Following their second revolutionary recording session together on May 11, bebop prophets Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie stuck close throughout 1945. The duo backed up another session for Sarah Vaughan on May 25, producing three more titles for the singer. At nights, they played at clubs, mostly on 52nd Street, New York’s haven of jazz clubs, mostly under the name of the Dizzy Gillespie quintet. This "quintet" consisted of Diz and Bird (when he would deign to show up), plus whatever members of the May session they could get together. Parker was already becoming undependable due to his heroin addiction and his drinking, and Gillespie - a consummate showbiz professional - would not put up with it for very much longer. Dizzy took to making sure another sax player - usually tenorman Don Byas - would be there just in case Parker didn’t come strolling in before the gig was over.

In early June, the group took a short trip to Philadelphia, where they played along with vibraphonist Red Norvo, an older "swing" musician, and one of the few who "dug" the new music that Gillespie and Parker were playing. On June 6, they were back in New York, where the duo sat in a recording session with Norvo. (The results can be heard on the first eight tracks of a collection entitled The Modern Red Norvo - it’s available on Spotify and well worth listening to.)

On June 22, Dizzy and Bird's bands gave a very special show at a 1500-seat performance space known as "The Town Hall" (or just "The Hall), located in midtown Manhattan. The group was broadcast live over the radio by Symphony Sid, a jazz dee-jay who was into the new music scene. Not unusually, the show was taped - but very unusually, it disappeared for half a century. It was accidently discovered in 2005, and even more miraculously, it was a beautiful recording. It was immediately released on CD on a label named "Uptown," to great historical and critical acclaim.

While Bird and Diz played quite a lot together at clubs throughout the year, relatively few people got to hear them interact onstage, and tales of their performances together were legendary. During the 78-rpm era, recordings were limited to three minutes, so each musician would be limited to playing one solo (or less). In a club, these two twin wizards could simply open up and play!

This extraordinary album has now become an essential document of the first, fresh years of modern jazz, and it is all the more remarkable because of the extraordinary sparks that these two giants of music managed to generate between them. Head to head, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were it. Nobody could touch these two titans, and the extraordinarily powerful performances on this disc give more than a hint of what the real excitement was like, down in the trenches, which were New York’s jazz clubs in the wild year of 1945. 
Making this live session even more extraordinary is one of the first recorded performances by legendary modern jazz drummer Max Roach. Max, along with Kenny Clarke and Art Blakey, had been playing the late-night jam sessions at Minton's and elsewhere, essentially re-inventing the drummer's role for the new music. Instead of just riding the beat, Roach would keep his hands and feet free to support and accentuate the soloists' playing, to maintain an active dialogue with him. Finally, we get to hear what a full bebop band actually sounds like!

"Bebop"

The first number is a typically fast contrafact with a traditional AABA structure. After the introductory theme, Byas play two full choruses, quite well. During Dizzy’s solo, shouts and applause can be heard, as Charlie Parker walks onstage - better late than never. What an entrance! Did he plan this? Probably not - it happened too many times. All we know is that Bird immediately proceeds to blow everybody’s heads off. He strolls onstage late and casually proceeds to deliver five straight choruses of the wildest, most complex and inventive jazz anyone listening will have ever heard in their lives - and at lightning-fast speed, no less. The man is absolutely dazzling. What a public debut! Fifty years later, the pure visceral shock that is felt is still perfectly tangible. It’s as if someone from Mars has just stepped off their space ship for a moment to show the "earthlings" how it’s supposed to be done.


 

 

 

"A Night in Tunisia"

As far as I can tell, Dizzy Gillespie’s most famous composition had yet to be recorded by anyone. He and Parker would lay it down at their next session, Parker’s first as a leader. Here, they unveil the masterpiece in all of its wild, heroic glory - including Parker’s unbelievably fast and complex (and at the time unanticipated) alto break right at the end of the statement of the exotic theme. Amazingly, he doesn’t let up - Bird plays two extraordinary choruses of notes no one has ever heard before. Al Haig enters for his two, and he wisely approaches with a relaxed style that nevertheless displays his enormous skills. And then there’s Diz . . . After a brief four-bar build-up, Gillespie launches into a high-octane opening that leads into his extraordinarily acrobatic solo. These were supermen, folks. (And listen to Max Roach dropping those bombs!) Dizzy’s quietly magnificent cadenza at the end. Talk about dazzling - what was the radio audience thinking at this point?



"Groovin High"

This fabulous Gillespie number which the pair recorded back in February was one of the few releases of the new music that had actually been released, and thus heard by more than just the habitués of the club scene. Symphony Sid even mentions that he plays it "so much" on his show during his introduction - though he might very well have been the only dee-jay in the city to be doing so.

As great as the record is, however, the tune gets much more life here, as the soloists are allowed to relax and stretch out with it, playing to their hearts' content. While the original recording was tightly packed with mini-solos and quickly arranged transition sections, the free and open format here encourages a less reckless, and purely joyful playing. Both Parker and Gillespie seem less concerned with showing off here, and just simply have a blast, floating effortlessly to the long, happy, relaxed strains of the tune. Plus, the great Oscar Pettiford is in on bass instead of the silly Slam Stewart, and Max Roach takes it to town. This is a real bobop band, folks - as real as it gets!

Haig also turns in a marvelous couple of choruses, and Dizzy ends the tune with the same triumphant cadenza that closes the record, ending beautifully on that impossible high, high note. This is indeed some special stuff we're getting to hear, so please feel free to take the opportunity to absorb and enjoy it to the max!

"Salt Peanuts"

Bird and Diz spring their newly recorded (May 11) composition on an unsuspecting public. Predictably, the audience cracks up at Gillespie's "lyrics," but the real insanity come with the solos. Both Parker and Gillespie take unusually long turns, both of them filling the room with fireworks at breakneck speed. This is an absolutely thrilling performance that demonstrates just how unpredictably wild and reckless the new music could be. Max Roach has a short solo toward the end that pumps up the excitement even more. By the time, the theme is reprised, and the tune comes to an abrupt end, you can hear the live crowd simply explode with astonished excitement. Man . . . to have been there!

"Hot House"

The group follows up with Tadd Dameron's composition that they also recorded at the last session. Sid Catlett, the drummer on the record, replaces Roach for this number, which he drives fast, hot and heavy. Bird only takes one chorus, but it's unbelievable. Dizzy follows with fireworks, then Haig. Catlett ends the piece with two full choruses of a drum solo. It's fun, the crowd loves it, but it's decidedly "swing." Catlett is fun, but I wish that Max had remained onstage to blow everyone away. Perhaps he was just a little too far ahead of his time at this point . . .

 

 

"52nd Street Theme"

The show closes with the traditional "52nd Street Theme" that so many New York jazz musicians would use to end their sets over the years to come. Both Bird and Diz manage to get one more miraculous line each, and that's all from Town Hall! Thank God somebody found this tape, and we can all listen to it and marvel at all these extraordinary moments we missed the first time around. Bird lives. And so does Diz.