Charlie Parker- The Complete Birdland Recordings

[cho]

I just bought this Box Set (Charly - 4 CDs) second hand. Any comments from fellow forum members?

[MartyJazz]

While I have quite a lot of Bird on both LP and CD, I am not aware that his appearances at 'Birdland' alone could amount to 4 CDs worth. Certainly the date(s) he did with Fats Navarro there are very good, but it's my impression that most of the live stuff that's been captured in decent fidelity occurred at the 'Royal Roost' (1948-49), documented on the 4 CD set "The Complete Live Performances on Savoy". Even the latter set is supplemented with material done at Carnegie Hall in '47 and Chicago in '50. It would be interesting to see a playlist of the set you have.

[blake]

I'd also appreciate comments on this box as i've had my eye on a used copy.

Here is a mostly complete discography of Charly box, which is advertised as 61 tracks on 4 discs.

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14 February 1950

Charlie Parker Sextet: Charlie Parker alto sax, Red Rodney trumpet, Jay Jay Johnson trombone except 2, 7, & 9, Al Haig p,. Tommy Potter bass, Roy Haynes drums.

Charlie Parker: Bird at Birdland, Charly CD DIG 16, disc 1, items 2, 7 - 15

1. Hot House (3:34)

2. Out of Nowhere (2:20)

3. Visa into

4. Fifty-Second Street Theme (I) (3:21)

5. Anthropology into

6. Wee (I) (aka Allen's Alley) (4:22)

7. What's New (2:27) (with Country Gardens tag)

8. Little Willie Leaps (3:06)

9. Yesterdays into

10. Fifty-Second Street Theme (II) (2:12)

Voice: "Does the Microphone work?"

11. Fifty-Second Street Theme (III) (1:06)

12. Dizzy Atmosphere (3:44)

13. Wahoo (aka Perdido) (4:16)

14. I Can't Get Started (1:09)

15. Wee (II) (aka Allen's Alley) (3:34)

16. Fifty-Second Street Theme (IV) (1:06)

17. Slow Boat to China (3:33)

18. Night in Tunisia (2:50) into

19. Fifty-Second Street Theme (V) (1:34)

Notes: On the Charly release items 10 & 11 are spliced together, time 3:15; item 13 is 4:20; item 14 1:28; item 15 is titled as Allen's Alley 3:39.

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15 or 17 May 1950

Charlie Parker Quintet; Charlie Parker as omit 6, Fats Navarro trumpet, Miles Davis t on item 10 only, Bud Powell piano, Curley Russell bass, Art Blakey drums, Chubby Newsome vocal on 16 only.

Charlie Parker: Bird at Birdland, Charly CD DIG 16 items 1-5, disc 1, items 6 to 17 on disc 2

1. Fifty-Second Street Theme (I) (1:42) (last couple of seconds Bud plays a few chords.)

2. Wahoo (aka Perdido) (6:48) + applause (0:07)

3. ‘Round About Midnight (Incomplete.) (5:18)

applause (0:02)

4. This Time the Dream’s On Me (6:23) + applause (0:05)

applause (0:04)

5. Dizzy Atmosphere (7:08)

6. Night in Tunisia (5:36) + applause (0:02) straight into”

7. Move (6:27) applause (0:02) change in the tone straight into

8. Fifty-Second Street Theme (II) (Incomplete.) (0:29)

9. The Street Beat (9:25)

10. Conception/Deception (10:56)

11. Out of Nowhere (Incomplete.) (6:25)

11. Little Willie Leaps (5:35) into

12. Fifty-Second Street Theme (III) (0:20)

13. Ornithology (7:59) + applause, audience noise (0:11)

14. I’ll Remember April (8:03) + applause (0:04) into

15. Fifty-Second Street Theme (IV) (1:32) + applause (0:01)

16. Embraceable You (6:19)

17. Cool Blues (7:01) applause (0:02) into:

18. Fifty-Second Street Theme (V) (2:09) + applause (0:02)

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24 March 1951

Charlie Parker With Strings: Charlie Parker alto sax, Unknown oboe, Unknown sting section, Walter Bishop piano, Teddy Kotick bass, Roy Haynes drums, Symphony Sid Torin presenter.

WJZ Radio Broadcast

Charlie Parker: Bird at Birdland, Charly CD DIG 16, for 2 - 6, only

1. Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid theme( with voice-over ( into

Announcement by Symphony Sid (

2. Just Friends (4:29)

3. Everything Happens to Me (2:38)

4. East of the Sun (3:21)

5. Laura (2:58)

6. Dancing in the Dark into

7. Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid theme ( voice-over) (4:16)

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31 March 1951

Charlie Parker Quintet: Charlie Parker alto sax, Dizzy Gillespie trumpet, Bud Powell piano, Tommy Potter bass, Roy Haynes drums, Symphony Sid Torin presenter.

WJZ radio Broadcast.

Charlie Parker: Bird at Birdland, Charly CD DIG 16, except for announcement

Announcement by Symphony Sid

1. Blue ‘n’ Boogie (7:19)

Announcement by Symphony Sid

2. Anthropology (5:07)

3. ‘Round About Midnight (3:20)

Announcement by Symphony Sid (CP heard shouting “Tunisia”)

4. Night in Tunisia into

5. Jumpin’ With Symphony Sid (voice-over) (5:20)

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07 April 1951

Charlie Parker With Strings: Charlie Parker alto sax, Unknown oboe, Unknown sting section, Walter Bishop piano, Teddy Kotick bass, Roy Haynes drums, Symphony Sid Torin presenter.

WJZ radio broadcast.

Charlie Parker: Bird at Birdland, Charly CD DIG 16

1. What Is This Thing Called Love? (2:02)

2. Laura (3:31)

3. Repetition (2:43)

Conversation between Bird and Sid (3:04)

4. They Can’t Take That Away From Me (3:07)

5. Easy To Love (2:15)

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Spring 1951.

Charlie Parker Quintet: Charlie Parker alto sax, Dizzy Gillespie trumpet, Billy Taylor piano, Tommy Potter bass, Roy Haynes drums.

VOA radio broadcast

Charlie Parker: Bird at Birdland, Charly CD DIG 16, with announcements?

Announcement by Leonard Feather & CP Voice (

1. How High the Moon/Ornithology (5:22)

2. Hot House (3:40)

3. Embraceable You (3:40)

Announcement by Leonard Feather

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20 September 1952

Charlie Parker Quartet: Charlie Parker alto sax, Duke Jordan piano, Charles Mingus bass, Phil Brown drums.

Radio Broadcast

Charlie Parker: Bird at Birdland, Charly CD DIG 16 Disc 4

Announcement into

1. Ornithology (5:52) into

2. Fifty-Second Street Theme (with announcement) (4:54)

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01 November 1952

Charlie Parker with the Milt Jackson Quartet: Charlie Parker alto sax, Milt Jackson vibraphone, John Lewis piano, Percy Heath drums, Kenny Clarke drums, Bob Garretty m.c.

Radio broadcast

Charlie Parker: Bird at Birdland, Charly CD DIG 16 Disc 4

1. How High the Moon (5:17) + applause (0:06) into

2. Embraceable You (3:07) into

3. Fifty-Second Street Theme (Incomplete.) (0:20)

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16 February 1953

Bandbox, New York City, NY.

Charlie Parker with the Harris - Jackson Herd: Charlie Parker alto sax, Charlie Mariano alto sax, Harry Johnson tenor sax, Bill Harris trb, Chubby Jackson bass, Sonny Truitt piano, Morey Feld drums, announcement by Leonard Feather during tune

Radio Broadcast

Charlie Parker: Bird at Birdland, Charly CD DIG 16 Disc 4

1. Your Father’s Mustache (5:10)

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09 May 1953

Charlie Parker Quartet: Charlie Parker alto sax, John Lewis piano, Curley Russell bass, Kenny Clark drums.

Radio broadcast

Charlie Parker: Bird at Birdland, Charly CD DIG 16 Disc 4

Announcement, Bob Garrity asks Bird about his plastic alto, into

1. Cool Blues (4:28)

Announcement, Garrity introduces Band into

2. Star Eyes, (5:19)

3. Moose the Mooche into

4. Lullaby of Birdland (6:00)

5. Broadway into

6. Lullaby of Birdland (3:34)

Notes: The Charly CD DIG 16 Disc 4, all items are noted as being shorter, the announcement into item 2 is edited out, there is no reference to item 4 on the disc listing, nor is there reference to Lullaby of Birdland, as following, on Broadway.

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May 23, 1953

Dizzy Gillespie All Stars: Charlie Parker alto sax, Dizzy Gillespie vocal on 1, trumpet, & Miles Davis trumpet, Sahib, Shihab baritone sax, Wade Legge piano, Louis Hackney bass, Al Jones drums, Joe Carroll vocal on 2.

Broadcast

Charlie Parker: Bird at Birdland, Charly CD DIG 16 Disc 4, although 1, is (6.32) and 2, is (2.51).

1. The Bluest Blues (6:28)

2. On the Sunny Side of the Street (2:49)

[Brad]

See here for a discussion that may help.

[jazzbo]

I have an Ember four cd set of Bird at Birdland, that has since been divided into two volumes of two cds each. Details:

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?...yle=music&Bab=E

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?...yle=music&Bab=E

Sound is quite good as far as the sources go. . . for instance this version of the date with Fats has even more material, and sounds better than on the Cool and Blue/Fresh Sounds issue.

[MartyJazz]

I have an Ember four cd set of Bird at Birdland, that has since been divided into two volumes of two cds each. Details:

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?...yle=music&Bab=E

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?...yle=music&Bab=E

Sound is quite good as far as the sources go. . . for instance this version of the date with Fats has even more material, and sounds better than on the Cool and Blue/Fresh Sounds issue.

Great news and what's interesting is that despite my post doubting the existence of 4 CDs worth of Bird at 'Birdland", I have at least 80% of this stuff on bootleg LPs, tapes, etc., so I guess I was wrong. What's a little disconcerting however is that the links you provide to CD Universe indicate that both volumes have been backordered since what would have been Bird's 84th birthday, i.e., August 29, 2004.

[jazzbo]

Yes, I've not seen these around for sale for a while. . . I think that there is distributor problems because I haven't seen any Ember cds around for a while. I think the Charly set mentioned above is the same material, maybe even the same remastering? It may have taken the place of the Ember?

Worth pursuing!

[Brad]

I looked for the Embers in a few places but couldn't locate it. Amazon seems to have a few of the Charleys at various prices. You may also want to track ebay. That set shows up there from time to time.

[medjuck]

I have a 4 cd Ember release that's in one of those book-like box sets. It's put together by Robert Bregman I think. (It's at home and I'm not.) There's still some more music from Birdland that is combined with some from Cafe Society on yet another Embers cd. I've meant to buy it but haven't seen it recently. BTW There's some great music on the Birdland sets.

[Mark J]

I've had the Embers box for about 5 years - excellent material. Arguably the best live Bird available, although the Roost material is also excellent as well as some of the many single CDs of live material from various sources and times. Mostly complete songs in good sound on Embers (at least as good as these radio airshots can be). Good variety of settings and sidemen, even some of the 'with strings' songs. Bird even does a little talking. Well worth seeking out, whether on Embers or Charley (if indeed Charley has the same mastering). If you like Bird this is a no-brainer.

[JSngry]

A good friend has the Ember box. The packaging was very nice, I thought. Even though I already havve most of the material, if one of those boxes every makes its way into my sights at a reasonable price, I'm grabbing it.

[MartyJazz]

Well, e-Bay does have the Charly box listed at a "buy it now" price of $22.95 (starting bid $18.95). Here.

Looking at the track listings for this box and comparing it to those listings at the CD Universe sites that Jazzbo posted show them to be distinctly different box sets IMO.

[Spontooneous]

The Texans in our midst might want to know this:

I found both Embers volumes as cutouts at Hastings stores. $5.99 a pop.

[Brad]

Can you get them for me? If so, please pm me.

[JSngry]

I've been on a Hastings S&D binge lately , and haven't seen those. But you never know with Hastings. Sometimes the most unlikely stuff will pop up in the most unlikely towns. Found a Dizzy Masters Of Jazz thing in Mount Pleasant last fall. Who'da thunk it? So thanks for the heads-up!

I REALLY dug the packaging of that Ember box. That's what I'm looking for myself. But if I find the individual sets, I'll make a note to pick them up and offer them here to any interested parties at cost + postage.

[cho]

Thanks, Blake, you got the right box. I have listened to Disc 1 and Disc 4. The sound is varied but OK. Charlie played brilliantly as usual. Got it in Hong Kong for US$23.00. Who own the rights to to these booardcast anyway?

[Tom in RI]

These Ember issues have been turning up at a local chain here (in RI) for 8-10 dollars per two cd set. I have a duplicate of vol 2 which I would offer for $8 plus shipping if anyone is interested.