Al Killian- always squealing?

[take5]

I picked up the Charle Parker Complete Verve box set and am listening to the Jazz at the Philharmonic session at the beginning. One of the trumpet players is Al Killian, someone I'm not familiar with, and for some reason he takes the last solo on every tune. And he squeals and blasts it real high constantly, like as if he were Arturo Sandoval or Maynard Ferguson or something. And oh boy does it hurt my ears.

Does this guy always play like this?

[Spontooneous]

From what I've heard, yep.

Tolerable in small doses. Catch him bursting through the Don Redman arrangement on Basie's "Five O'Clock Whistle," on Columbia, '41 or thereabouts.

[MartyJazz]

To my ears he always did which is one reason why I seldom listen to JATP jams. Much too much showboating by Killian and often by Roy and Jacquet as well.

[take5]

Well the good thing about this session is that Killian takes the last solo on each track, so as soon as the squealing begins I skip to the next track. Did that on my second listen and it was very enjoyable.

[Larry Kart]

In a section (check out "Liberian Suite" for example, and his work with Charlie Barnet), Killian was among the most striking high-note specialists there ever was -- no blare, no wobble, no sense of shrieking; instead something akin to a needle-sharp laser beam that could cut through steel, concrete, Kryptonite, you name it. He was special. As Andre Hodier once wrote, I believe, Killian's high-note work conveyed "an exacerbation of the senses."

[AllenLowe]

yes, Larry, thanks for saying that - Killian was a great trumpeter, nothing like Sandoval - a real player, musical and fascinating to listen to - there are also some good citations and analyses of his work in Schuller's Swing Era, as I recall -

[BERIGAN]

I'd have to double check to see if I have anything with him on cd(Kinda doubt it from the descriptions) but do y'all think that the live recordings might have more to do with the ear hurting quality?

[take5]

I'd have to double check to see if I have anything with him on cd(Kinda doubt it from the descriptions) but do y'all think that the live recordings might have more to do with the ear hurting quality?

←

Well they're certainly not audiophile hi-fi, to say the least, but the dude is still just playing up high... all the time.

[BERIGAN]

I'd have to double check to see if I have anything with him on cd(Kinda doubt it from the descriptions) but do y'all think that the live recordings might have more to do with the ear hurting quality?

←

Well they're certainly not audiophile hi-fi, to say the least, but the dude is still just playing up high... all the time.

←

I didn't explain myself very well(Something new and different )

I was thinking the higher frequences would distort and that perhaps that was why your ears where bleeding. Then again, Cat Anderson makes my ears bleed at times, so perhaps Al Killian just was playing too high!

[AllenLowe]

"so perhaps Al Killian just was playing too high!"

well, this applies to 90 percent of the beboppers as well -

Edited November 5, 2005 by AllenLowe

[MartyJazz]

True enough. But that's where taste and imagination come in. I could listen to Diz's high note trumpet break on the version of "A Night in Tunisia" from the ...ELECTRIFYING EVENING WITH... album any time of the day and always enjoy it as if hearing it for the very first time. Killian however.....

[AllenLowe]

actually I was making a bad joke abut drug use - sorry -