Night in Tunisia

[Free For All]

OK, here's a simple little topic that doesn't require any marital advice from you Internet losers.

I just made up a quick compilation of several versions of Night in Tunisia for a student.

Included were:

Bird & Diz (Massey Hall version)

Lee Morgan/Pepper Adams et al (The Cooker)

Sonny Rollins (Night at the Vanguard version)

Clifford Brown (Beginning and the End version)

Jimmy Smith (Crazy Baby)

OK, so what else should I have included? I'm sure I overlooked some.

[Free For All]

....and if this duplicates an existing thread, I'm as sorry as I could be, Erik!

[Big Al]

No Blakey version??????

My favorite, Blakey or otherwise, is the Blakey version on the RCA album of the same name, with Jackie Mclean setting the world on fire with his alto.

[DukeCity]

Some tenor guys:

Ben Webster- Live at Ronnie Scot's 1964

Dexter Gordon- Our Man in Paris

Don Byas- A Night In Tunisia

Some "Latin" versions:

Mario Bauza- 944 Columbus

Poncho Sanchez- A Night at Kimball's East

Cal Tjader- Latino!

Big Band versions:

Michel Legrand- Legrand Jazz

Guilty Pleasure:

Chaka Khan- What 'Cha Gonna Do For Me

[Free For All]

No Blakey version??????

My favorite, Blakey or otherwise, is the Blakey version on the RCA album of the same name, with Jackie Mclean setting the world on fire with his alto.

Well, what's the favorite Blakey version (besides Al's)? There are several from which to choose.

[Free For All]

Thanks Glenn!

[Soul Stream]

Dexter Gordon....Our Man In Paris w/Bud Powell....love it. Dexter's so killin' it

Bud Powell...from Vol. 1.

Miles Davis....Musings of Miles

[CJ Shearn]

Blakey: the Blue Note version from 1960 is mine. I also enjoy the Basie band version from "Montreux '77" with Waymon Reed smokin it up on trumpet.

[Larry Kart]

Wouldn't the first on of the list have to be the Bird Dial version from 1946, the one that, as Max Harrison put it, "contains a four-bar break that is an astonishing outburst of virtuosity...."?

[Quincy]

How about a vibes approach?

Teddy Charles - New Directions

A few more that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

Kenny Dorham - The Complete 'Round About Midnight At The Cafe Bohemia (trumpet)

Bobby Jaspar - Modern jazz au club St-Germain (tenor sax)

Hampton Hawes - Everybody Like Hampton Hawes (piano)

Like Big Al I love the Blakey RCA with McLean, though the live one from Birdland ain't bad either!

[Indestructible!]

I've been really digging the version on Jimmy Smith's Cool Blues lately... complete with Babs Gonzalez's crazy introduction!

There's also an intensely burning version by Charlie Parker, a live set from December 1945, on one of Philology's Bird's Eyes sets (Vol. 8, I think... but I can't be sure of that). The sound is crap, but Bird is soaring!!!

Cheers,

Shane

[Free For All]

I've been really digging the version on Jimmy Smith's Cool Blues lately... complete with Babs Gonzalez's crazy introduction!

Do you like that version better than the "Crazy Baby" version? Just curious!

[Indestructible!]

I've been really digging the version on Jimmy Smith's Cool Blues lately... complete with Babs Gonzalez's crazy introduction!

Do you like that version better than the "Crazy Baby" version? Just curious!

Woah, I forgot about the Crazy Baby version... that one smokes too! I think I dig the Cool Blues version a little better, though, because everyone gets to stretch out on the tune (I think it clocks in at 17 minutes or so). And man... Tina Brooks!

Cheers,

Shane

[Niko]

two more: a great version is on

elmo hope sounds from riker's island

another one i hear a lot is on tony fruscella / brew moore at the open door

my favorite is the 1946 Bird Dial version

[bichos]

...

There's also an intensely burning version by Charlie Parker, a live set from December 1945, on one of Philology's Bird's Eyes sets (Vol. 8, I think... but I can't be sure of that). The sound is crap, but Bird is soaring!!!

Cheers,

Shane

sorry to say that there is no version from december 1945! Some sources (including the AFRS transcription notes) suggest that "A Night in Tunisia" was also recorded on that date, and Philology Volume 8 (W 80) and Media 7 MJCD 121 include a version of this tune. It's a fake, however, as the notes to MJCD 142 observe: "We now know that it is an incredible five-part montage, taken alternately from 'A Night in Tunisia' by Dizzy, the January 1951 Birdland version with John Coltrane, and another 'A Night in Tunisia' by Parker, the February 26, 1949 Royal Roost version with Kenny Dorham."

i like sarah vaughan´s version (interlude) from 1944 and also boyd raeburn´s versions featuring dizzy gillespie from 1945.

keep boppin´

marcel

[DanG]

Ella Fitzgerald from Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie

[paul secor]

My favorites (at least those that come to mind at the moment) have already been mentioned: Bird on Dial; Blakey Quintet at Birdland; and the Massey Hall version.

I'll just add the version on An Electrifying Evening with the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet (Verve). Electrifying Evening was one of the first jazz records I bought (from a friend who got it in a record club deal and didn't like it), and I still enjoy that version of "Tunisia".

[JSngry]

Guilty Pleasure:

Chaka Khan- What 'Cha Gonna Do For Me

Mine would be the Ursula Dudziak version.from Midnight Rain (Arista, 1977). That's some freaky shit right there.

On the other hand, no guilt at all in recommending Frank Hewitt's version on Not Afraid To Live. Not afraid indeed!

[JSngry]

And oh yeah - the Blakey/1961/Olympia/RTE/etc version is just damn NUTS.

[Clunky]

Diz/Bird Townhall 1945- or Interlude as they seemed to prefer calling it that night

or the multiple alternates of Interlude recorded by Lennie Tristano on Keynote

[Parkertown]

Ella Fitzgerald from Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie

That's my new favorite too, Dan.

[Jim R]

I think my favorite is... ...about 9 of the versions that have been mentioned so far.

[bluesbro]

Wouldn't the first on of the list have to be the Bird Dial version from 1946, the one that, as Max Harrison put it, "contains a four-bar break that is an astonishing outburst of virtuosity...."?

That would be my recommendation too.

[Eric]

Wouldn't the first on of the list have to be the Bird Dial version from 1946, the one that, as Max Harrison put it, "contains a four-bar break that is an astonishing outburst of virtuosity...."?

That would be my recommendation too.

Ditto. That is the track ("Famous Alto Break") I play for folks when I want to convey what Charlie Parker was all about.

The Lee Morgan track gets big points for sheer exuberance

Edited September 12, 2006 by Eric

[ep1str0phy]

Wouldn't the first on of the list have to be the Bird Dial version from 1946, the one that, as Max Harrison put it, "contains a four-bar break that is an astonishing outburst of virtuosity...."?

That would be my recommendation too.

Ditto. That is the track ("Famous Alto Break") I play for folks when I want to convey what Charlie Parker was all about.

The Lee Morgan track gets big points for sheer exuberance

As many versions of the tune as I've heard and love (the Messengers version off the eponymous album, Rahsaan's almost subersive smooth groove treatment, the blistering, harsh Elmo Hope version with Gilmore), I'll never get past that Dial version. That break is miraculous (and I dig the guitar/piano doubling, so...).