Charlie Parker Records 30CD set

[medjuck]

What was the history of CP Records? I only remember the Bird and Prez Lps when they were new. I'm surprised by the variety of other material. Wasn't the label partially owned by some of the Parker family?

[Big Beat Steve]

According to the commonly known historical accounts, Doris Parker had a hand in running the label.

[JSngry]

Doris Parker & Aubrey Mayhew. The material made a lot of rounds, some of it. Everest & AJ Records (Archives Of Jazz series) was how I came across some of it in the 70s. Very...circuitous routes to release, some of those things appeared to take.

Previous discussion here:

So a-ha, perhaps? If Koch is now the legit owner of the label, boom.

[mjzee]

There was a recent posting on an Art Pepper thread here about how Laurie had a chance to buy the masters for Charlie Parker Records but couldn't afford it then. This leads me to believe that this box was made from the original master tapes. I haven't heard anything that sounds like a needle-drop.

[mjzee]

As for this box...I've got no more interest in paying money for material that needs to be pitch-corrected. Digital tools make it pretty damn easy and cheap to do, so there's really no longer any "legitimate" excuse for it to not get done,

So how would a non-musician know what is the correct pitch? I have the software to do so (Amadeus), but if I were to buy, say, the new Japanese reissue of One Night At Birdland, how would I know where the correct pitch would lie? One could compare a track to its studio counterpart, but they might have played it differently live. It would be great if someone could give specific instructions: "on these tracks, make the pitch correction x.xx slower" or some such. Also, on the pitch-corrected version of the Rockland Palace material, Doug Pomeroy makes a point of saying that there can be speed variations within a track, so the remastered versions need to be corrected throughout each track. Sounds like a lot of work.

[AllenLowe]

you kinda gotta know what the usual key was - or just certain common sense things; if it's in E you know that's wrong, so the right key is probably either Eb of F; depends on the tune (like Star Eyes is Eb); A is a similar problem, could be Bb or Ab; though if you know from other tunes on the same session that it's running fast, then you can transpose accordingly,

Let me add, however, that Amadeus' pitch changing process is not very good; I use it and I like the program, but the pitch thing is almost not useable in my experience.

[king ubu]

Trying to figure out the Pres material ...


Vol. 16

#1-7 "Just You, Just Me":

March 19, 1949 - Lester Young Band - Royal Roost, New York City
Jesse Drakes t; Jerry Elliott tb; Lester Young ts; Junior Mance p; Ted Briscoe b; Roy Haynes d

Bebop Boogie (Young)
These Foolish Things (Morrell-Strachey-Link)
D. B. Blues (Young)
Just You, Just Me (Greer-Klages)

December 4, 1948 - Lester Young Band - Royal Roost, New York City
Jesse Drakes t; Ted Kelly tb; Lester Young ts; Freddie Jefferson p; Ted Briscoe b; Roy Haynes d

[be Bop Boogie (Young) - missing]
[i’m Confessin’ (Neiburg-Daugherty-Reynolds) - missing]
I Cover The Waterfront (Green-Heyman)
How High The Moon (Morgan Lewis)
Sunday (Coots-Grey)

#8 - 12 "Pres Is Blue"

February 22, 1950 - Lester Young Quintet - Savoy Ballroom, New York City
Jesse Drakes t; Lester Young ts; Kenny Drew p; Leroy Jackson or Aaron Bell b; Jo Jones d

Mean To Me (Turk Ahlert)
On The Sunny Side Of The Street (Fields-McHugh)

Pennie from Heaven (Burke-Johnson)

Stardust (H. Carmichael)

Three Little Words (Kalmar-Ruby)

(Note: way too many other tunes recorded at this date/these dates to list them all here)


Vol. 15

(#1-10 are Dial sides by Charlie Parker released as "Many Miles of Davis")

#11-16 - "Pres"
all from the same Savoy Ballroom date(s) - except: not sure about "Blues", the first track. There's no matching entry for a blues (or for "D.B. Blues") in the listings I'm aware of ... the performance is truncated at the beginning ... the tenor solo is great, the audience seems to be cheering the band on (or maybe it's the others on the bandstand?), there's a pretty neat, somewhat boppish trumpet solo following (Drakes, I'd guess), and then as soon as they start riffing (what's the tune anyway, doesn't sound like "D.B. Blues"!) the track starts fading out.

Vol. 30

Charlie Parker - Lester Young "An Historical Meeting at the Summit"

This one has me somewhat puzzled ... line-up matches the date/location provided: Carnegie Hall, NYC, September 18, 1949. This was the date where "The Opener", "Lester Leaps In", "Embraceable You" and "The Closer" were recorded - but the tracks included here are completely different (granted, there's a take of "Lester Leaps In", even two, but hey ...) - as mjzee has suggested this might be some material taken from other CPR albums. Fits with regards to the Pres material for sure (and the mysterious "Blues" is there again as well).

Edited April 6, 2015 by king ubu

[mandrill]

Got it used in like new condition for 30 bucks recently. Strangely enough, no used sets are currently listed on Amazon.

Imho, there is enough good music there to justify the purchase, even if one completely discounts all Parker's albums.

I can only dream that some indie labels of the 70s would be saved from oblivion in the similar manner: like complete India Navigation set, Adelphi or DAAGNIM.