Album Review: Charlie Parker – The Long Lost Bird Live Afro-Cubop Recordings!

For anyone who appreciates Charlie Parker, most any recordings will be worthwhile. This 2LP set from RockBeat Records is no different. So rather than extol its obvious virtues (i.e. it’s Charlie Parker already!) and/or note standard caveats (i.e. the sound quality varies), instead I’ll endeavor to note the sources of the tracks so that interested parties can sort out if they have these tracks already, or not. Charlie Parker has been comped so extensively that redundancy among releases is all but inevitable. My source for the research below is jazzdisco.org; any errors one might find here are more likely to me mine than theirs, though anything’s possible. — bk

Gillespie’s “Dizzy Atmosphere” was first recorded by Bird in February 1945 as a member of Dizzy’s Sextet; that same year Gillespie’s BeBop Six (again with Parker) recorded the tune. A third Gillespie recording (this time with his Quintet) dates from ‘47. Parker’s earliest recording of the song under his own name is a March 1948 session; they waxed it a second time in July of that year. In February 1950 Parker’s Sextet played it at Birdland, and that was recorded. The final recorded instance of Bird playing “Dizzy Atmosphere” dates form May 1950 at the Renaissance Ballroom; that radio broadcast is documented on this set.

“A Night in Tunisia” figured into many sessions for Gillespie and with Parker’s bands. The earliest dates from July 1945; the version on this collection should be credited to the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet, as they performed it at Carnegie Hall in 1947. Another Gillespie composition, “Groovin’ High” was recorded many times; the recording here is from the same Carnegie Hall performance as “A Night in Tunisia.” “Confirmation” followed at that same set; the tape ran out during the song.

“Lament for the Congo” is among the rarer tracks on this set. It dates from a 1950 session featuring an unidentified Afro-Cuban Band (the personnel is noted on the album sleeve). It’s the only known Bird recording of the song, and has apparently only been released (“unofficially”) once before, on Bird on the Road from a small, ultra-low-budget label called Jazz Showcase. It’s one of very few cuts on the set that actually fit the definition of “Afro-Cubop” recordings. Equally rare, “Mambo Fortunato” is from the same source, where it’s noted simply as “Mambo.”

Dizzy’s “Salt Peanuts” was recorded many times with Parker, and Bird kept the tune in his bag with his own groups. The recording here is chronologically at least the sixth (and next-to-last) recording of it with Parker leading his group.

The entirety of Side Three features a set recorded at Municipal Arena in Kansas City, Missouri on July 22, 1951. The band is in fact Woody Herman and His Orchestra, a sixteen-piece outfit with Parker on alto and Herman on alto, clarinet and of course conducting. The set was released in 1972 as Bird With the Herd on Alamac, a tiny label that exploited copyright loopholes, specializing in airchecks and reissues of radio transcription discs. Other than a 1996 reissue on CD and cassette, it seems to have been unavailable ever since (until now). The Alamac release featured nine tracks; the five here (“two readings of “Leo the Lion,” plus one each of “Cuban Holiday,” “Lemon Drop” and “The Goof and I”) are presented in the same sequence as the original, with songs that were played in between and among the set left off.

The fourth side of this collection presents six tunes from a 1954 date in Portland Oregon, at that city’s Civic Auditorium. The band on this date is Stan Kenton and His Orchestra with Charlie Parker. The listings at jazzdisco.org, suggest that only the first three tunes on the program – “Night and Day,” “My Funny Valentine” and “Cherokee” – have seen release prior to now, on a 1981 Italian release, Kenton and Bird. But the discogs.com listing for that record lists all six of the tunes – albeit in different order – as being included on that record’s second side.

Lending additional weight to this fine (if randomly odds ‘n’ ends) collection are a pair of brief liner notes. One dates from 2015 and is written by noted Bird fan, the late Keith Emerson. The other slightly longer essay comes from Cory Weeds, jazz historian and archivist extraordinaire. The set was released in 2015, but only on CD; for Record Store Day 2023 The Long Lost Bird Live Afro-Cubop Recordings! received its first vinyl release (with different cover art), on 180-gram.