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Bird Is Free
''Bird Is Free'' is an album by Charlie Parker that documents a concert given at Rockland Palace, New York City, on 26 September 1952. Reception The '' DownBeat'' reviewer, Leonard Feather, identified limitations of the audio quality, and added: "When Parker begins to play, however, you will forget all about distractions. ... There is brilliant, boiling, poetic Bird in a variety of attitudes here." The AllMusic review concluded: "Throughout, Parker plays with inimitable style and good humor and his quartet, featuring the great drummer Max Roach, swings effortlessly". Track listing ;Side 1 # Rocker (Gerry Mulligan) # Sly Mongoose (Jamaican trad.) # Moose the Mooche (Parker) # Star Eyes ( Gene de Paul, Don Raye) ;Side 2 # This Time the Dream's on Me ( Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer) # Cool Blues (Parker) # My Little Suede Shoes (Parker) # Lester Leaps In (Lester Young) # Laura (Raksin, Mercer) Personnel *Charlie Parker – alto sax * Mundell Lowe – guitar *Walter Bishop, Jr. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, virtuosic technique, and advanced harmonies. Parker was an extremely brilliant virtuoso and introduced revolutionary rhythmic and harmonic ideas into jazz, including rapid passing chords, new variants of altered chords, and chord substitutions. Primarily a player of the alto saxophone, Parker's tone ranged from clean and penetrating to sweet and somber. Parker acquired the nickname "Yardbird" early in his career on the road with Jay McShann. This, and the shortened form "Bird", continued to be used for the rest of his life, inspiring the titles of a number of Parker compositions, such as "Yardbird Suite", "Ornithology", "Bird Gets the Worm", and "Bird of Paradise". Parker was an icon for the hipster ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
This Time The Dream's On Me
"This Time the Dream's on Me" is a song composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. It was written for the 1941 film '' Blues in the Night'' when it was sung by Priscilla Lane. 1941 recordings Hit versions in 1941 were by Glenn Miller (vocal by Ray Eberle) (reached No. 11 in the charts) and by Woody Herman (No. 8). Selected notable recordings *Kenny Burrell – '' Introducing Kenny Burrell'' (1956) *June Christy – ''Something Cool'' (1954) *Ella Fitzgerald – ''Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook'' (1961), ''Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook'' (1964) ''Ella Fitzgerald: Best of the Song Books – the Ballads'' (Verve 1994 release) *Harry James – ''Harry James and His New Jazz Band, Vol. 2'' (Mr. Music MMCD 7012, 1956 002 *Steve March-Tormé – ''The Essence of Love'' (2003). *Susannah McCorkle – ''The Songs of Johnny Mercer'' (1981). *Marian McPartland – ''Live at Maybeck Recital Hall Vol.9'' (1997) * Stephanie Nakasian – '' Lulla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz Jazz drumming, drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He worked with many famous jazz musicians, including Clifford Brown, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Abbey Lincoln, Dinah Washington, Charles Mingus, Billy Eckstine, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, and Booker Little. He was inducted into the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in 1980 and the ''Modern Drummer'' Hall of Fame in 1992. In the mid-1950s, Roach co-led a pioneering quintet along with trumpeter Clifford Brown. In 1970, he founded the percussion ensemble M'Boom. He made numerous musical statements relating to the civil rights movement. Biography Early life and career Max Roach was born to Alphonse and Cressie Roach in the Township of Newland, Pasquotank County, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teddy Kotick
Teddy Kotick (born Theodore John Kotick; June 4, 1928 – April 17, 1986) was an American jazz bassist, who appeared as a sideman with many of the leading figures of the 1940s and 1950s, including Charlie Parker, Buddy Rich, Artie Shaw, Horace Silver, Phil Woods and Bill Evans. He was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, United States. Kotick never recorded as a leader. He died of a brain tumor in 1986, aged 57. Discography With Teddy Charles * ''Teddy Charles Featuring Bobby Brookmeyer'' (Prestige, 1954) * ''The Teddy Charles Tentet'' (Atlantic, 1956) * ''Russia Goes Jazz'' (United Artists, 1964) With Bill Evans * ''New Jazz Conceptions'' (Riverside, 1957) * ''The Secret Sessions (Recorded At The Village Vanguard 1966-1975)'' (Milestone, 1996) – gig in 1966 only With Tony Fruscella * ''Debut'' (Spotlite, 1981) * ''Fru'n Brew'' (Spotlite, 1981) * ''The 1954 Unissued Atlantic Session'' (Fresh Sound, 2011) With Charlie Parker * ''Charlie Parker Plays Cole Porter'' (Verve, 1957) * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Bishop, Jr
Walter Bishop Jr. (October 4, 1927 – January 24, 1998) was an American jazz pianist. Early life Bishop was born in New York City on October 4, 1927.Greene, Philip; Kernfeld, Barr"Bishop, Walter Jr." ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'' (2nd edition). Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved February 18, 2016. Subscription required. He had at least two sisters, Marian and Beverly. His father was composer Walter Bishop Sr. In his teens, Bishop Jr.'s friends included future jazz musicians Kenny Drew, Sonny Rollins, and Art Taylor. He was brought up in Harlem. He left high school to play in dance bands in the area. In 1945–47 he was in the Army Air Corps. During his military service in 1947 Bishop was based near St Louis and met touring bebop musicians. Later life and career Later in 1947, he returned to New York. That year (or 1949) he was part of drummer Art Blakey's band for 14 weeks and recorded with them. Bishop developed his bebop playing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mundell Lowe
James Mundell Lowe (April 21, 1922 – December 2, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist who worked often in radio, television, and film, and as a session musician. He produced film and TV scores in the 1970s, such as the ''Billy Jack'' soundtrack and music for '' Starsky and Hutch'', and worked with André Previn's Trio in the 1990s. Career The son of a Baptist minister, Lowe grew up on a farm in Shady Grove, Mississippi, near Laurel. He started playing guitar when he was eight years old, with his father and sister acting as his first teachers. When he was thirteen, he began running away from home to play in bands. Occasionally his father would find him, bring him home, and warn him about the dangers of whiskey. At sixteen, Lowe worked in Nashville on the ''Grand Ole Opry'' radio program. He was a member of the Jan Savitt orchestra before serving in the military during World War II. At basic training, he became friends with John Hammond, who organized weekend jam sessions. He ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laura (1945 Song)
"Laura" is a 1945 popular song. The music, composed by David Raksin for the 1944 movie '' Laura,'' which starred Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews, is heard frequently in the movie. The film's director, Otto Preminger, had originally wanted to use Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady" as the theme, but Raksin was not convinced that it was suitable. Angered, Preminger gave Raksin one weekend to compose an alternative melody. Raksin later said, and maintained for the rest of his days, that when, over that weekend, his wife sent him a "Dear John" letter, the haunting theme seemed to write itself. The lyrics were written by Johnny Mercer after the film made the tune popular, so he had to title the song "Laura". According to Mercer, he had not yet seen the movie when he wrote the lyrics but was aware that it was a romantic, somewhat haunting story. :''Laura is the face in the misty light, footsteps that you hear down the hall'' :''The laugh that floats on the summer night that you can never ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lester Young
Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist. Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most influential players on his instrument. In contrast to many of his hard-driving peers, Young played with a relaxed, cool tone and used sophisticated harmonies, using what one critic called "a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike". Known for his hip, introverted style, he invented or popularized much of the hipster jargon which came to be associated with the music. Early life and career Lester Young was born in Woodville, Mississippi, on August 27, 1909. to Lizetta Young (née Johnson), and Willis Handy Young, originally from Louisiana. Lester had two siblings – a brother, Leonidas Raymond, known as Lee Young, who became a drummer, and a sister, Irma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lester Leaps In
"Lester Leaps In" is a jazz standard originally recorded by Count Basie's Kansas City Seven in 1939. The composition, credited to the group's tenor saxophone player Lester Young, is a head arrangement based on the chord progression of "I Got Rhythm", and serves as a vehicle for interweaving solos by Young and Basie. Eddie Jefferson, pioneer of vocalese, wrote lyrics for the composition, calling his version "I Got the Blues". Critical acclaim *"Lester Leaps In" is listed among the Milestone Recordings in American Music at the Three Perfect Minutes site. *jazz.com gives "Lester Leaps In" a 98, on a scale of 100 – "Classic performance. A 'must have' for jazz fans." , a jazz.com , retrieved 2013-10-23.
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Johnny Mercer
John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Glenn E. Wallichs. He is best known as a Tin Pan Alley lyricist, but he also composed music, and was a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as songs written by others from the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s. Mercer's songs were among the most successful hits of the time, including " Moon River", " Days of Wine and Roses", " Autumn Leaves", and "Hooray for Hollywood". He wrote the lyrics to more than 1,500 songs, including compositions for movies and Broadway shows. He received nineteen Oscar nominations, and won four Best Original Song Oscars. Early life Mercer was born in Savannah, Georgia, where one of his first jobs, aged 10, was sweeping floors at the original 1919 location of Leopold's Ice Cream. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film '' The Wizard of Oz'' (lyrics by Yip Harburg), including " Over the Rainbow", Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook. "Over the Rainbow" was voted the 20th century's No. 1 song by the RIAA and the NEA. Life and career Arlen was born in Buffalo, New York, the child of a Jewish cantor. His twin brother died the next day. He learned to play the piano as a youth, and formed a band as a young man. He achieved some local success as a pianist and singer before moving to New York City in his early twenties, where he worked as an accompanist in vaudeville and changed his name to Harold Arlen. Between 1926 and about 1934, Arlen appeared occasionally as a band vocalist on records by The Buffalodians, Red Nichols, Joe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Raye
Don Raye (born Donald MacRae Wilhoite Jr., March 16, 1909 – January 29, 1985) was an American songwriter, best known for his songs for The Andrews Sisters such as "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar", " The House of Blue Lights", "Just for a Thrill" and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." The latter was co-written with Hughie Prince. While known for such wordy novelty numbers, he also wrote the lyrics to "You Don't Know What Love Is," a simple, poetic lament of unusual power. He also composed the song "(That Place) Down the Road a Piece," one of his boogie woogie songs, which has a medium bright boogie tempo. It was written for the Will Bradley Orchestra, who recorded it in 1940, but the song was destined to become a rock and roll standard, recorded by The Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Foghat, Amos Milburn, Harry Gibson, and countless others. In 1940, he wrote the lyrics for the patriotic song "This Is My Country". In 1985, Don Raye was inducted into the Songwriters Hall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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