''Birdtown Birds'' (subtitled ''Recorded Live at Montmartre'') is an album by American pianist
Joe Albany recorded at the
Jazzhus Montmartre
Jazzhus Montmartre is a jazz club in Copenhagen, Denmark. Many jazz musicians, including Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, and Chet Baker, have performed there. It is sometimes called Cafe Montmartre. The Montmartre was located first in Dahlerupsgade, then ...
in 1973 and released on the
SteepleChase label.
SteepleChase Records discography
accessed March 19, 2015
Reception
Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
awarded the album 3 stars.Allmusic Review
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
accessed March 19, 2015The Penguin Guide to Jazz
''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled b ...
'' expressed a preference for '' Two's Company'', and wrote that "Albany often sounds less radical than merely clumsy and the solo passages are rife with misfingerings".
Track listing
# "Birdtown Birds" (Joe Albany) - 5:29
# "Willow Weep for Me
"Willow Weep for Me" is a popular song composed in 1932 by Ann Ronell, who also wrote the lyrics. The song form is AABA, written in time,Zimmers, Tighe, E. (2009). ''Tin Pan Alley Girl: A Biography of Ann Ronell''. McFarland. pp. 19-22. altho ...
" (Ann Ronell
Ann Ronell (née Rosenblatt; December 25, 1905 — December 25, 1993) was an American composer and lyricist. She was best known for the standards " Willow Weep for Me" (1932) and " Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" (1933).
Early life
Ronell was b ...
) - 5:22
# "Steeplechase" (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 ...
) - 6:22
# " Sweet and Lovely" ( Gus Arnheim, Jules LeMare
Charles N. Daniels (April 12, 1878 – January 23, 1943), was a composer, occasional lyricist, and music publishing executive. He employed many pseudonyms, including Neil Moret, Jules Lemare, L'Albert, Paul Bertrand, Julian Strauss, and Si ...
, Harry Tobias) - 3:39
# " Night and Day" ( Cole Porter) - 6:35
# "Yardbird Suite
"Yardbird Suite" is a bebop standard composed by jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker in 1946. The title combines Parker's nickname "Yardbird" (often shortened to "Bird") and a colloquial use of the classical music term "suite" (in a manner similar to ...
" (Parker) - 6:30 Bonus track on CD reissue
# " All the Things You Are" ( Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in ove ...
) - 8:48 Bonus track on CD reissue
# "When Lights Are Low" (Benny Carter
Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career ...
, Spencer Williams
Spencer Williams (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965) was an American jazz and popular music composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs " Basin Street Blues", "I Ain't Got Nobody", " Royal Garden Blues", " I've Found a New ...
) - 6:54 Bonus track on CD reissue
# " C. C. Rider" (Ma Rainey
Gertrude "Ma" Rainey ( Pridgett; April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939) was an American blues singer and influential early blues recording artist. Dubbed the "Mother of the Blues", she bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic expression of s ...
) - 6:20
# "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" is a song recorded by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra. The words were written by Ned Washington and the music was written by George Bassman. It was first performed in 1932. The original copyright is dated 1933 ...
" (George Bassman
George Bassman (February 7, 1914 – June 26, 1997) was an American composer and arranger.
Biography
Born in New York City to a Ukrainian- and Lithuanian-Jewish émigré couple, Bassman was later raised in Boston and began studying music at th ...
, Ned Washington
Ned Washington (born Edward Michael Washington, August 15, 1901 – December 20, 1976) was an American lyricist born in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Life and career
Washington was nominated for eleven Academy Awards from 1940 to 1962. He won the Bes ...
) - 7:18
# " 'Round About Midnight" ( Bernie Hanighen, Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", ...
, Cootie Williams) - 6:13
# " Night in Tunisia" ( Dizzy Gillespie) - 5:15
Personnel
* Joe Albany – piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...
* Hugo Rasmussen – bass
*Hans Nymand – drums
References
{{reflist
SteepleChase Records live albums
Joe Albany live albums
1973 live albums
Albums recorded at Jazzhus Montmartre