"Groovin' High" is an influential 1945 song by

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

and

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but a ...

. The song was a

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...

mainstay that became a

jazz standard Jazz standards are musical compositions that are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive li ...

, one of Gillespie's best known hits, and according to ''Bebop: The Music and Its Players'' author Thomas Owens, "the first famous bebop recording". The song is a complex musical arrangement based on the

chord structure In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice ...

of the 1920 standard originally recorded by

Paul Whiteman Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist. As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 1930s, W ...

, "

Whispering Whispering is an unvoiced mode of phonation in which the vocal cords are abducted so that they do not vibrate; air passes between the arytenoid cartilages to create audible turbulence during speech. Supralaryngeal articulation remains th ...

", with lyrics by John Schonberger and Richard Coburn ''(né'' Frank Reginald DeLong; 1886–1952) and music by Vincent Rose. The biography ''Dizzy'' characterizes the song as "a pleasant medium-tempo tune" that "demonstrates... illespie's/nowiki> skill in fashioning interesting textures using only six instruments". The song has been used to title many compilation albums and also the 2001 biography ''Groovin' High: The Life of Dizzy Gillespie''.

Impact

First published on the 1945 album '' Shaw 'Nuff'', the song is one of seven on that album that, according to jazz critic

Scott Yanow Scott Yanow (born October 4, 1954) is an American jazz reviewer, historian, and author. Allmusic Biography/ref> Biography Yanow was born in New York City and grew up near Los Angeles. Since 1974, he was a regular reviewer of many jazz styles a ...

, "shocked" Gillespie's contemporaries, contributing to that album's "permanently

hanging Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging ...

..jazz and (indirectly) the entire music world". In ''Jazz: A Regional Exploration'', Yanow explained that at the time such songs "were unprecedented...displaying a radically different language" from contemporary

swing Swing or swinging may refer to: Apparatus * Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth * Pendulum, an object that swings * Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus * Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse * Swing ri ...

. But though fans and fellow musicians found the material "very strange and difficult", ''The Sax & Brass Book'' notes, they were quickly adopted as classics. According to Yanow, "Parker and Gillespie's solos seemed to have little relation to the melody, but they were connected. It was a giant step forward for jazz". Thomas Owens highlights the innovative use of source material, pointing out that while it was not uncommon for jazz musicians to utilize existing chord structures in their compositions in 1945, Gillespie's "melodic contrafact was the most complex jazz melody superimposed on a pre-existing chordal scheme", "atypically elaborate".

Performance history

First performed on February 9, 1945, Gillespie reworked the arrangement for a February 28 performance to allow an

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themsel ...

Remo Palmier, and it is this reworking that became so well known. In the book ''Yardbird Suite'', music historian Lawrence O. Koch sets forth in detail the structure of the song as performed on December 29, 1945 and preserved by

Armed Forces Radio Service The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which ...

, from the two-

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar ( ...

unison In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or per ...

figure by Gillespie and

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 ...

that open the song to the Gillespie

coda Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...

at the end. Not having to conform to 78 rpm technology, Gillespie and his band were able to add several minutes to the song during that performance. The author praises the "lovely, logical, melodic construction" of Parker's 16-bar solo as well as singling out performances by Gillespie ("excellent"),

Slam Stewart Leroy Eliot "Slam" Stewart (September 21, 1914December 10, 1987) was an American jazz double bass player, whose trademark style was his ability to bow the bass (arco) and simultaneously hum or sing an octave higher. He was a violinist before swi ...

("inimitable") and Palmieri ("adequate"). Noting that the coda "has become a jazz cliché, both in its melody and the chord pattern from which the melody was derived", they also draw attention to Gillespie's "prima donna breath control" on the final E-flat, with only a "slight loss in intonation" in spite of the difficulty of the phrase. The book ''Charlie Parker: His Music and Life'' describes this performance, along with the three other songs played in that session, as capturing "much of the vitality of the early Gillespie-Parker partnership. Other notable performances of the song took place on September 29, 1947, when Parker and Gillespie reunited in concert at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...

, and during a 1956 tour sponsored by the

US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...

. Owens describes the 1947 recording as among the finest of Parker's career. During the 1956 tour, Gillespie simultaneously performed "Groovin' High" and "Whispering" to demonstrate the way jazz musicians build on the bones of earlier compositions.

Inspiration

According to the book ''Visions of Jazz: The First Century'' by

Gary Giddins Gary Giddins is an American jazz critic and author. He wrote for ''The Village Voice'' from 1973; his "Weather Bird" column ended in 2003. In 1986 Gary Giddins and John Lewis created the American Jazz Orchestra which presented concerts using a ...

, Gillespie once recounted that he believed the song had been inspired by a

film serial A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater, gene ...

he saw at a

matinée In the performing arts, film exhibition, and other forms of entertainment, a matinée is a performance or exhibition in the afternoon (or occasionally earlier), as distinguished from the evening Evening is the period of a day that starts at t ...

when he was a child that used the song "Whispering" as its theme. Gillespie offered no details about the serial, except that he believed it might have starred

stuntman A stunt performer, often called a stuntman or stuntwoman and occasionally stuntperson or stunt-person, is a trained professional who performs daring acts, often as a career. Stunt performers usually appear in films or on television, as opposed ...

and rodeo rider

Yakima Canutt Enos Edward "Yakima" Canutt (November 29, 1895 – May 24, 1986) was an American champion rodeo rider, actor, stuntman, and action director. He developed many stunts for films and the techniques and technology to protect stuntmen in performing t ...

Albums named for the song

There are at least 11 different albums in the Gillespie discography alone named ''Groovin' High'', compilations that include the song along with other notable tracks that Gillespie performed. In addition, several compilations have been released under this title in Parker's name.

Gillespie albums

* ''Groovin' High'' (Bandstand): "Although not essential, there are some very interesting performances on this boppish CD." –

. * ''Groovin' High'' (Collectables): "It all makes for a rather mixed bag and doesn't make a particularly good introduction to Gillespie, although it does jarringly show some of the extremes in the Diz legacy." – Steve Leggett. * ''Groovin' High'' (Drive) (1994): Re-issue of the Collectables releases. * ''Groovin' High'' (Drive) (1999) * ''Groovin' High'' (Eclipse): "As it's a discount album..., it's a wonderful addition to the collection of any Gillespie fan." * ''Groovin' High'' (High Definition Classics) * ''Groovin' High'' (Indigo): "Fans of this style of jazz likely already have all of this classic material, but as a stocking stuffer or birthday present for a fledgling young jazz fan, this would work well." – Michael G. Nastos. * ''Groovin' High'' (Jazz Hour) * ''Groovin' High'' (Living End): "It serves as a fine introduction to one of jazz's great innovators." – Thom Jurek. * ''Groovin' High'' (Naxos): "This Naxos historical jazz collection fulfills a crying need, succinctly summing up a critical slice of time where bebop is concerned." – Richard S. Ginell. * ''Groovin' High'' (Prism Records, 205) , 25 tracks, 74 minutes * '' Groovin' High'' (Savoy): "Certainly filled with classic music, but this is a so-so, lightweight reissue...because there are only 13 selections..., the liner notes are dated and breezy, and the complete sessions are not included." – Scott Yanow.

Parker albums

* ''Groovin' High'' (BCI) * ''Groovin' High'' (Fabulous) * ''Groovin' High'' (Jazz Time) * ''Groovin' High'' (K-Tel) * ''Groovin' High'' (Total Recording)

Other albums

*Dancing Mood - ''Groovin' High'' (Sonopress) *

Booker Ervin Booker Telleferro Ervin II (October 31, 1930 – August 31, 1970) was an American tenor saxophone player. His tenor playing was characterised by a strong, tough sound and blues/gospel phrasing. He is remembered for his association with bassi ...

- '' Groovin' High'' (Prestige, 1966)

References

{{authority control 1945 songs 1940s jazz standards Bebop jazz standards Compositions by Dizzy Gillespie Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients Al Jarreau songs