Dizzy Atmosphere

Just when the listener thinks that Be Bop has been worn out and has little else to offer, we are presented with lost recordings that, once again, show what all of the fuss was about. This is Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie at the top of their game, giving a seminar on flatted fifths and fast playing.

The Dead Sea Scrolls of Jazz

I gasped when I heard this CD because it was so difficult to believe that a recording made 60 years ago would sound fresh. I can only conjecture how the Town Hall audience felt. Though everyone knows Parker and Gillespie changed the course of 20th-century music -- and beyond, and Bebop is every bit as important as Beethoven's destruction of the fetters of the Classical period, hearing it at its inception is still seismic.

Don't Overlook This Underrated Gem!

The Gillespie-Parker Town Hall CD is easy to overlook next to Monk-Parker--but that would be a loss. For one thing, the listener to this CD is privy to on-going commentary and intros by legendary jazz and beebop deejay "Symphony Sid"--offering an inside peek at the birth of some innovative tunes. Evidently Parker was (characteristically) late for the show: Sid had given lots of verbal patter to the eager crowd; Parker comes in the auditorium mid-way through the first number; the group doesn't skip a beat! Sid proceeds to tell the audience the music is going to flow rapidly because you folks sure waited long enough, and flow it certainly does--Tunisia; Salt Peanuts--the musicians playing top quality to a very appreciative crowd. Recording quality is fine for the time and place. Highlight: drummer Sydney Catlett stays for an encore despite Sid telling him he's got to be somewhere else. An all-around entertaining and informative birth of beebops by the legends experience