CHARLIE PARKER — Ken Burns Jazz: Definitive Charlie Parker

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3.50 | 1 rating | 1 review

Boxset / Compilation · 2000

Tracklist

1. Sepian Bounce (3:09)
2. Salt Peanuts (3:15)
3. Hot House (3:13)
4. Ko-Ko (2:56)
5. Anthropology (2:56)
6. Now's the Time (3:17)
7. Ornithology (3:01)
8. Yardbird Suite (2:55)
9. Lover Man (3:20)
10. Relaxin' at Camarillo (3:01)
11. Embraceable You (3:46)
12. Scrapple From the Apple (2:57)
13. Parker's Mood (3:04)
14. Just Friends (3:32)
15. Star Eyes (3:37)
16. Confirmation (2:56)

Total Time: 51:03

Line-up/Musicians

Track 1:
Jay McShann and His Orchestra:

Buddy Anderson, Bob Merrill, Orville Minor, trumpet;
Lawrence Anderson, Taswell Baird, trombone;
John Jackson, alto saxophone;
Fred Culliver, Bob Mabane, tenor saxophone;
McShann, piano;
Lucky Enois, guitar;
Gene Ramey, bass;
Doc West, drums;
Skipper Hall,
William J. Scott, arrangers

Recorded July 2, 1942
Available on CD: Jay McShann: The Original Decca Recordings: Blues From Kansas City (GRP GRD 614)

Track 3:
Dizzy Gillespie and His All Star Quintet:

Gillespie, trumpet, vocal;
Al Haig, piano;
Curly Russell, bass;
Sid Catlett, drums

Recorded May 11, 1945
Available on CD: Dizzy Gillespie: ‘Shaw 'Nuff (Musicraft/Discovery MVSCD 53)

Track 4:
Charlie Parker's Reboppers:

Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet, piano;
Curly Russell, bass;
Max Roach, drums

Recorded November 26, 1945
Available on CD: The Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Sessions (Savoy 92911)

Track 5:
Charlie Parker's Reboppers:

Miles Davis, trumpet;
Dizzy Gillespie, piano;
Curly Russell, bass;
Max Roach, drums

Recorded November 26,1945
Available on CD: The Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Sessions (Savoy 92911)

Track 6:
Charlie Parker's Reboppers:

Miles Davis, trumpet;
Sadik Hakim, piano;
Curly Russell, bass;
Max Roach, drums

Recorded November 26,1945
Available on CD: The Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Sessions (Savoy 92911)

Track 8:
Charlie Parker Septet:

Miles Davis, trumpet;
Lucky Thompson, tenor saxophone;
Dodo Marmarosa, piano;
Arvin Garrison, electric guitar;
Victor McMillan, bass;
Roy Porter, drums

Recorded March 28, 1946

Track 9:
Charlie Parker Quintet:

Howard McGhee, trumpet;
Jimmy Bunn, piano;
Bob Kesterson, bass;
Roy Porter, drums

Recorded July 29, 1946

Track 10:
Charlie Parker's New Stars:

Howard McGhee, trumpet;
Wardell Gray, tenor saxophone;
Dodo Marmarosa, piano;
Barney Kessel, guitar;
Red Callender, bass;
Don Lamond, drums

Recorded February 26, 1947

Track 11:
Charlie Parker Quintet:

Miles Davis, trumpet;
Duke Jordan, piano;
Tommy Potter, bass;
Max Roach, drums

Recorded October 28, 1947

Track 12:
Miles Davis, trumpet;
Duke Jordan, piano;
Tommy Potter, bass;
Max Roach, drums

Recorded November 4, 1947

Track 13:
Charlie Parker All Stars:

John Lewis, piano;
Curly Russell, bass;
Max Roach, drums

Recorded September 18, 1948
Available on CD: The Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Sessions (Savoy 92911)

Track 14:
Mitch Miller, oboe;
Bronislaw Gimpel, Max Hollander, Milt Lomask, violin;
Frank Brieff, viola; Frank Miller, cello;
Myor Rosen, harp;
Stan Freeman, piano;
Ray Brown, bass;
Buddy Rich, drums;
Jimmy Carroll, arranger, conductor

Recorded November 30, 1949
Available on CD: Charlie Parker With Strings: The Master Takes (Verve 314 523 984-2)

Track 15:
Charlie Parker and His Orchestra:

Miles Davis, trumpet;
Walter Bishop, Jr., piano;
Teddy Kotick, bass;
Max Roach, drums

Recorded January 17, 1951
Available on CD: The Best of the Verve Years (Verve 314 527 815-2)

Track 16:
Al Haig, piano;
Percy Heath, bass;
Max Roach, drums

Recorded July 30,1953
Available on CD: Charlie Parker (Verve 314 539 757-2)

About this release

Verve Records ‎– 314 549 084-2 (US)

Most of these tracks were transferred from disc sources. Surface noise is audible

Thanks to snobb for the updates

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CHARLIE PARKER KEN BURNS JAZZ: DEFINITIVE CHARLIE PARKER reviews

Specialists/collaborators reviews

If you tend to buy your CDs at the used shops and thrift stores, then you will already know that these Ken Burns collections tend to show up a lot, and usually at a very reasonable price. I’m going to guess that a lot of these Ken Burns collections were bought as gifts during the height of his TV series, and then after a few listens, the hype wears off and the CD owner realizes he didn’t really like jazz all that much anyway, ha. This Parker CD tends to get a similar evaluation as many of Burn’s other compilations, a nice collection of tunes marred by hit and miss sound quality. How big this sound quality issue is to you will probably determine if this is a CD you would like to have.

To my ears, the sound on here is not that bad, about 20 to 25 percent of the tunes have a pronounced high end hiss and surface noise, but most of the rest are fine. Which brings us to the next issue, how good do you expect older recordings to sound? Technology does exist today to clean up old recordings, but when you remove the high end, you stand a chance of losing some cymbals, or even slightly altering what a horn sounds like. It’s a tough choice sometimes. Me personally, I don’t expect old jazz recordings to sound perfect, and over time, I barely notice things like hiss, especially if there is plenty of ambient noise going on (traffic, people talking etc). I read one complaint about this CD in which a consumer claimed that this CD sounded bad on headphones. Yes, high end hiss will be very pronounced on headphones, but why listen to older recordings on headphones, it’s a bad combination to begin with. A lot of this music was mixed to sound good coming out of small radio speakers, and smaller speakers, or just an average home stereo, is still what this music sounds best on. If you are looking for deep bass ala your latest dub-step club mix or Pink Floyd surround-sound, then its time to drop this CD off at the thrift store for someone who will provide a proper home for it.

As far as the music on here goes, you get a nice overview of Parker’s career spanning from his early days as a radical innovator and on up to his last years where he slowed his pace, but developed an extra sweet and supple tone. If you like the crazy early be-bop, that’s well represented here with “Salt Peanuts”, “Ornithology” and the ultimate Parker rush; “Ko-Ko”. Elsewhere on here you get one early cut when Parker was a sideman with Jay McShann’s big band and at least one of those ‘Parker with strings’ tracks. Bird’s recordings with strings were much maligned when they were released , but over time they have been accepted, and for good reason, those recordings with strings contain some of Parker’s very sweetest playing. The rest of this CD consists of favorites any fan will know, and any novice will want to hear.

Once again, the sound quality of several cuts is going to be the make or break on this one. Personally I think it sounds ok, but it may not sound so good to folks raised on perfect digital sound and modern compression. For those who want to sample the worst, probably the highest amount of noise occurs on “Yardbird Suite” and “Relaxin at Camarillo”, although there are a couple more that are not much better. The other thing to consider is the scope of this collection, I would imagine some would prefer a collection that only features Parker’s earlier work and not his later efforts. The overall evaluation for this CD; this may not be the best Parker collection, but I’ve heard worse, at least Ken Burns and his crew did a good job of matching the volumes on the different tracks.