Charlie Parker’s “One Night At Birdland” was the first jazz record I ever bought (I’ve still only got 4*). I think I only played it once or twice because I thought the sound quality was so bad (yes, stupid, I know). I thought recently that I should listen again to Parker because I’ve neglected him badly. I thought I was going to have a big epiphany experience and love this but it has been a bit more complicated. I found I wasn’t really warming to the music as much as I could, or should, do. Part of the problem is the apparent effortlessness of the playing. It is easy to let it go completely over my head. It’s almost like someone talking naturally. Once I listen more carefully, mindfully, I find myself thinking what amazing playing this is. But I still haven’t felt connected to it, in the way I felt connected to Thelonious Monk the first time I heard him. But I am starting to “get” it – especially “After You’ve Gone”, “Oh Lady Be Good” and “I Got Rhythm”.
Maybe the reason why I’m not more wild about this is that I just don’t listen to enough jazz – plus having flu doesn’t help (the second time this winter and it isn’t even bloody Christmas yet). I’m also not sure if this is the perfect collection. It seems rather biased towards Parker’s work with bigger bands and strings, which I hadn’t heard before, and is interesting but somehow to me isn’t the “real” Bird.
* the other 3 being Monk’s “Genius of Modern Music Volume 1”, Miles Davis’s “Birth Of The Cool” and John Coltrane’s “Love Supreme”.
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