Three recordings made in the 1940s and 1950s and issued in the past few months for the first time are getting a lot of well deserved recognition, they are Dizzy Gillespie-\Charlie Parker Town Hall, New York City, June 22, 1945, Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall and Coltrane Live at the Half Note. A three CD boxed album, Charlie Parker, the New York Anthology, Stardust Records may be reissued recordings but includes some of the best material I have heard and for the first time when I purchased the album recently.
CD one is the most important of the three CDs because of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Tommy Potters and Roy Haynes performing "Blue 'n Boogie," "Anthropology," "'Round Midnight" and "Night in Tunisia." Also important is Charlie Parker sitting in with Dizzy Gillespie's band of 1953 on the "Bluest Blues" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street." All fifteen of the songs on CD one were broadcast from Birdland in New York and the quality is excellent. The twenty songs on CD two were recorded at the Open Door in New York. The sound quality is poor but Charlie Parker comes in loud and clear. CD three includes nineteen songs and two interviews; one by Symphony Sid Torin and one by Leonard Feather. All of CD three was broadcast from Birdland, New York and the sound quality is excellent.
By Jimmy Jones