A new height of irony
"roughplanet" wrote in message
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"Iain Churches" wrote in message
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"Mark Harriss" wrote in message
. au...
TT wrote:
especially if some fine reds and few ports are consumed. Then the
reminiscing becomes embellishing ;-)
Heh, why else is it called "A Rosy Glow"?
Or a "Blue glow" from a tube amp playing Duke Ellington:-)
Now you're talking. I spent a marvellous evening last night playing a few
albums of Charlie Parker (I am a VERY big fan - more than 50 LP's & the
same number of CD's).
Hi Ruff.
Nice to see you posting here agan. Where have you been?
Yes, even after 54 years, Bird is still the main man. An incredibly
agile and fluid player with a fantastic technique and sense of melody.
There are some wonderful quotes attributed to him:
"You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice,
practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand,
forget all that and just wail."
My favourite Bird title is "Koko"
(which funnily eough means "whole" or "complete" in Finnish.)
If you don't have it already there is a fascinating album called
"Supersax plays Bird" which dates from, 1972. I have it on
both vinyl and CD. The latter is impeccably mastered.
Supersax was a band formed by Med Flory who transcribed
note for note some of Bird's solo, and arranged them for a whole
saxophone section - five players in a big band.
It's a brilliant CD - highly recommended.
Johnny Hodges was another fine alto player, as was the lesser-
known Marshal Royal from the Count Basie Orchestra. His book
"Jazz Survivor" makes interesting reading.
One of my favourite alto players was Earl Bostic the pioneer R+B
saxophonist.. He had a very distinctive "growl" tone . His version
of Flamingo was a huge hit in the early fifties. He seems to have
influenced many players including John Coltrane.
I don't know whether you have it in Oz, but in this part of the
world Bostik is a name of a glue. A pal of mine in the UK who
does transcriptions and remastering, was compiling an Earl Bostic
album, and gave it the working title "Stuck on Bostic" I don't
know if it was released under that name.
It was truly awsome to hear the recordings from his heyday back in the
late 40's & early 50's, especially one rather noisy recorded album called
'Charkie Parker Live at St. Nicks'. But it didn't alter the quality of his
playing, which was simply amazing - effortless blowing & improvisation of
the highest order. I was in Seventh Heaven. He truly was 'The Master' and
even guys like John Coltrane, Stan Getz, Sony Rollins & Sonny Stitt were
just wannabe's when compared to Bird.
No you've got me started. I have a good selection of Parker material. I
shall dig some out later today, and have a listen:-)
As the song says...."Oh what a night', but alas, no port or red wine .
Those days are over for me, but I did manage a smmall tipple of JW's Blue
Label on ice. Ahhhhhhhh....smooth as a baby's bottom :-).
Excellent, even without the ice:-) Are you partial to Irish whiskeys?
Jamesons and Bushmills seem to both be highly regarded.
Iain
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