Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. 52nd Street Theme
2. Koko
3. Groovin' High
4. Big Foot
5. Ornithology
6. Slow Boat to China
7. Hot House
8. Salt Peanuts
9. Chasin' the Bird
10. Out of Nowhere
11. How High the Moon
12. Half Nelson
13. White Christmas
14. Little Willie Leaps
15. Jumpin' With Symphony Sid/Be-Bop
16. Slow Boat to China
17. Ornithology
18. Groovin' High

Disc 2:

1. East of the Sun (And West of the Moon)
2. Cheryl
3. How High the Moon
4. Scrapple from the Apple
5. Bebop - Charlie Parker
6. Hot House
7. Oop Bop Sh'bam
8. Scrapple from the Apple
9. Salt Peanuts
10. Groovin' High
11. Scrapple from the Apple
12. Barbados
13. Salt Peanuts
14. Scrapple from the Apple

Disc 3:

1. Barbados
2. Bebop - Charlie Parker
3. Groovin' High
4. Confirmation
5. Salt Peanuts
6. Half Nelson
7. Night in Tunisia
8. Scrapple from the Apple
9. Deedle
10. What's This?
11. Cheryl
12. Anthropology
13. Hurry Home
14. Deedle
15. Royal Roost Bop
16. Cheryl
17. Slow Boat to China
18. Chasin' the Bird

Disc 4:

1. There's a Small Hotel
2. These Foolish Things
3. Keen and Peachy
4. Hot House
5. Swivel Hips (Bird, Bass and Out)
6. Goodbye
7. Night in Tunisia
8. Dizzy Atmosphere
9. Groovin' High
10. Confirmation
11. Koko

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #92433 in Music
• Released on: 1999-10-05
• Number of discs: 4
• Formats: Box set, Live
• Dimensions: .57 pounds

Amazon.com
For years, the audio quality of many of the performances gathered on these four CDs prevented a full-on embrace, what with all the other available Charlie Parker out there. But this collection restores these sessions to notoriety. They're mostly from New York's Royal Roost, 1948 to 1950, but with a 1947 Carnegie Hall supergroup concert and a 1950 Chicago pickup date that boasts some unknowns--and undersung guitarist George Freeman--with Parker. First, the single drawback: emcee and radio host "Symphony Sid" Torin's sometimes obsequious, faux-hipster shtick that bookends several of the tunes. Rest assured, though, Torin makes only brief intros and outros. Beyond that, these are all stellar works. The quintet on three of the CDs (the Royal Roost sessions) features Parker with Miles Davis on much of CD 1, highlighting the clipped fire of bebop's architecture being tunneled under by Davis's mellow-tone brass. Even when Kenny Dorham takes over on trumpet, the alchemy is built on contrast, Parker's raspy, fast wit and Dorham's wry (but often likemindedly fast) ripostes. Pianists Tadd Dameron and Al Haig make great showings, as does Max Roach, pushing the energy with a loose attack that defies the fact that the majority of these performances were for radio. The more-famed quintet fronted by Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and pianist John Lewis (famed cofounder of the Modern Jazz Quartet) closes the collection with five tunes from a 1947 Carnegie Hall concert. Parker seems more restrained, Gillespie gleeful, and Lewis characteristically spare. But the playing is first-rate, whether at light-speed (as on "Dizzy Atmosphere") or at the loping clip of "Groovin' High." --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

A broad interpretation of the word "complete."
Looks good, doesn't it? All the Roosts on four CDs. Looks mighty good. Then there's even more - recordings from Carnegie Hall in 1947 and Chicago in 1950. Still on four CDs. And you know the Roosts alone came out on four a few years back. Anyway...it looks good. And Orrin Keepnews, that dear leech, says "less is more," congratulating himself (again) on giving Symphony Sid the axe. What he doesn't mention, of course, is that an entire date from 1950 with Fats Navarro and Bud Powell has been similarly excised. It should not even surprise, after all these years of being shafted by record companies, much less shock, and no-one will bat an eyelid when this stuff comes out again, even more complete(!), in a couple of years. But it's dishonest, it's self-serving, and particularly when Keepnews so tenaciously holds to painting himself into the picture of those who cared about jazz, it's disgraceful. Bird can have all the stars in the sky. Orrin gets none.

Supremely recommended
Anyone who wants to hear Charlie Parker, please start here, with these Savoy recordings. There is a unique coherence and consistency of place and time - bringing the performer-audience electricity of 50 years ago straight into your living room. You experience CP's invention of that music all over again. This is Bird, pure, straight, no chaser, not shaken, not stirred.
Over the last 30 years I have spent many hours listening to Charlie Parker, and his tunes are etched in my mind like musical sculptures, but these recordings have a lot to add to what I had already learnt. This is the best Bird I have heard.
I also have the highest regard for the beautifully informative and intelligent comments by Orrin Keepnews, Paul Bacon, and Loren Schoenberg.

Highly Recomended.
These performances have been issued many times before in various fashions, but Savoy does fans a service by bringing all the Royal Roost broadcasts (along with a fine Carnegie Hall concert with Dizzy and an interesting recording in Chicago with a pick-up band) together into one definitive package. In general Bird is heard at his peak throughout, with a particular highlight coming when Bird takes a request (on Christmas) for "White Christmas" and gives it an absolutely brilliant reworking. The music benifits from the new, cleaner sound and there is a good track by track analysis from Loren Schoenberg. This package represents some of the most consistently inspired and rewarding recordings in Bird's career and should not be missed by those unfamiliar them.