AL Haig Duken Bird

In a three-year period, Stan Getz played with bands featuring either pianist Duke Jordan or a young Horace Silver. This is the boppin' Getz on tenor, playing standards fervently. There are two Gigi Gryce originals, the Getz original "Hershey Bar," and Silver's "Penny" among the 24 tracks. This is a decent introduction to the pre-bossa nova player the world would later know.

Al Haig - Al Haig Quartet (1954) {Period–Fresh Sound FSR-CD12 rel 1991}
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© 1954, 1991 Fresh Sound / Camarillo / Period | FSR-CD 12
Jazz / Bop / Piano

This particular album is by Al Haig the pianist Bird and Getz considered the perfect pianist and he was the one they loved the most to play with. And here you can understand why. The album is quite old, I mean it should be an early fifties record, unfortunately in my edition (1991 Fresh Sound) this information is not there. Allmusicguide says it's a 1954 album, and surely it could be correct. The sound is from the era. It is a quartet album and in the fifties it came out on the Period Label.

Al Haig - Al Haig Today! (1965) {Mint Records Japan Mini LP XQAM-1635 rel 2014}
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© 1965, 2014 Del Moral Records / Mint Records Japan | XQAM-1635 | DSD remaster
Jazz / Bop / Jazz Piano Trio

This difficult to find recording is worth the search; it contains some of the finest recorded work of Al Haig's enigmatic career. Haig was an important figure in the early development of bebop piano and can be heard as a sideman on many seminal recordings from the 1940s, including Salt Peanuts and Hot House. His refined classical technique was relatively unique at the time, and he was admired as a superb accompanist. Between the mid-'50s and the early 1970s there is a curiously large gap in his recorded output evidently due to personal problems. In fact, Al Haig Today! appears to be his only release as a leader during the '60s.

Al Haig & Jimmy Raney - Strings Attached (1975) {Absord Music Japan ABCJ-438 rel 2007}
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© 1975, 2007 Choice Records | Absord Music Japan | ABCJ-438
Jazz / Neo Bebop / Piano / Guitar

Pianist Al Haig, a veteran of the bebop era, plays pretty modern on this quartet date which is co-led by guitarist Jimmy Raney. With backing by bassist Jamil Nasser and drummer Frank Gant, Haig and Raney interpret two bop standards and such later material as Herbie Hancock's "Dolphin Dance" and Eddie Harris' "Freedom Jazz Dance." Haig and Raney inspire each other to stretch out, including on an 11-minute version of "'Round Midnight." Thought-provoking music well worth hearing several times.

Originally released in 1967, the compilation album Prezervation brings together tracks that jazz saxophonist Stan Getz recorded in 1949 and 1950. Backing Getz here is pianist Al Haig, who gets second billing, as well as guitarist/vocalist Jimmy Raney, bassist Tommy Potter, drummer Roy Haynes, and others. The album is a superb example of early West Coast jazz and a must-have collection for Getz aficionados.

Charlie Parker Records: The Complete Collection, Vol. 21 - Charlie Parker - Bird At The Apollo (2012 CP Records 233193/21 rec 1950}
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© 1950, 2012 Charlie Parker Records / Membran Media / Documents | 233193 / 21
Jazz / Bop / Saxophone

Exhaustive 30 CD collection from the Jazz legend's short-lived label. Contains 44 original albums (421 tracks) plus booklet. Every record-collector has run across an album with the little sax-playing bird in it's label-logo, right next to the brand name Charlie Parker Records or CP Parker Records. Turning the sleeve over, especially if it was one of the non-Parker releases, and seeing a '60s release date under the header Stereo-pact! Was as exciting an experience as it was confusing. Was the claim Bird Lives meant more literally than previously thought?

Charlie Parker - The Bird Returns (1949) {Savoy Jazz Japan CY-78810, Mini LP rel 1996}
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© 1948-49, 1996 Savoy Records / Nippon Columbia Japan | CY-78810
Jazz / Bebop / Saxophone

Although a restless and brilliant improviser like Charlie Parker's true home will always be the stage–as evidenced by the literally dozens of exciting live recordings still being recovered decades after his death in 1955–there are those who feel, with some justification, that his late-'40s recordings for Savoy Records are the essence of bebop. Certainly Parker's backing groups at the time, starring such up-and-comers as trumpeter Miles Davis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, and drummer Max Roach, were among the greatest in jazz history, but throughout THE BIRD RETURNS, the focus is always on Parker's endlessly questing alto sax.

Veteran Charlie Parker collectors generally know that they should avoid all but his most famous live sessions. It is not that Parker plays badly on this CD reissue (in fact his solo on "Confirmation" is quite miraculous) but, as is often the case with these privately recorded sets, the recording quality is horrible. Bird (with trumpeter Red Rodney, pianist Al Haig, bassist Tommy Potter, and drummer Roy Haynes) plays quite well but these versions only hint at what the music must have sounded like.