Fresh from winning Young Scottish Jazz Musician of the Year in 2015 and the 2017 Peter Whittingham Jazz Award, emerging saxophonist Helena Kay releases her debut album, Moon Palace, on Ubuntu Music.
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?
Recorded between 1947 and 1952, the Charlie Parker With Strings albums showcased the legendary bebop saxophonist performing standards and ballads backed by a small classical string ensemble and jazz rhythm section. Although somewhat controversial when first released, the strings sessions are largely considered landmarks for orchestral jazz productions and rank among the best albums in Parker's discography.
A reissue of the original 1952 Clef recording session, this is one of the few instances in Charlie Parker's later career where he played with something other than a small bebop group. Under contract at the time to Clef's Norman Granz, Parker was encouraged by the label to make recordings that took him out of his familiar settings and put him in with string arrangements, Latin rhythms, and larger band formats. This recording is the result of one of these experiments. Though Joe Lipman's arrangements are stellar, the musicians assembled for the sessions are an odd mix of pop-oriented big-band players and improvisers.
That sound. One group conceived it. Defined it. Perfected it. The Modern Jazz Quartet was certainly one of the most distinctive voices in the history of jazz, thanks to the unique qualities of personal expression and collective vision of its members Milt Jackson, John Lewis, Percy Heath and Connie Kay (who had replaced original drummer Kenny Clarke by the time the band started recording this music). They were also exceptionally prolific during their tenure at Atlantic Records, producing 14 albums in eight years. And now, that MJQ sound gets the complete respect it deserves, thanks to our new box, The Complete 1956-1964 Modern Jazz Quartet Atlantic Studio Recordings.