Bebop emerged early in the Forties and developed its innovative styles throughout the better part of that decade. Early in the following decade Savoy Records made a major commitment to recording the efforts of many of the bebop composers and performers. It would probably not be an exaggeration to single out Charlie Parker as the most innovative of those performers, who composed any number of tunes that distinguished him from his colleagues.
Parker’s studio sessions for Savoy took place between 1944 and 1948, and they were released in a set of eight CDs under the title The Complete Savoy And Dial Studio Recordings 1944–1948. This was complemented by a set of another four CDs of performances that took place at Carnegie Hall (1947), the Royal Roost in New York (1948 and 1949), and in Chicago (1950). During that same period of time, Savoy led a major effort to bring a generous number of bebop performers into its catalog.
Cover of the album being discussed (courtesy of DL Media)
Towards the end of last year, Craft Recordings announced the completion of a project to celebrate the legacy of Savoy. The result was a 30-track collection entitled The Birth of Bop. By the beginning of last month, those tracks were made available through an Amazon.com Web page that supported both streaming and MP3 download. Amazon has also created a Web page for processing pre-orders of the collection on five ten-inch vinyls or two CDs, both of which will be released one week from today.
Bearing in mind my personal preference for depth over breadth, I still feel it necessary to acknowledge the extent of the diversity of this release. I have to confess that some of the composers were unfamiliar to me (Allen Eager being one example). However, there was more than a little to appreciate in compare-and-contrast listening to Parker in a wider context that includes Dexter Gordon, Stan Getz, Milt Jackson, Fats Navarro, and (one of my personal favorites) J. J. Johnson.
What is important to bear in mind is that bebop was not so much a “style” as it was a platform for many of the most prodigious jazz performers to explore adventurous approaches to improvisation. The Birth of Bop has provided a valuable overview of those approaches. In that context I have to say that this is definitely not “sit back and listen” music. The CD provides an excellent opportunity to deal with each of the 30 tracks on the basis of its own merits. Craft offers just the right platform for appreciating the significant role that bebop played in the history of jazz.
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