If you want to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and experience what it was like to hear Bird for the first time, there’s no better opportunity than this.
The Jay McShann Orchestra was the last great band to come out of Kansas City, just before the indescribably corrupt Pendergast regime was taken down. The band was both home and family to Bird during the most crucial period of his development. As a “territory band”, they toured for years in relative obscurity, but made a spectacular debut at New York’s Savoy Ballroom in February, 1942.
For most New York jazz musicians, who considered themselves the most sophisticated in the world, this was their first exposure to Bird and his revolutionary ideas. Bird and Dizzy Gillespie had met once before, a few years earlier, but nothing seemed to come of it. It was a different story the second time around. Diz was among the many advanced swing players bewitched by Bird’s conception, and they immediately developed a close bond that lasted for four very eventful years.
Although the complete radio broadcast from the Savoy offers many wonders, starting with the fact that it even exists, one number stands out: “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles.” It encapsulates all that was exciting about big band music as it leads up to Bird’s solo, which then renders everything before it obsolete. By the way, it may sound as though his solo is over, but stick around through the modulation, because Bird comes back in again to play out the chart (quoting “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead” in the process)!
9 окт 2024
