Bird: Arranged & Trigger’d

ALBUQUERQUE YACHT CLUB

April 18, 2013 – Jazz @ Noon every Thursday (starts at 12:07 after the satellite news) Host MARK WEBER – KUNM Albuquerque, USA – 89.9 FM (Mountain Standard Time) also streaming on the web > KUNM.org – Current time zone offset: UTC*/GMT -6 hours (*Coordinated Universal Time)/Greenwich Mean Time)

On today’s show we’ll jump out of the nest and fly with the Bird. And similar musics of the era. I’m remembering how amazingly distilled Frank Morgan had gotten with his Bird music — he lived in New Mexico during the 1990s — and it had gotten so that just one note from him was an improvisation, just the way he attacked it and shaped it and swung it. He had a large repertoire of Bird music at his fingertips of which he had developed personal intros and outros and channels and even though these additional parts were somewhat pre-developed, it was how he played all those notes and how each one was special.

The Bird flew up, he flew down, he flew sideways, he flew all around, your brain.

I’ve always loved the Phil Woods statement: “It was nature’s cruel joke to set before us such an unattainable example.”

Charlie Parker was pure human spirit in ebullience.

We’ll listen to a Bill Holman Big Band version of “Donna Lee” — you often hear Bill Holman’s music liken’d to Bartok, but I don’t hear Bartok so much as I hear Picasso, and by extension the impressionism of Ravel and Debussy.

Among all kinds of possibilities . . .

Roberto Miranda, Frank Morgan, Horace Tapscott, Tom Guralnick — February 14, 1998 — upstairs offices & lodging at old Outpost Performance Space — photo by Mark Weber — the drawing over Tom’s shoulder on wall is Roscoe Mitchell by Zimbabwe Nkenya AND photo of Sun Ra at Albuquerque Airport “they went to Coronado Mall western wear store to get that cowboy hat (June Tyson and Sun Ra went…not sure who else…I did not) was it Cooper’s Western Wear? I think it’s gone now” TG email 11mar13

Dual tenors of Sonny Stitt and Red Holloway Quintet at Parisian Room, Los Angeles (corner of Washington & LaBrea — there’s a post office there now) — June 13, 1980 — photo by Mark Weber

Bill Holman and his Big Band — July 25, 1980 — Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles — Milcho Leviev, piano; check out Monty Budwig on bass and Nick Ceroli on drums visual thought transference; Bill, standing behind his tenor saxophone; Bob Cooper in the section; Bob Enevoldsen (sunglasses) in trombone section — photo by Mark Weber

Hal McKusick with 1950s Thunderbird — Hampton Bays, Long Island — July 10, 2009 — photo by Mark Weber — Hal was the first artist to apply Bird to a saxophone section when he contracted Ernie Wilkins to write an arrangement on “Now’s The Time” (1958) for 4 saxes plus rhythm section — we’ll listen to this gem today

Warne Marsh in his studio — Pasadena, California — December 15, 1976 — photo by Mark Weber


Vi Redd backstage at Hollywood Bowl — July 30, 1980 — evening concert: Bless The Bird: A Tribute to Charlie Parker — several bands played, Gerry Mulligan, Betty Carter, Walter Bishop Jr, Roy Haynes, Supersax, Bud Shank, and Vi Redd — photo by Mark Weber — I was always after Vi to sit down for an interview with me but she always demurred, always sweetly — today on radio show I’ll play a tune or two from her album BIRD CALL (1962) and if anybody has a copy of her 1977 album she made with Marian McPartland and guitarist Mary Osborne, I’d sure love to hear that record, it’s very hard to find.

Buddy Clark talking to saxophonist Robbie Wilkerson at old Outpost Performance Space — August 12, 1996 — Buddy was chief arranger (along with Med and Warne) for Supersax — Buddy lived for a short while in Albuquerque — photo by Mark Weber

Your host every Thursday on the airwaves invoking Garuda mudra, the radiant bird of Hindu mythology — with Atlantic Ocean of Southampton Beach — July 10, 2009 — photo by Janet

7 Comments

  1. Rick DiZenzo

    “Just one note from him was an improvisation…….” Absolutely love it!

  2. mike johnston

    great information and photos (as usual)……

  3. Mark Weber

    an alert subscriber has informed me that that is not a T-Bird but a 1953 or 54 Corvette —– maybe for the purposes of this page it’s a: T-Bird Corvette ?

  4. Joan Jobe Smith

    ..more ebullent-spirited, been-there cool pix by Mark Weber making me wish i’d been there, too..and i quote Mark with that “ebullent spirit” –words he wrote to describe Charlie Parker.. who’s my personal favorite and oftenn quote his “If you haven’t lived it, it won’t come out your horn.” Mark Weber has lived it–this is all true.. go, daddy, go.. love these posts, Mark!

  5. Mark Weber

    ORNITHOLOGY JAZZ RADIO SHOW
    April 18, 2o13 — KUNM Albuquerque
    Host MARK WEBER
    1. Lanny Morgan Quartet “Bloomdido”
    June 1993 (V.S.O.P. Records)
    2. Vi Redd Sextet “Now’s the Time” 21may62
    from Lp BIRD CALL
    3. Al Haig Trio “Marmaduke” 22july77
    4. Supersax “Salt Peanuts” 1988
    album STONE BIRD
    5. Mundell Lowe Trio “Scrapple From the
    Apple” Oct. 1976 (Dobre Records)
    6. Bill Holman Big Band “Donna Lee” 30sept04
    7. Frank Morgan w/ Rodney Kendrick Trio
    “Blue Monk” Aug.1996 cd BOP!
    8. Sheila Jordan & Harvie S “The Bird/
    Quasimodo” 4feb88
    9. Charlie Parker “Half Nelson” 25dec48
    w/Kenny Dorham, Max, Al Haig, Tommy Potter
    10. Joe Maini w/Red Mitchell Quintet
    “Ornithology” 27sept55

  6. brent leake

    very interesting webski, but again nothing in regards to the buck owens quintet……

  7. Victor Pénicaud

    Hello Mr. Mark Weber,

    I am writing an article about Vi Redd on my blog, and I would be very happy if you let me use your beautiful photography on it. Would it be possible?

    Many thanks,
    Best regards,

    Victor

    NB : http://www.easternsounds.fr is not online yet
    It will be a french blog about unsung heroes. The first articles will be about Vi Redd, Marcus Belgrave, Panama Francis, David Newman, Mickey Roker, etc.

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