Bird on 52nd St. is a live album by the saxophonist Charlie Parker.[4] It was recorded in July 1948 at the Onyx Club (though the album's liner notes suggest it might have been recorded at the nearby Three Deuces club[5]) on a non-professional tape recorder by trombonist Jimmy Knepper, a fan of Parker who also made the recording released as Bird at St. Nick's. It was first released in 1957 on Charles Mingus' Jazz Workshop label as JWS 501.[6][7] Several tracks are incomplete; Knepper was focused on capturing Parker's solos to conserve audiotape.[5] AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow wrote that Parker "plays quite brilliantly on this live set", but because of seriously deficient sound quality which "sometimes borders on the unlistenable" the album can be considered as being "for true Charlie Parker completists only."[2]
| Bird on 52nd St. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | December 1957 (LP)[1] October 21, 1994 (CD) | |||
| Recorded | July 6, 1948 Onyx Club, New York | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 40:01 | |||
| Label | Jazz Workshop JWS 501 | |||
| Charlie Parker chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [2] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [3] |
Track listing
edit- "52nd Street Theme" (Thelonious Monk) - 2:19
- "Shaw 'Nuff" (Ray Brown, Gil Fuller, Dizzy Gillespie) - 1:33
- "Out of Nowhere" (Johnny Green, Edward Heyman) - 3:05
- "Hot House" (Tadd Dameron) - 2:15
- "This Time the Dream's on Me" (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer) - 2:21
- "A Night in Tunisia" (Dizzy Gillespie) - 3:29
- "My Old Flame" (Sam Coslow, Arthur Johnston) - 3:24
- "52nd Street Theme" - 1:05
- "The Way You Look Tonight" (Jerome Kern, Dorothy Fields) - 4:42
- "Out of Nowhere" - 2:35
- "Chasin' the Bird" (Parker) - 1:47
- "This Time the Dreams's on Me" - 3:29
- "Dizzy at Atmosphere" (Gillespie) - 2:59
- "How High the Moon" (Nancy Hamilton, Morgan Lewis) - 3:38
- "52nd Street Theme" - 1:14
Personnel
edit- Charlie Parker - alto saxophone
- Miles Davis - trumpet
- Duke Jordan - piano
- Tommy Potter - bass
- Max Roach - drums
References
edit- ^ "Reviews and Ratings of New Jazz Albums". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. December 23, 1957 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b "Bird on 52nd St. - Charlie Parker – Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved September 12, 2021.
- ^ The Rolling Stone Album Guide. Random House. 1992. pp. 528, 530.
- ^ Priestley, Brian (June 6, 2006). Chasin' the Bird: The Life and Legacy of Charlie Parker. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532709-0.
- ^ a b Bird at 52nd St. liner notes, as published in 1994 CD rerelease
- ^ "Charlie Parker Catalog". JAZZDISCO.org. Jazz Discography Project. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
- ^ Original liner notes