Album Review: Charlie Parker- Bird in Kansas City

Responding to the announcement of Bird in Kansas City in a social media post last month, a civic booster expressed hope that the October 25 release would be issued on vinyl. (It is.) If the enthusiast hopes to secure the 13-track Charlie Parker set as a treasured collector’s item, he’ll be entirely satisfied. If he’s seeking a superior audiophile experience, however, he’s bound to be disappointed by the album.

Captured in Kansas City in 1941 (two tracks), 1944 (four tracks) and 1951 (seven tracks), the previously discarded scraps were never intended for public consumption. The sonic quality of Bird in Kansas City is little better than the Dean Benedetti bootlegs.

Parker’s brilliance obviously transcends the limitations of scratchy documentation. Bird in Kansas City’s two 1941 tracks with Jay McShann are a hoot. Even though he had yet to achieve full flight, Bird soars higher than his peers on the 1944 sessions. Bird’s aggressive attack on 1951 interpretations of “Cherokee” and “Body and Soul” display the fury of a rebel hellbent on disrupting jazz convention. 

The latter tracks make the release of Bird in Kansas City the most substantive music-related event of the year in Kansas City. In addition to providing new insights into the evolution of Parker’s genius, the set is mandatory listening for every self-respecting Kansas Citian.

Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes

*The lineup of the spring recital series at Johnson County Community College has been announced.

*Nina Cherry checked in with Bram Wijnands for Kansas City magazine.

*The American Jazz Museum created a brief video tribute to Jay McShann.

*David Sanborn chatted with Pat Metheny.

Now's the Time: Jay McShann

People opting to stay home on New Year’s Eve needn’t throw pity parties. Why not ring in the new year with the mirthful music of Jay McShann?

Confirmation: Weekly News and Notes

*Gerald Dunn of The American Jazz Museum encourages The Kansas City Star to make amends in the wake of the newspaper’s admission of decades of insufficient jazz coverage.

*I included tracks by Flutienastiness and Bobby Watson in a survey of The 10 Best Songs To Come Out of Kansas City in 2020 on a Christmas Eve broadcast on KCUR’s Up To Date program.  In an adjacent segment titled The 10 Best Holiday Songs by Kansas City Artists, I shared selections by Charlie Parker, Oleta Adams, Ida McBeth, Jay McShann and The Count Basie Orchestra.

*Stan Kessler chatted with Joe Dimino.

*Tweet of the Week: Sharon Hoffman- Do you know how many times @KCStarinterviewed hometown jazz legend Charlie Parker? Zero. @eadler writes of a culture ignored, part of our “Truth in Black and white” series. (link)

Now's the Time: Jay McShann

We’ll take a cup of kindness yet.

Album Reviews: Champian Fulton’s Birdsong And Pasquale Grasso’s Solo Bird

Bird at 100, the 2019 album Bobby Watson recorded with fellow saxophonists Gary Bartz and Vincent Herring, demonstrated the Kansas City hero’s admirable fealty to Charlie Parker.  While several Kansas City based jazz musicians have issued fine albums this year, none have observed the centennial of Parker’s birth with the release of a project explicitly dedicated to Bird.  Two New York based musicians- the Italian-born guitarist Pasquale Grasso and the Oklahoma native Champian Fulton- fill the surprising void with compelling new projects featuring compositions associated with Parker.

Birdsong has an impossibly charming backstory.  Fulton’s jazz-crazed parents played Charlie Parker With Strings during her birth.  Fulton later befriended Jay McShann, the bandleader who gave Parker his first big break decades earlier.  The joyous blues-steeped swing of The Man From Muskogee informs Fulton’s style.  

Her throwback approach is seemingly incompatible with Parker’s ferocious innovations.  Yet Fulton finds ingenious ways to honor Parker without compromising her signature pre-bop sound on Birdsong.  The presence of Scott Hamilton- the tenor saxophonist admired for his vital evocations of Parker’s heroes like Lester Young and Ben Webster- helps Fulton tactfully circumvent the stylistic challenge.  Fans of McShann and Sir Charles Thompson will adore Fulton’s jumping old-school piano attack.  And her vocals occupy a space halfway between Sheila Jordan and Sarah Vaughan. Champian’s father Stephen Fulton (flugelhorn), Hide Tanaka (bass) and Fukushi Tainaka (drums) play with a correspondingly joyful spirit.

Birdsong instigates foot tapping.  Grasso exercises the cerebrum on Solo Bird.  The guitarist’s brilliant disassembling of selections like “Yardbird Suite” and “Confirmation” provides fresh insights into the classic material.  His mind-bending agility is the aural equivalent of watching a chess grandmaster play a series of speed matches.  At 16 minutes, Solo Bird is frustratingly brief.  The EP is part of a series in which Grasso also pays homage to Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk.  Nothing alike, Birdsong and Solo Bird are two disparate pieces of the infinite array of possibilities brought into being by the genius of Charlie Parker.