Groovin' High (Savoy) (CD)

If Charlie Parker was the chief architect of the bop revolution of the 1940s, Dizzy Gillespie was its standard-bearer, an evangelist who battled public hostility and incomprehension with rapier wit. A trumpeter of dazzling virtuosity, he matched Parker's rhythmic innovations with deft harmonic ingenuity. He also functioned as teacher, putting his vast knowledge of harmony at the disposal of younger musicians like Miles Davis, who were trying to get a handle on the new sound. His historic big band featuring Chano Pozo was the first large-scale attempt to combine Latin music with jazz, and the unflagging excellence of his subsequent career was a tribute to the integrity of his original vision. He died in 1993.

• Category:  Music  »  Jazz  »  Trumpet
• Format: CD   Learn more about the CD format using Tower WIKI.
• Release Date: October 1, 2005
• Label: Savoy Jazz (USA)
• UPC: 081757015226
• WAPI (Tower ID): 106396322
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• Tower.com Sales Rank: #70435 in Music (See Top 100 Music Bestsellers)
• #5843 in Jazz (See Top 100 Jazz Bestsellers)
• #369 in Trumpet (See Top 100 Trumpet Bestsellers)

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Down Beat (9/96, p.59) - 4.5 Stars - Very Good/Excellent - "A great introduction to the spectacular trumpet man at the top of his game, one he had only recently helped write the rules to. GROOVIN' HIGH (1945-'47) offers dazzling quintet tracks with Bird, bop vocal humor...and five big-band tracks..."

Personnel: Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet); Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt (alto saxophone); Dexter Gordon (tenor saxophone); Howard Johnson, Lucky Warren, Ray Abrams, John Brown, Saul Moore, Scoops Carey, Billy Frazier (saxophone); Dave Burns, Raymond Orr, Talib Daawood, John Lynch, Matthew McKay, Elman Wright (trumpet); Alton Moore, Leon Cormenge, Gordon Thomas, Taswell Baird (trombone); Milt Jackson (vibraphone); Frank Paparelli, Clyde Hart, Al Haig, John Lewis (piano); Chuck Wayne, Remo Palmieri (guitar); Murray Shipinsky, Slam Stewart, Curley Russell, Ray Brown (bass); Shelly Manne, Cozy Cole, Sid Catlett, Kenny Clarke, Joe Harris (drums).

Recorded between February 9, 1945 and November 12, 1946. Includes liner notes by Ozzie Cadena.

Had John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie chosen to disappear after making these combo and big band sessions, his reputation would still be secure for a thousand years. Following hard on the heels of Louis Armstrong and Roy Eldridge, Gillespie is the next great trumpet innovator in American music. Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk changed the manner in which musicians and vocalists phrased every bit as much as Armstrong did; and it is through Dizzy's direct decendants (Fats Navarro and Miles Davis) that the vast vocabulary of the modern trumpeter proceeds.

Sure, some trumpeters had a more alluring tone, but no one since Satchmo had approached the instrument with such bravura chops and harmonic sophistication. The proof is here to behold on GROOVIN' HIGH. The classic vamp and release of "Blue 'N' Boogie" seems to emerge full blown from the great jam sessions of the '30s, but with more modern chords and a looser rhythmic feel; and when Dizzy explodes out of young Dexter Gordon's tenor break, it's clear something new is afoot.

And there it is on the title tune, as Dizzy and the other half of his heartbeat, Charlie Parker, essay elongated, heavily syncopated melodic variations--culminating in the trumpeter's closing aria. On "Dizzy Atmosphere," following their dynamic solo breaks, they harmonize a complex second theme with such seamless phrasing it must have scared other horn players to death. In a contrasting mood, they redefine the famous changes to Jerome Kern's "All The Things You Are," displaying supple melodic grace.

As revolutionary as these sides are, Gillespie's 1946 sides with arranger Gil Fuller served to elevate the big band into orchestral dimensions just beyond the pale of dancers. "Things To Come" finds each section phrasing like a soloist, with broad brassy flourishes, rolling counterpoint and bold accents. Dizzy's solo is a banshee cry in which he answers long clarion shouts with tenacious, triple-timed variations. Not that this well-oiled machine couldn't get down and stomp some blues in a classic swing mode, as they do on "Eamon." Here, Gillespie follows Milt Jackson's vibes break with even more dramatic contrasts, building harmonic sand castles, only to blow them down in a swelter of rhythmic accents.

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