500528

JAM SESSION

PR, 'William Henry Apartment', 136th Street and Broadway, NYC, Sunday, May 18, 1950.

Charlie Parker (as); Jon Nielson (tp); Jimmy Knepper (tb); Joe Maini (as); Don Lanphere (ts);
Al Haig (p); Buddy Jones (b); Frank Isola (ds).

#MatrixTitleTakeTimeSPOrig.LPReis.LPCD
a
Little Willie Leaps -inc. 7:15

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b
All The Things You Are -inc. 6:50

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c
Bernie's Tune -inc. 4:33

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d
Donna Lee -inc. 4:44

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e
Parker noodling into
0:28

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f
Out Of Nowhere -inc. 2:45

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g
Half Nelson (II) -inc. 2:37

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h
Fine And Dandy -inc. 4:37

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Note:

This material is from a jam session in the basement of the William Henry Apartments at 136th and Broadway.
Recorded by Gers Yowell, edited to include Parker solos and exchanges. Even some of the exchanges are edited to include only
Parker's fours!
Parker plays very fluently and imaginatively throughout, and despite the off-putting cuts these are excellent examples
of his playing in a relaxed jam-session context.
Isola plays drums on "Out of Nowhere" and "All the Things You Are," Bridgeford on "Bernie's Tune," and Brown on the
remaining titles. This session is sometimes dated in June 1950, but John Williams, who participated in the session, says that it took
place on May 28. On that date he wrote in a postcard to his parents, "My dear Mom and Dad, I just go home from a session
at which I blew three hours with Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker! What's more I have the whole thing on wire recorder so I
can prove it to my grandchildren. I am just fine now. Too completely exultant to explain fully now. Lots of love, John."
He adds "I've consistently heard over the years that the sessions at the William Henry Apartments were recorded on
reel-to-reel tape. I've always know that they were in fact done on Jimmy Knepper's wire recorder. I played at so many
sessions and we were all intrigued by Jimmy's recorder. Also, in 1950 reel-to-reel had barely emerged, if indeed it had,
and certainly none of us would have had the bread to be able to afford one." These quotations are taken from Jazz Journal
International, May 2007, p. 15. Thanks to Jay Becker for bringing this to my attention.

All titlesSpotlite (UK) SPJ-146"CHARLIE PARKER / APARTMENT SESSIONS"
All titlesZim ZMS-1006"C.PARKER APARTMENT JAM SESSIONS"
dPhilology (I) W.18"C.PARKER BIRD'S EYES LAST UNISSUED, VOL.4"
All titlesPhilology (I) Vol.12 (W 842)"BIRD'S EYES, VOLUME 12"
dPhilology (I) Vol.60 (W 891) [CD-R]"BIRD'S EYES, VOLUME 60"[CD-R]