VA - Charlie Parker 10th Memorial Concert 3/27/65

This out-of-print LP documents an all-star concert that took place ten years after Charlie Parker's death in 1955. All six of the boppish performances are very rewarding. Dizzy Gillespie's quintet with James Moody (doubling on tenor and alto) and pianist Kenny Barron perform the pianist's recent "Um-Hmm" and a heated "Groovin' High." Trumpeter Roy Eldridge, tenor-saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and trombonist J.J. Johnson (using the pseudonym of C.C. Siegel) are in excellent form on "Now's the Time." Altoist Lee Konitz plays an unusual unaccompanied solo on "Blues for Bird," singer Dave Lambert scats his way through "Donna Lee" (on what would be his final recording) and a medley of "Bird Watcher" and "Disorder at the Border" has such soloists as pianist Billy Taylor, Gillespie, J.J., Konitz and trumpeter Kenny Dorham. This is a consistently exciting set that deserves to be reissued on CD. -- Scott Yanow