Jazz

The discs comprise:

13000: Night in Tunisia I 13001: Night in Tunisia II 13002: Dizzy Atmosphere 13003: Groovin’ High I 13005: Confirmation (listed as Riff Warmer on the Savoy releases) It would appear that at some early point in this group’s history disc 13004 (presumably comprising Groovin’ High II) was lost or broken, as it does not appear in Ken Vail’s catalogue of the Norman Saks collection. Personnel: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis, Al McKibbon, Joe Harris. Provenance: from the collection of Teddy Reig, artistic director at Savoy records and Bird’s A&R man; then, via a Massachusetts collector, to Norman Saks. Five original 10-inch 78 rpm acetate discs, original plain white labels numbered in red crayon pencil 13000, 13001, 13002, 13003, 13005 (corresponding to numbers on runouts), new plain sleeves (annotated by ?Norman Saks). Discs with a few minor abrasions and occasional indentations, but overall very good. ¶ Lawrence O. Koch, Yardbird Suite: A Compendium of the Life and Music of Charlie Parker , 1999; Robert Reisner, Bird: The Legend of Charlie Parker, 1962; Ross Russell, Bird Lives! , 1980; Ken Vail, Charlie Parker & Jazz Club Memorabilia: The Norman R. Saks Collection , 41 (illustrating these discs). £18,000 [148342] 40 PARKER, Charlie – RUSSELL, Ross. Bird lives! The High Life and Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker. New York: Charterhouse, 1973 “for chan with love and many many thanks …” First edition of Russell’s controversial biography, this copy inscribed to Parker’s wife Chan, “For Chan with love and many many thanks Ross, San Diego, March 1973”, and with her markings to the text; sold together with her spiral-bound galley proof copy similarly annotated. It is difficult to think of a more important association copy in terms of the emotional consequences of Bird’s High Life and Hard Times. Sold as lot 29 in Guernsey’s 2005 Jazz sale, their luggage tag lot markers in each. Despite its manifold flaws Russell’s book was in the frame to form the basis of Clint Eastwood’s biopic Bird (1988), but was displaced by an early version of Chan’s memoir My Life in E-Flat.

“Actually, Ross Russell’s book I don’t object to. There are errors in it, but the content is more or less true and it’s well-written, it’s literate”. It is clear that she felt that Russell had captured something of the reality of Bird’s life. In her copy of the published work, numerous pages have running marks in the margins of passages relating to Parker’s deeper motivations, his state of mind, and his musical ambitions, with virtually the entirety of the short chapter relating to the notorious “Lover Man” session and Bird’s collapse in California is so marked. Octavo. Original black cloth spine lettered in gilt, and profile of Parker gilt to front board, yellow textured endpapers. With dust jacket. 16 plates, facsimile documents to the text. A well-read copy, distinctly cocked, corners bumped the lower ones through, toning to the text, the jacket yellowed, chipped and with some splits, minor loss, remains about very good. ¶ Carner 2207 (“partly fictionalized according to some scholars”); Horn 1136 (“An outstanding biography”). £6,250 [148311]

Jazz critics welcomed Russell’s book, Leonard Feather finding a “sensitive, penetrating portrait”, Nat Hentoff lauding a jazz biography that “can stand with first-class biographies in other fields”, but it is now widely felt to be sensationalistic and “questionable in its accuracy”. The presence of this marked up galley proof and inscribed copy in the Guernsey’s sale have led some to conclude that Chan in some way “not only edited the book but approved of it”, but from a comparison of the two items it can be seen that none of her suggestions for expansion, additional colour, or even simple corrections of matters of fact have been applied. The number of storeys to the buildings in 52nd Street, the name of the operator of the Three Deuces, and the music played at Pree’s funeral have been corrected by Chan in both versions of the text. Although she may be a presence throughout the text, she is entirely unacknowledged by Russell. In 1980, in an interview with French critic Laurent Goddet, Chan explained,

tub, dried him, dressed him, got him in a cab, stuck the horn in his hands and pushed him from the wings on to the stage. The result, which was recorded, can be heard today. It is unbelievable in its speed, ideas, and artistry” (quoted in Reisner, pp. 191–2).

goes on to note that “the music played that night was recorded by a sound studio in an upper floor of the auditorium. From the master acetates dubs were made, then pirated, to be released as a set of three 78-rpm records on a label whimsically called Black Deuce. Titled, A Night at Carnegie Hall – Bird and Diz in Concert , the Black Deuce 78s were sold under counters of large record stores. Black Deuce had no address, office, or tangible management. Sales were made to stores for cash, and no records were kept of legal transactions. The sales were eventually stopped when

an injunction was obtained against several leading jazz retailers. Eventually the masters were bought, made legal, and issued on Savoy [actually by Rieg’s Roost and Roulette labels in 1959–60]” (Russell, pp. 248 & 253). The reason for Bird’s somewhat shambolic appearance at the concert can be ascribed to the fact that before the gig he was asleep in the bath. Rieg later recalled that he and Leonard Feather “went to his room and broke down the bath room door. We got him out of the

JAZZ

All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk

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