Birds Eyes Vol 8 My Funny Valentine

Konitz was in the Kenton band for this tour also, right?

Yeah, he was. And here are some memories from back then :

You once mentioned to me something that I don't think anyone realizes, and it's really a fascinating story. When you...at one point in the fifties I guess, you told a story that Stan Kenton engaged yourself, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie as soloists with his orchestra on the same performance!

Yes. I had been with the band for a year and a half, and I went home, quit the band to be with my family, and he called sometime later and asked me would you come on tour, and I said "OK, great. I'm familiar with the band, I'm familiar with the music, so it'll be a snap." And I said, "Who else will be on the program?" He said, "Charlie Parker." I said, "Whaaat!!! What's happening here???" Well, it was a nice experience. Bird was... it was a chance to get to know him a little better. I told the story a few times about him asking for ten dollars once, at the beginning of the tour, and I gave him ten dollars, and ten dollars was a lot of money in 1952, and a week later as we were boarding the bus I asked him for the ten. He said, "Just a minute", and the next guy who came up on the bus... he borrowed ten... asked for ten and handed it to me.

(Laughs) I never heard that!

And also, he sat with me when one of my children was being born in New York, and we were in Seattle, Washington, and kinda thought that I needed a friend, and we spent the day together. It was a very sweet gesture.

This is fascinating for people to hear because you and Charlie Parker are the two main alto stylists of modern jazz, so any interaction between the two of you is really fascinating.

I felt a very nice feeling from him. (Laughs) Another story that just occurred to me recently, a week ago was March 12, the anniversary of Charlie Parker's death, and it was also my father's birthday. At one time Charlie came up to me and said, "You know your father came up to me and told me that he thought you could play better than me." And I said, "That's not possible because my father don't know who you are!"... and he's in Chicago. This is in New York when Bird told me this.

I remember relating the story of this tour to someone who told me that the musicians on the tour were saying that in those performances you were actually outplaying Charlie Parker.

'Cutting Bird' is the expression. I was comfortable playing music that I had played for a year and a half, and Bird was playing new music in a strange environment and he wasn't terribly comfortable. So the way the story goes is that Dizzy said, "Hey, listen. The young guy is cutting you." And then Dizzy said "I regret saying that, because the next night I had to follow Bird and he played his ass off."

Do you recall if either of you played a ballad on that occasion?

Yeah. We both played a ballad.

You don't remember specifically what tunes you played...

He (Bird) played "My Funny Valentine" and I played "Lover Man." And "My Funny Valentine" and "All The Things You Are" and "Cherokee" were arrangements written by Bill Holman for the occasion for Bird to play, and after the tour Bird was unable to record them so I recorded those pieces. (During a conversation later in the day Lee told me about a week he spent around that time taking the place of Charlie Parker and playing in a quintet with Miles Davis, John Lewis, Max Roach and Al McKibbens in a New York jazz club.)

Did Bird ever make any comments or compliments about your playing or ask you any questions?

Yes. A number of times over the years. When I would meet him he was always very gentle with me and mentioned that he really appreciated that I didn't try to play like him. At this point you have to remember EVERYBODY was playing like him.

Was that a conscious decision or was it more a case where...

It was conscious to a point, to kind of a ego point I would say. That I didn't want to get into that powerful influence. I already had a powerful influence in Lennie Tristano and that was sustaining me. His encouragement was all I needed. But I was missing the great music that Charlie Parker played, so when I was able to really study and learn some of his solos and everything I was able to appreciate why he was so great.

One of the most interesting recordings I ever heard, and I wish someone had the foresight to record this, was hearing Tristano and Charlie Parker playing together, I think it was a Metronome All-Star performance, so they were both at their peak. If those two had done an album of duets, I think that would have been tremendous, because Charlie Parker has such a fluidity and Tristano had almost a computer-like articulation, very angular and very precise, and I think that contrast was exceptionally interesting and beautiful.

There is something somewhere on a bootleg record I think. Charlie Parker and Kenny Clarke went up to the Tristano studio and Kenny played brushes on a telephone book and Bird played a few tunes with Lennie. I have it someplace.

Taken from here.

deleonannert.blogspot.com

Source: http://www.organissimo.org/forum/index.php?/topic/13231-charlie-parker-w-kenton/

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