Customer Reviews

The Complete RCA Victor Recordings

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Of course this is a fine collection. Of course Dizzy's big band in the forties made some fantastic music. Of course this is an indispensible part of jazz history. But oh, the sound...

Previous issues of this music on both CD and vinyl far surpass this one in terms of sound quality. The dreaded nineties-era noise reduction technology is all over this music, taking great hunks of sonic elements away from these vital performances. Since Bluebird corrected similar problems by issuing the Blanton/Webster sides by Duke Ellington, should they not do the same for these great records?

From the first time I heard Dizzy's big band, on a now-defunct RCA Vintage LP ("The Bebop Era"), I was hooked...then I found out that my father had heard the band for FREE when he worked at the Metropole in NYC on 52nd Street...and HATED it because Dizzy didn't play like Sammy Kaye (his favorite band)!! How I envied and disliked him for that!!

These innovative Gil Fuller arrangements, in which the entire trumpet section swung like five Dizzies, are simply staggering. The music swirls and eddies, jumps and dives like a hyperactive jazz dancer. And all the soloists are fabulous: inventive, original, highly swinging. The jam sessions at the Metronome All-Star sessions are also very historic, with a trumpet section of Dizzy, Miles Davis and Fats Navarro, all trying to sound like Dizzy in their solos (and succeeding!), as well as scintillating piano solos by the brilliant but anti-social Lennie Tristano. All in all, an exciting and important album that no jazz lover should be without.

Here it is, the best Dizzy Gillespie set out there. This music is distinct from the Parker/Gillespie Quintet, as it features Dizzy's ultra-pwerful big band and the founding tunes of Afro-Cuban jazz, with the great Chano Pozo. The sheer exuberance of Dizzy's personality is all over these recordings, from the opening seconds of 'Manteca,' to the fascinating pre-bop recordings with Teddy Hill and Lionel Hampton, where Dizzy umistakbly shines. The good humor of the vocal tracks is irrepressable too! This is an essential part of a jazz fans library, and you'll love every cut.

After releasing this material in haphazard fashion over the years, BMG/RCA finally put this 2 disc set out containing all of Dizzy's recordings for the RCA label. In essence, this showcases Dizzy's dream of uniting bop and big-band music. There are some outstanding tracks here, notably "A Night in Tunisia," "Two Bass Hit," "Cubana Bop," and "Dizzier and Dizzier." Ballads such as "You Go to My Head" are handled tenderly. However, I found novelty numbers like "Hey Pete Let's Eat More Meat" a waste of time. But, warts and all, having these complete recordings is a welcome addition to the jazz catalog.

Dizzy Gillespie's style was the nemesis of Miles Davis's. Introspection doesn't seem to have been a word often used in Diz's vocabulary, musical or otherwise. His playing did have a 'dizzying' effect always putting speed, dynamism and drama at the forefront of his performances. On this collection Gillespie's talent as a bandleader and musical arranger also come to the fore. He had of course a great theoretical knowledge of music and wasn't afraid to pass this on to other musicians by way of help and encouragement. With the big bands here he manages to register bebop lines in a larger sound and the over-all enthusiasm shows through.

Throughout this collection Gillespie never loses sight of the desire to swing despite his revolutionary tendacy to subvert traditional chord structure. 'Hot Mallets' swings like hell over great xelophone playing that also features on 'Blue Rhythm Fantasy'. The first version of '52nd Street Theme' is amazingly fluent while the second version goes in for greater improvisation. The bebop standard 'A Night In Tunisia' gets its greatest rendition here in its original form with Diz's no-holds emphatic sound. Gillespie's generosity to other musicians can be heard on 'Ol' Man Rebop' where each soloist takes his turn exercising his own bop interpretations. The most incessantly driving tracks on these CD's are the two versions of 'Anthropology' which rock like crazy. I also loved the rolling end of 'Ow!' and the swinging shout of 'Cool Breeze'. With 'Cubana Be' and 'Cubana Bop', Gillepie moves into even greater experimental territory. Each display a menancing rhythm like the growing stampede of an elephant herd backed up by Gillespie's elephant sounding shrieks on the trumpet.

More brash and emphatic playing on 'Minor Walk' and 'Lover Come Back To Me' proves to be yet another shining example of Dizzy as a great arranger. The backing brass jumps about at its own frenetic pace while Gillespie's trumpet bursts with energy and of course there's also the tight technical arrangement of the 'Overtime' tracks. The footstomping 'I'm Beboppin' Too' could be a manifesto for the whole bebop movement, while tracks like 'Jump Did La Ba' shows an early example of bop scat-singing. In contrast you have tracks that still swing (almost violently in Dizzy's case) like his interpretation of St. Louis Blues.

What always shows through in Dizzy's playing is his total enjoyment and utter euphoria, something that he shares with few other jazz players (the most notable exception being Louis Armstrong). All in all a marvellous collection for Dizzy fans.

All of this stuff is contained on the RCA Victor Vintage Series LPs of Diz, and another RCA LP called "The Best Of Dizzy Gillespie" - but how nice it is to see it all in one spot. The two different takes (one abbreviated) of "Night In Tunisia", "Manteca", "Anthropology", the Afro-Cubano stuff with Chano Pozo, on and on...even the Teddy Hill cuts. Any serious student or fan of Diz must have this. Yes, there are a few 'filler' cuts, but hey - that's historic, too! Now what really would be nice would be to see a Prestige CD of what was contained in the 2LP set "In The Beginning" with stuff like "She's Gone Again" and "He Beeped When He Should'a Bopped", and the like. I'll have to dig further...

Like bop? Can you stand mono? Like the Diz? If you answered yes to any of those questions you will like these CDs. 'Overtime' and 'Victory Ball' are worth the price of admission. These is small group and big band bop here. And the 2 above mentioned tunes are a veritable all-star line up of boppers of the period. This is history. Dont pass it up!

I had been searching for the tracks with Cuban drummer Chano Pozo for several years, the first fusion of Latin and jazz music from 1947 and some of the few recordings to feature the legendary Pozo who was murdered soon after the waxings. I wasn't disappointed... "Manteca", "Cubano-Be" and "Cubano-Bop" are absolutley essential to any jazz collection. Of course, as other reviewers attest, there are loads more treasures here. The only exceptions I'd make are the tracks with singer Johnny Hartman. I rate his singing as absolutely awful, a lead weight tied around the neck of any music he's involved with. But it wouldn't be complete without these recordings, and I'm sure somebody likes them.

MAN, I love these recordings. It is such a great mix of early bebop, big band, afro-cuban machito style fun-loving Diz at his best. Who cares about the mono, it helps you to really feel the time and place.

One of my dad's favorite jazz artists. He has listened to this multiple times since I gave it to him. Great music! Highly recommend!