Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/03/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Bird Lives! So do the records. From www.mosaicrecords.com Read on (and next time you want to get huffy about copyright issues, make sure you know your facts before you blow smoke up your butt!) Jim The story behind the myth begins in March of '47. Bird took an extended gig at the Hi-De-Ho in Los Angeles with Howard McGhee, Hampton Hawes, Addison Farmer and Roy Porter. Bird was healthy, having just come out of Camarillo State Hospital, and he was at the peak of his powers. When a saxophone player/amateur recordist named Dean Benedetti heard him, he was awestruck. Benedetti approached Bird and asked for permission to run a disc recorder during the sets. Bird agreed, and Benedetti began! To preserve disc space, Benedetti would start the machine when Bird was soloing, and stop the machine as soon as the solo was over. Benedetti used a mike, placed right in front of Bird's instrument, and except for Bird and the bass directly behind him, little else was captured on disc. Using this technique, Benedetti recorded nearly four hours of concentrated Bird solos over a two-week period, with the sound varying from quite poor to fairly good. Bird's musical ideas, however, are never less than brilliant. On to New York. Later in '47, Bird returned to New York, and Benedetti followed. This time, however, Benedetti had an early model tape recorder. He taped Bird one night at the Onyx and another at the Three Deuces (where in one segment, we hear Monk coming out of the audience to teach Bird how to play "Straight, No Chaser"). The quality of the New York recordings is quite good, and they account for fully half of this collection. These are the Benedetti recordings in their entirety, and after 40 years of rumor, speculation and debate, they are at last available to the world. Everything is transferred directly from the original discs and tapes by legendary engineer Jack Towers and coproducer Phil Schaap. The 48-page booklet includes musical transcriptions by Benedetti and others, essays by Phil Schaap on Parker's life during this period, a biography of Dean Benedetti by Bob Porter, a musical analysis by Parker authority James Patrick, and Phil Schaap's complete annotated discography of all the music in the set. This set is our first Mosaic Unlimited release. Since we own, rather than lease, the rights to these recordings, we are not restricted in any way as to the number of sets we can make available. This historic set, as well as future Mosaic Unlimited sets, will remain in print and available to the international jazz community for as long as Mosaic exists. "It was jazz's version of the Holy Grail, Plato's lost Dialogue or the 18 ½ minutes missing from Richard Nixon's White House tapes. And now the hunt is over." - Arthur Spiegelman, The Dallas Morning News - ----- Original Message ----- From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2000 11:03 AM Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: concert shooting > At 09:21 PM 3/15/2000 -0800, Rich Lahrson wrote: > > That was half an century ago. Tape recording 'live' was a brand > >new technic. One guy was able to set up the machine in the men's room and > >run the wire for the mike to the stage. I think it was another fella, > >Italian, who idolized Bird and followed him around with a wire recorder > >(pre-tape days). The double album I'm thinking of, the taper ecorder in > >the men's room is called "A Night at Birdland", a great item as Charlie > >Parker is able to stretch out on some solos for 3 or 4 minutes, something > >that wasn't possible in the studio (about 1950). > > But the basic question stands: did Parker or his estate ever get paid for > this "taking" of his talent? Are you advocating theft of an artist's > performances for personal gain? I am not, as regular LUG'ers know, a very > firm proponent of copyright, but accepting the sale of pirated recordings > strikes me as a bit on the shady side, regardless of their "cultural worth". > > The ends, after all, do not justify the means. > > Marc > > msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 > Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir! > >