Monday, July 30, 2007

"For home use on phonographs"

I had always thought my STIFF Records 45 of The Damned's "Neat Neat Neat" was the most historically significant of my vinyl platters.
Now, I am sure it has been superseded.
I recently thumbed through some of the literal "albums" of 78s I had inherited from my dad --basically books containing sleeves with the heavy discs inside -- when a "SAVOY RECORDS" label caught my attention:
"CHARLIE PARKER'S RI BOP BOYS."
No way!
"KO KO."
This can't be!
"Charlie Parker, Alto Sax; Dizzy Gillespie, Piano and Trumpet; Miles Davis, Trumpet; Curly Russell, Bass; Max Roach, Drums."
I shook my head: How can it be possible?
A record NPR has called "among the sacred artifacts of American music" was sitting undisturbed and unnoticed in an album on a bookcase for years.
When discussing "Ko Ko" several years ago, NPR jazz critic Murray Horwitz labeled the 1945 recording as one of the 100 most important musical works of the 20th Century, describing the song as "Charlie Parker's breathless, breakneck bebop classic."
Jazz great Gerry Mulligan said of "Ko Ko:"
"The solo (Bird) played on that is like a masterpiece in itself."
I listened to "Ko Ko" -- on my iPod -- last night before bed, while I thought about the moment of magic when I discovered that disc.

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