Parker, Blakey, Navarro, and Powell- 1950

The venue where this music was recorded is unknown, but the performances couldn’t be more delightful, and the band is excellent—featuring such giants as BUD POWELL, ART BLAKEY and FATS NAVARRO. Normally when one hears live performances by Parker, they were fitted into 30 minute radio slots. And this allowed for a lot more stretching out for the musicians, as compared to the tight constraints of 3 or 4 minutes on 78rpm recordings. But the 30 minute radio shows are even tighter than what we hear from this May 17, 1950 gig. Nearly half of the tunes run over 9 minutes, and just about all of them are at least 6 minutes. It is fun to hear these virtuosos stretching out sometimes 3 times as long as on their studio records. With musicians as great as these, “More is more”. But just to allow us to savor it, we have spread this bounty of 80 minutes of music over 3 installments.

Director, Co-producer Don McGlynn
Co-producer Mark Cantor
Executive Producer Steve Holmgren
Associate Producer Franny Alfano
Podcast Producers Kian Vaziri and Franny Alfano

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