Search - Dizzy Gillespie :: Pleyel Jazz Concert 1953 (Dig)

Uneven, But a Historic Concert Anyway

D. J. Zabriskie | Park Ridge, NJ USA | 10/30/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"There's some great stuff on this recording and some stuff that isn't as great as all that, too. On the whole, however, what
we have here is a historic recording of Dizzy Gillespie on a
great night.
This is one of Dizzy's more interesting small bands, with Bill
Graham on baritone sax on Wade Legge on piano. Dizzy always seems to have framed his concepts orchestrally, even in a small
band context, much like Charles Mingus, and this band gives
a good example of that thought. With Graham's baritone anchoring
the low end for the reeds, and Dizzy filling out the high end for
the brass, the middle of these arrangements are left for the
listener's imagination to fill in. The amazing thing is that
you do this almost instinctively. The outlines are so good, so
persuasive that you can FEEL what other saxes or brasses may have
added.
The playing is excellent throughout. Highlights include perhaps
Dizzy's most lyrical solo on "I Can't Get Started" ever recorded,remarkable drama and humor on "Tin Tin Deo," and the fastest
version of "Birks Works" you've ever heard. Wade Legge's piano
solo on "Birks Works" builds incredible tension with inventive
use of space, which Dizzy releases with some of his best blues
playing ever. As Darth Vader put it: "Most impressive!"
Joe Carroll's vocals are the weak link here, being nothing extraordinary one way or the other. But what he does with "Lady
Be Good" is still a GAS anyway.
What this recording may lack in star power, it more than makes up for with interesting music."