Yardbird Suite
"Yardbird Suite" is a bebop standard composed by jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker in 1946.[1][2] The title combines Parker's nickname "Yardbird" (often shortened to "Bird") and a colloquial use of the classical music term "suite" (in a manner similar to such jazz titles as Lester Young's "Midnight Symphony" and Duke Ellington's "Ebony Rhapsody"). The composition uses an 32-bar AABA form. The "graceful, hip melody, became something of an anthem for beboppers."[3]
Three Charlie Parker recordings
Although, as
Never copyrighted,[7] the track was frequently reissued on single 10" EP and, since the mid-1950s, on LP on various labels, in most part together with Parker's other Dial recordings although often also on albums assigned to Miles Davis.
The third known recording of "Yardbird Suite" was a session at the home of Chuck Copely in Hollywood, on February 1, 1947, also recorded by Ross Russell of Dial Records. The track itself is incomplete and, like the two versions of "Lullaby in Rhythm" recorded that day, of poor quality, but nevertheless released on Spotlite, initially in 1972 on Lullaby in Rhythm Featuring Charlie Parker.[8]
There are two other recordings of Parker playing the song live, one at the Three Deuces, the other at the Onyx club, recorded by Dean Benedetti.
The Charlie Parker Septet's 1946 master recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014.
Recordings by others
In 1947, a year after the original recording, Gil Evans had already written an arrangement for Claude Thornhill and His Orchestra in 1947, recorded with Lee Konitz on alto saxophone. Fellow bebop musicians like Al Haig, Bud Powell, Max Roach and Gene Ammons played and recorded the song as well as Gene Krupa with a big band arrangement by Gerry Mulligan in 1958.
Many of the recordings featuring the song are explicit
Other versions
- Sadao Watanabe – Birds of Paradise (1977)
- Karrin Allyson – Azure-Té (1995)
- Bob Dorough – Devil May Care (1956)[10]
- Hampton Hawes – Four (1958)[10]
- Eddie Jefferson – Come Along with Me (1969)[10]
- Joe Lovano – Bird Songs (2010)[10]
- Jimmy McGriff – Fly Dude (1972)[10]
- Jay McShann – The Man from Muskogee (1972)[10]
- Frank Morgan – Yardbird Suite (1988)[10]
- Claude Thornhill with Lee Konitz – 1947[10]
See also
References
- New York Times. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
- ^ Zwerin, Mike (2006-01-11). "Music to Pack Away for That Desert Island". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2008-02-13.
- ISBN 978-0-306-80849-4. Pt. I, p. 48
- ^ Bob Dorough in the liner notes to the re-release of his album Yardbird Suite. Bethlehem Records, BCP-6023, 1976.
- ^ Dial Records numerical listing on 78discography.com.
- ^ Charlie Parker session index on Jazzdisco.org
- ISBN 978-0241124406. P. 99?
- ^ Hollywood, February 1, 1947 session as listed on Jazzdisco.org
- AllMusic. Retrieved June 3, 2015.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-993739-4.
